Harel Orly, Hemi Alla, Levy-Gigi Einat
Faculty of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 15;15(1):25455. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-10708-5.
Educators often experience burnout due to their demanding work and its inherently stressful nature. Previous research has demonstrated the buffering effects of emotional regulatory flexibility on the development of clinical symptoms in various populations that are repeatedly exposed to stress as part of their occupational routine. This study is the first to explore whether regulatory flexibility moderates the relationship between school-related stress exposure and burnout in educators. Eighty-nine educators (80.9% female; M=48.18, SD = 7.32) completed a performance-based paradigm evaluating regulatory flexibility and were assessed for stress exposure and burnout. Consistent with our predictions, increased school-related stress exposure was associated with a greater sense of burnout. Furthermore, greater regulatory flexibility was associated with lower levels of burnout. Importantly, regulatory flexibility moderated the relationship between school-related stress exposure and burnout. Specifically, for educators with low regulatory flexibility, we found a strong positive relationship between school-related stress exposure and burnout. This relationship was attenuated for educators with high regulatory flexibility, suggesting that regulatory flexibility serves as a protective factor against burnout among educators. These results highlight the potential for developing interventions targeting emotional regulatory flexibility to alleviate burnout in this population.
教育工作者常常因工作要求高且本质上压力大而经历职业倦怠。先前的研究已经证明，情绪调节灵活性对各类因职业日常反复面临压力人群的临床症状发展具有缓冲作用。本研究首次探讨调节灵活性是否会缓和教育工作者与学校相关的压力暴露和职业倦怠之间的关系。八十九名教育工作者（80.9%为女性；平均年龄M = 48.18，标准差SD = 7.32）完成了一项基于表现的评估调节灵活性的范式，并接受了压力暴露和职业倦怠评估。与我们的预测一致，与学校相关的压力暴露增加与更高的职业倦怠感相关。此外，更高的调节灵活性与更低的职业倦怠水平相关。重要的是，调节灵活性缓和了与学校相关的压力暴露和职业倦怠之间的关系。具体而言，对于调节灵活性低的教育工作者，我们发现与学校相关的压力暴露和职业倦怠之间存在强烈的正相关关系。对于调节灵活性高的教育工作者，这种关系减弱，这表明调节灵活性是教育工作者预防职业倦怠的一个保护因素。这些结果凸显了开发针对情绪调节灵活性的干预措施以减轻该人群职业倦怠的潜力。
