Emotional Determinants of Exhaustion and Job Satisfaction of Elementary School Teachers

Abstract

The teaching profession can be considered an emotionally demanding one since teachers usually experience a wide variety of pleasant and unpleasant emotions of significant intensity. Such emotions, as well as the strategies teachers may implement in order to regulate them, can have a significant impact on teachers' well-being, burnout, job satisfaction and their intention to stay in the profession. The aim of this study was to examine the contribution of different pleasant and unpleasant emotions that teachers experience in relation to their students, parents, colleagues and the educational system in general, as well as the emotional labor strategies they implement to regulate such emotions, in explaining teachers' emotional exhaustion (as a key component of burnout) and job satisfaction. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that teachers' emotions and emotional labor strategies have a unique significant contribution in explaining the variance of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Teachers who experience higher levels of unpleasant emotions of fatigue, anger and disappointment, and use surface acting more frequently, also experience higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, teachers who experience joy and pride in relation to their students more intensely, and freely express their naturally felt emotions, are more satisfied with their job. Finally, teachers who experience a higher intensity of fatigue and disappointment, and those who use surface acting more frequently, are less satisfied with their job.