🧠 Journal Summary: The Relationship Between Job Stress, Resilience, Emotional Intelligence, and Job Satisfaction Among College Teachers

🧠 Journal Summary: The Relationship Between Job Stress, Resilience, Emotional Intelligence, and Job Satisfaction Among College Teachers

Authors: Xieping Chen & Qian Xie

Published In: Scientific Reports

🔍 Study Summary

This study investigated how job stress and emotional intelligence influence job satisfaction among college teachers, specifically exploring the mediating role of resilience and the moderating role of gender. The research aimed to provide practical insights for improving working conditions and promoting psychological well-being among educators in the increasingly competitive and evolving higher education landscape.

💡 Key Concepts

• Job Stress (JS): Psychological or physiological responses that occur when an individual’s characteristics clash with job demands, potentially harming performance and overall well-being. For college teachers, this can arise from factors like excessive workload, time pressure, student management, and insufficient resources.
• Emotional Intelligence (EI): The ability to perceive, understand, and regulate emotions effectively, supporting personal growth and adaptation. High emotional intelligence helps individuals manage their own emotions and those of others, cope with stressful situations, and prevent resource depletion.
• Resilience (RES): The capacity to effectively cope with, adjust to, and recover from adversity, trauma, or significant stress. It serves as a crucial psychological resource, helping individuals mitigate resource loss and gain new adaptive resources.
• Job Satisfaction (JSF): A positive emotional state experienced when an individual’s work fulfills their personal values. For college teachers, it specifically refers to a positive emotional outlook formed after a comprehensive evaluation of various aspects of their teaching practices.

📊 Key Insights

• Job Stress (JS) negatively impacts Job Satisfaction (JSF): Higher levels of job stress lead to lower job satisfaction among college teachers.
• Emotional Intelligence (EI) positively impacts Job Satisfaction (JSF): Teachers with higher emotional intelligence tend to experience greater job satisfaction.
• Resilience (RES) mediates the relationship: Resilience partially explains how job stress and emotional intelligence affect job satisfaction. It helps to lessen the negative impact of job stress and amplify the positive influence of emotional intelligence on job satisfaction.
• Gender moderates the relationships: The study found significant gender differences in how these factors influence job satisfaction:
  • Female teachers’ job satisfaction is more sensitive to decreases caused by job stress compared to male teachers.
  • Emotional intelligence has a more pronounced positive effect on job satisfaction for female teachers.
  • Resilience has a more significant positive impact on job satisfaction for male teachers, indicating they are better equipped to cope with workplace challenges through resilience.

📘 Example Application

To improve teacher retention and well-being, a university could develop gender-specific support programs. For instance, they might offer emotional regulation workshops tailored for female faculty to help them leverage their emotional intelligence in managing stress.

Simultaneously, for male faculty, programs focusing on building resilience and proactive problem-solving strategies could be beneficial. Additionally, reducing excessive workload and improving access to resources would create a more universally supportive environment, enhancing job satisfaction across all faculty members.

💬 Comment from Dr. Dwi Suryanto

These findings are crucial because they highlight that supporting college teachers’ well-being isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Recognizing the different ways job stress, emotional intelligence, and resilience impact job satisfaction based on gender allows for more tailored and effective interventions.

By focusing on both individual psychological resources and organizational support, universities can create a healthier and more productive environment for their faculty, ultimately benefiting the quality of education.

📌 Takeaway

This study underscores that resilience and emotional intelligence are vital psychological resources for college teachers, significantly buffering the negative effects of job stress and boosting job satisfaction, with gender playing a key role in these dynamics. Implementing gender-sensitive support systems can enhance teacher well-being and stability in demanding academic environments.