The Relationship between Chinese Teachers’ Emotional Labor, Teaching Efficacy, and Young Children’s Social-Emotional Development and Learning

The existing literature has established the effects of emotional labor on teachers’ wellbeing indicators and teaching efficacy, leaving its impact on students’ outcomes unexplored. Following Grandey’s integrative model of emotional labor and social-emotional learning (SEL) framework, this study explored the relationship between teachers’ emotional labor, teaching efficacy, and young children’s social-emotional development and learning in early childhood settings. Thirteen preschools were recruited through stratified random sampling in Shenzhen, China. Altogether, 49 classrooms were involved, and three teachers and six children were sampled from each classroom, resulting in a sample of 124 teachers and 241 children. Teachers’ emotional labor strategy, sense of efficacy, and children’s social-emotional development and learning were surveyed. Structural equation modeling has confirmed that teachers’ natural and surface acting predicted their teaching efficacy. Bootstrapped mediation analysis revealed that the mediation paths from teachers’ emotional labor to children’s learning approaches and social-emotional development varied significantly for teachers in different positions. The study implies that different guidelines and training are needed for teachers in different positions to help them cope with varied emotional labor at work and promote their teaching efficacy for young children’s better development.