Exploring the association between teachers’ perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion: the importance of teacher efficacy beliefs and emotion regulation

TLDR

The study investigates how teachers’ perceptions of student misbehaviour relate to emotional exhaustion, the moderating roles of teacher efficacy beliefs and emotion regulation, and the subsequent impact on turnover intentions. Data were gathered from 610 elementary, middle, and high‑school teachers through an online survey. While emotion regulation strategies directly affect emotional exhaustion, only teacher efficacy in managing misbehaviour mediates its link to exhaustion, which in turn predicts turnover intentions, underscoring the need to strengthen teachers’ situation‑specific efficacy beliefs.

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion, and the role of teacher efficacy beliefs (related to handling student misbehaviour) and emotion regulation in this relationship. Additionally, we examined teacher turnover intentions in relation to emotional exhaustion. Data were collected from 610 elementary, middle‐ and high‐school teachers using an online survey. Results indicate that despite the significant direct effect between the two emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal, expressive suppression) on emotional exhaustion, both strategies failed to show a mediating effect between perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion. However, teacher efficacy in handling student misbehaviour was found to mediate the relationship between perceived student misbehaviour and emotional exhaustion. In turn, a significant relationship was found between emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. Furthermore, teacher perception of student misbehaviour was found to have a considerable indirect effect on teacher turnover intentions. Findings signify the importance of developing strategies that enhance teachers’ situation‐specific efficacy beliefs.