Regulatory flexibility and school climate moderate the relationship between stress exposure and depression severity in school educators

Abstract

School-related stress may impair the mental health and the ability of educators to function at school adaptively. According to the Conservation of Resources (COR) model, coping with stress is affected by internal personal resources and external interpersonal resources. The current study focused on regulatory flexibility as an internal personal resource and school climate as an external interpersonal resource. It tested their moderating role in the relationship between school-related stress exposure and depressive symptoms. 1530 educators participated in the study. The results revealed that school climate and regulatory flexibility play a significant role in determining the severity of depressive symptoms following stress exposure. Specifically, when either school climate and/or regulatory flexibility were low, there was a positive association between school-related stress exposure and depressive symptoms. Hence, greater exposure was associated with increased depressive symptoms. However, when both school climate and regulatory flexibility were higher, there were no associations between stress exposure and symptoms. Therefore, these educators showed significantly lower depressive symptoms independent of their stress exposure. The findings shed light on the importance of both internal and external resources in reducing the aversive effects of school-related stress. The study may pave the way to developing tailored interventions to reduce depressive symptoms and enhance well-being in educators.