Byun Sooyeon, Jeon Lieny
School of Education, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States.
School of Education and Human Development, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, United States.
Front Psychol. 2023 Jun 19;14:1152557. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1152557. eCollection 2023.
Psychological wellbeing is an essential indicator of early care and education (ECE) teachers' positive practices across countries. Moreover, previous studies suggest that teachers' wellbeing and practice may be indirectly associated via emotion regulation. However, teachers in various contexts demonstrate different patterns of psychological wellbeing, emotion regulation, and emotional responsiveness, and the ways these factors associate with each other also vary.
The current study investigates whether the indirect associations between ECE teachers' psychological wellbeing (i.e., emotional exhaustion, job-related competence, and personal stress) and their responsiveness toward children's emotions via emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) appear differently in two national contexts, the United States (US) and South Korea (SK). Multi-group path analysis was conducted to compare the mediation models between US teachers ( = 1,129) and SK teachers ( = 322).
We found significant indirect associations among wellbeing, emotion regulation, and responsiveness in both countries. However, significant associations were more prominent among SK teachers, and the patterns of indirect associations had substantial cross-country differences. Furthermore, the roles of reappraisal and suppression emotion regulation found to be different among ECE teachers in SK and US.
The cross-country variations in the associations among wellbeing, emotion regulation, and responsiveness suggest that differential policy efforts and intervention strategies are needed for ECE teachers in the US and SK.
心理健康是各国早期护理与教育（ECE）教师积极实践的一项重要指标。此外，先前的研究表明，教师的幸福感和实践可能通过情绪调节存在间接关联。然而，不同背景下的教师在心理健康、情绪调节和情绪反应方面表现出不同的模式，而且这些因素之间的关联方式也各不相同。
本研究调查了在美国（US）和韩国（SK）这两个国家背景下，ECE教师的心理健康（即情绪耗竭、工作相关能力和个人压力）与他们通过情绪调节（即重新评价和抑制）对儿童情绪的反应之间的间接关联是否呈现出不同的情况。进行了多组路径分析，以比较美国教师（n = 1129）和韩国教师（n = 322）之间的中介模型。
我们发现，在这两个国家中，幸福感、情绪调节和反应能力之间均存在显著的间接关联。然而，显著关联在韩国教师中更为突出，且间接关联的模式存在显著的跨国差异。此外，研究发现重新评价和抑制情绪调节在美国和韩国的ECE教师中所起的作用有所不同。
幸福感、情绪调节和反应能力之间关联的跨国差异表明，美国和韩国的ECE教师需要不同的政策努力和干预策略。
