Psychological empowerment and turnover intention among university counselors: emotional exhaustion as a mediator and emotion regulation as a moderator

Studies have shown that psychological empowerment (PE) has a negative relationship with turnover intention (TI). However, there is little research regarding the potential mechanisms that may mediate or moderates this relationship. The present study is to examined the effect of PE on TI, and whether this effect is mediated by emotional exhaustion (EE) and moderated by emotional regulation (ER). A total of 503 university counselors in China completed the measures of PE, TI, EE and ER. As predicted, the relationship between PE and TI was partially mediated by EE. Furthermore, the effect of PE on TI via EE was moderated by ER. Specifically, the effect of EE on TI was stronger in individuals with lower cognitive reappraisal (CR), but weaker in ones with lower expression suppression (ES). These findings highlight the significance of clarifying the mechanisms that moderates the mediated paths between PE and TI.