Teachers’ emotional exhaustion relates to students’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: the multilevel mediating role of students’ perceived teacher-student intimacy
摘要
Academic and emotional outcomes play equally vital roles in students’ development. Many studies revealed that teachers’ emotional exhaustion impaired students’ academic outcomes, yet few studies have empirically investigated its relations with students’ emotional outcomes. In this study, we investigated the relationships between teachers’ emotional exhaustion and students’ emotional outcomes, including eudaimonic and hedonic well-being. Furthermore, based on the Prosocial Classroom Model, we investigated whether students’ perceived teacher-student intimacy mediates these relationships. We collected data from 74 homeroom teachers with 31.78 average years and their 3,270 students with 13.86 average years during the COVID-19 pandemic. We used multilevel structural equation modeling to examine data. Contrary to expectations, we found that teachers’ emotional exhaustion positively predicted students’ eudaimonic well-being. Teachers’ emotional exhaustion did not predict students’ hedonic well-being. In addition, students’ perceived teacher-student intimacy mediated the relationship between teachers’ emotional exhaustion and students’ eudaimonic well-being. Our findings suggest that teachers’ emotional exhaustion may not impair students’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.