Emotion mindset, emotional regulation strategies and burnout among secondary school teachers in Hong Kong

Abstract

This research is the first study to examine the relationship between emotion mindset (ie. implicit beliefs about the malleability of emotions) and the three dimensions of teacher burnout including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and inefficacy, as well as the mediating role of emotion regulation (ie. cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) in this relationship. The study recruited 100 full-time secondary school teachers in Hong Kong through an online survey. Results indicated that growth emotion mindset (ie. implicit beliefs that emotions are malleable) was significantly associated with an increased use of cognitive reappraisal, lower levels of depersonalization and inefficacy. In addition, the mediation results revealed that growth emotion mindset was significantly associated with lower levels of emotional exhaustion only when the use of emotion regulation strategies were controlled. No association was found between growth emotion mindset and the use of expressive suppression. Moreover, cognitive reappraisal was not associated with emotional exhaustion but significantly associated with lower levels of depersonalization and inefficacy. Whereas, expressive suppression was significantly associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and inefficacy. Results from mediation analyses failed to evident the mediating roles of cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression between growth emotion mindset and the three dimensions of teacher burnout. Such findings imply the importance of developing programs and strategies to strengthen teachers’ growth emotion mindset to combat burnout as well as diminishing teacher’ use of expressive suppression. Longitudinal or experimental studies have to be made to validate the causal relationships between growth emotion mindset and teacher burnout in future research.