Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67

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Teaching and Teacher Education

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tate

The mediating role of workplace social support on the relationship

between trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout
Chengting Ju, Jijun Lan, Yuan Li, Wei Feng, Xuqun You*
School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China

h i g h l i g h t s

An integrated model of teacher burnout was developed based on this study's results.

Emotional intelligence is negatively associated with teacher burnout.

Emotional intelligence is positively associated with workplace social support.

Workplace social support partially mediated emotional intelligence and teacher burnout.

The mediating relationship among variables is consistent across gender and age.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This study investigated the mediating effect of workplace social support on the relationship between
Received 16 October 2014 trait emotional intelligence and teacher burnout among 307 Chinese middle school teachers. Structural
Received in revised form equation modelling revealed a satisfactory fit between the data and our theoretical model. Workplace
7 June 2015
social support partially mediated the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and teacher
Accepted 9 June 2015
Available online xxx
burnout. Neither gender nor age moderated the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and
teacher burnout. Emotional intelligence and workplace social support can protect teachers from teacher
burnout. Thus, providing effective emotional intelligence training and creating supportive workplace
Keywords:
Trait emotional intelligence
conditions requires increased attention from education administrators.
Workplace social support © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Teacher burnout
Occupational health
Chinese teachers

1. Introduction work (SINA, 2005). Thus, a critical problem requiring an immediate

Teacher burnout is defined as symptoms of emotional exhaus-
tion, cynicism and reduced professional accomplishment (Maslach,
Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001) and has received extensive and contin-
uous attention worldwide (Fernet, Guay, Sene
cal, & Austin, 2012;
Shin, Noh, Jang, Park, & Lee, 2013). In mainland China, a nation-
wide web-based investigation revealed that almost 80% of middle
school teachers reported experiencing burnout during their daily
Abbreviations: SEM, structural equation modelling; CFI, comparative fit index;
GFI, goodness of fit index; p(Dc2), p-value of the c2 difference; RMSEA, root mean
squared error of approximation; SRMR, standardized root-mean-square residual;
CI, confidence interval; EI, emotional intelligence; ROE, regulation of emotion; SEA,
self-emotion appraisals; UOE, use of emotion; OEA, others' emotion appraisals.
* Corresponding author. School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, 199A
Chang'an South Road, Xi'an, 710062, China.
E-mail address: youxuqun@snnu.edu.cn (X. You).
solution is how to reduce teacher burnout. Identifying the factors
that determine teacher burnout has significant implications not
only for teachers' effectiveness, motivation and job satisfaction
(Jalongo & Heider, 2006; Thakur, 2012), but also for students' aca-
demic achievement and personal development (Dorman, 2003;
Montgomery & Rupp, 2005).
Many factors might be associated with teacher burnout. Ac-
cording to the Job Demand-Resources Model, burnout is related to
both high job demands (e.g. workload) and low job resources (e.g.
social support) (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). Teachers often expe-
rience high demands in the teaching environment, including heavy
workload and time pressures, role conflict and ambiguity, compli-
cated school relationships and pressure and criticism from parents
and society (Okeke & Dlamini, 2013). Consequently, the availability
of various types of job resources becomes crucial to buffering job
demands. While, from the stresseburnout relationship perspective,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2015.06.001
0742-051X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67
Go€ rgens-Ekermans and Brand (2012) argued that burnout can be
understood as an extreme case of chronic and prolonged stress that
is likely to emerge when work is unchallenging, unrewarding and
does not include positive feedback and recognition (Maslach et al.,
2001). Thus, factors that can counteract teaching stress might also
be effective in reducing teacher burnout (Lo, 2014). Previous studies
have suggested that personal resources and social resources in the
work environment could encourage and reinforce teachers' coping
efforts in stressful work-related conditions (Lambert, McCarthy,
O'Donnell, & Wang, 2009). Therefore, we conceived of personal
resources (i.e. trait emotional intelligence [EI]) and social resources
(i.e. perceived workplace social support) as burnout protectors, and
explored a possible protective mechanism for teacher burnout.
Evidence suggests that teachers' personal resources such as
personality characteristics (Kokkinos, 2007), self-efficacy (Skaalvik
& Skaalvik, 2007) and EI (Chan, 2006) are related to burnout. From
a theoretical perspective, personal resources have been recognized
as crucial protective factors for individuals' general psychological
well-being (Luthans, Avolio, Avey, & Norman, 2007). Thus, personal
resources would also be necessary in an occupational context.
Consistently, numerous studies indicate that teachers with
increased personal resources have increased burnout resilience (Gu
& Day, 2007) and decreased burnout risk (Howard & Johnson,
2004) when faced with the same stressors than those who do not.
In addition to personal resources, school-based environmental
resources such as supportive supervisors and colleagues (Kokkinos,
2007; Van Droogenbroeck, Spruyt, & Vanroelen, 2014) and positive
student feedback (Pas, Bradshaw, & Hershfeldt, 2012) play central
roles in reducing teacher burnout and promoting teaching perfor-
mance. Theoretically, environmental resources in the workplace
are effective initiators of employees' work engagement and,
consequently, of enhanced performance (Xanthopoulou, Bakker,
Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009a). Consistently, empirical studies
suggest that teachers that perceive sufficient environmental re-
sources (e.g. collaborative and participatory school climate) have
increased job satisfaction and retention (Liu & Onwuegbuzie, 2012).
In contrast, teachers with scarce environmental resources (e.g.
unsupportive workplace conditions) tend to have low job satis-
faction and high turnover intention (Johnson, Kraft, & Papay, 2012).
Prior research has shown that teacher burnout is closely related
to both personal and environmental resources (Johnson et al., 2012;
Yang, Ge, Hu, Chi, & Wang, 2009). However, two problems have yet
to be fully addressed. First, although previous studies have inde-
pendently used environmental and personal resources to explain
teacher burnout (Johnson et al., 2012; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2007), to
our knowledge no study has integrated both constructs into the
same predictive model. According to the employee-working envi-
ronment fit framework, burnout can be affected by complex dy-
namics between the worker and his/her working environment,
rather than a single personal or environmental attribute (Pyha €lto
€,
Pietarinen, & Salmela-Aro, 2011). Although some studies have
focused on interactions between personal and environmental in-
fluences on occupational outcomes (Xanthopoulou, Bakker,
Demerouti, & Schaufeli, 2009b), the complexity and dynamics of
these protective factors have been neglected when studying
teacher burnout in a school context (Pietarinen, Pyha €lto
€, Soini, &
Salmela-Aro, 2013). Second, although many studies have focused
on gender and age differences in teacher burnout (Lau, Yuen, &
Chan, 2005), few have evaluated the moderating effects of gender
and age on the relationship between EI and teacher burnout.
Therefore, it is unknown if female and male teachers or younger
and older teachers would equally benefit from EI and workplace
social support as protective factors for burnout.
To fill these gaps, the current study has two main goals. Firstly,
we aim to incorporate personal and environmental resources into
59
an integrated model to test for a possible burnout mechanism
among teachers in mainland China (Fig. 1). Secondly, we aim to
examine the moderating effects of age and gender within this in-
tegrated model. In the following sections, we will summarize the
literature on EI-related concepts, workplace social support and
teacher burnout. Based on this literature review, we will detail the
hypotheses that formed the theoretical model for our research.
2. Theoretical framework
2.1. Trait EI and teacher burnout
EI reflects the extent to which a person attends to, processes and
intra- and inter-personally acts upon emotional information. There
are two types of EI that can be operationally defined: ability EI and
trait EI (Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008). Specifically, ability EI (or
cognitive-emotional ability) refers to one's actual emotional ability
from a cognitive perspective (e.g. the ability to recognise, process
and utilise emotion-loaded information). Measuring ability EI re-
quires the use of maximum-performance tests with correct and
incorrect responses, such as the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional
Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2008). In
contrast, trait EI (or emotional self-efficacy) refers to a constellation
of behavioural dispositions and self-perceptions concerning one's
ability to process emotional information from a personality
perspective (e.g. when a person tends to be sympathetic, impulsive
or assertive). Measures of trait EI, such as the 33-item Emotional
Intelligence Scale (EIS-33) (Schutte et al., 1998), do not have correct
or incorrect responses. Instead, these self-report questionnaires
reflect individuals' tendencies during emotional processing. Previ-
ous studies found that trait EI was more strongly associated with
mental health than ability EI (Brown, 2006) and was an important
predictor of teacher burnout (Platsidou, 2010). Therefore, in the
current study, we only focused on trait EI among teachers.
There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that trait EI is
associated with individual differences in teacher burnout (Brackett,
Rivers, & Salovey, 2011). Theoretically, trait EI could render teachers
less vulnerable to burnout because those with enhanced EI might
more effectively use emotional information to make sense of their
reactions to stressors and to guide adaptive actions (Greenberg,
2002). Empirical research has also reported connections between
trait EI and teacher burnout (Chan, 2006). For instance, Brackett,
Palomera, Mojsa-Kaja, Reyes, and Salovey (2010) found that
teachers with higher emotion regulation efficacy reported lower
burnout. In addition, evidence from professional training pro-
grammes suggests that EI training can be an effective technique for
improving individual stress resilience, which may be particularly
helpful in combating teacher burnout (Brackett & Katulak, 2006).
Based on these findings, we hypothesised the following:
Fig. 1. The theoretical model for the relationship between trait emotional intelligence,
workplace social support and teacher burnout.
60 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67
H1. Trait EI has a direct and negative association with teacher
burnout.
2.2. Workplace social support and teacher burnout
Social support has been identified as a resource that enables
individuals to cope with stress (Brackett & Katulak, 2006).
Numerous studies indicate that people with friends, spouses and
family members who provide psychological and material resources
(e.g. affective support, confirmation and direct help) have better
mental health than those with fewer supportive social contacts (Lo,
2014). In an occupational context, colleague and supervisor support
is particularly important for occupational health because it has a
direct relationship with work demands (Halbesleben, 2006). Thus,
researchers use the term ‘workplace social support’ to specifically
refer to social support in the workplace (Halbesleben, 2006). In the
teaching profession, lack of workplace social support is one of the
most frequently mentioned reasons for teacher burnout (Chan,
2002; Greenglass, Fiksenbaum, & Burke, 1995). This might be due
to the job characteristics associated with the teaching occupation. It
is known that social interactions are interrelated and play a central
role in teachers' work, as teachers often work with students, col-
leagues, supervisors and other school-related individuals in a single
day (Pietarinen et al., 2013). Thus, receiving support from others in
the work environment is especially essential to teachers' occupa-
tional health (Brouwers, Evers, & Tomic, 2001). Similarly, studies
have suggested that supportive workplace relationships can be an
important protective factor in preventing teacher burnout (Russell,
Altmaier, & Van Velzen, 1987). For instance, teachers who report
having supportive colleagues (Greenglass, Burke, & Konarski, 1997)
and supervisors (Russell et al., 1987) are less vulnerable to burnout
than those who do not. Furthermore, when Kahn, Schneider,
Jenkins-Henkelman, and Moyle (2006) investigated the relation-
ship between workplace social support and burnout in a national
sample of 339 American high-school teachers, it was found that
positive workplace social support could effectively decrease
burnout in emotional exhaustion and cynicism dimensions. Hence,
we have proposed the following hypothesis:
H2. Workplace social support has a direct and negative associa-
tion with teacher burnout.
2.3. Trait EI, workplace social support and teacher burnout
2.3.1. Trait EI and workplace social support
There is also a close relationship between trait EI and workplace
social support (Lopes et al., 2004). Theoretically, trait EI can influ-
ence social interactions by helping people interpret internal and
external social cues, thereby guiding emotion self-regulation and
promoting supportive social interactions (Lopes, Salovey, Co ^ te

,
Beers, & Petty, 2005). Consistently, researchers have found that
individuals with higher EI efficacy have higher empathic
perspective-taking and social skill scores, resulting in further
maintenance of supportive interpersonal relationships (Schutte
et al., 2001). Since there are many interpersonal aspects of teach-
ing (e.g. maintaining classroom order, functioning in the school
team), teachers with high EI efficacy would interact with their
colleagues and supervisors more cooperatively and affectionately,
resulting in increased workplace social support. Studies have sup-
ported the finding that individuals who are better able to regulate
their emotions have more positive relationships with others (Lopes,
Salovey, & Straus, 2003). Likewise, people with high EI efficacy are
likely to perceive greater social support from others (Gallagher &
Vella-Brodrick, 2008). Therefore, since trait EI should also be an
important factor for maintaining a supportive workplace environ-
ment among teachers, we hypothesised the following:
H3. Trait EI has a direct and positive association with teachers'
perceptions of workplace social support.
2.3.2. Integrated model of burnout predictors
Although the relationship between trait EI and teacher burnout
has been widely studied using various intervening variables such as
self-efficacy (Tsouloupas, Carson, Matthews, Grawitch, & Barber,
2010), job satisfaction (Brackett et al., 2010) and positive and
negative work affect (Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008), few studies
have explained the mechanism relating trait EI to teacher burnout
from a workplace social support perspective. Trait EI has been
recognized as an essential personality trait for individuals' general
psychological well-being (Youssef & Luthans, 2007), while work-
place social support is viewed as crucial for state-specific job-
related outcomes (Bakker, Hakanen, Demerouti, & Xanthopoulou,
2007; Xanthopoulou et al., 2009a). According to George (1991),
general-level variables may impact state-level variables, which
further initiates psychological processes in different situations.
Thus, it appears that trait EI could influence teacher burnout by
affecting workplace social support perceptions. In other words,
workplace social support might play a mediating role in the rela-
tionship between trait EI and teacher burnout. Empirical evidence
supports such a hypothesis. For example, Brackett et al. (2011)
found that trait EI is positively related to principal support and
positive workplace affect, and that this support and affect are
positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to
teacher burnout. Therefore, establishing that EI indirectly affects
burnout by mediating teachers' workplace social support seems
relatively straightforward. Thus, we hypothesised the following:
H4. Workplace social support mediates the relationship between
trait EI and teacher burnout.
2.4. Gender and age as potential moderators
From the perspective of teacher education and professional
development, we aim to identify an effective burnout mechanism
that is applicable to a large number of teachers. However, although
the results have been inconsistent, there are individual differences
in teacher burnout, as indicated by the many studies that have
found gender and age differences. For example, in terms of gender
differences in three dimensions of burnout (i.e. emotional
exhaustion, depersonalisation and personal accomplishment), Lau
et al. (2005) found that female teachers experienced significantly
more emotional exhaustion and lower personal accomplishment,
but were less depersonalising than male teachers. In contrast, Zhao
and Bi (2003)found no gender differences in these dimensions in a
sample of 190 secondary school teachers from mainland China. In
regard to age differences in these three dimensions, Lau et al.
(2005) found that younger teachers had more emotional exhaus-
tion and depersonalisation than older teachers, while Hargreaves
(2005) reported that younger teachers are more enthusiastic and
optimistic about their occupation than older teachers. Although
these studies explored individual differences in teacher burnout,
little research has focused on the potential moderating role of age
and gender in the relationship between trait EI, workplace social
support and teacher burnout. Because of the importance of gender
and age differences in teacher burnout research, we will explore
them as potential moderators in our hypothesised model. Thus, we
focused on the potential moderating effects of gender and age in
our presumed model and aimed to test the generalizability of this
 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67
model across gender and age groups.
2.5. Research context
In recent years, Chinese teachers have experienced many chal-
lenges, such as waves of educational reform proposals and their
subsequent implementation (Feng, 2006; Hawkins, 2000). Inevi-
tably, they have experienced burnout as a result of increasing job
demands and even fewer or no additional resources for their efforts
(Tang, Au, Schwarzer, & Schmitz, 2001). Chinese teachers indicate
that the primary reasons for burnout include a lack of autonomy in
the teaching environment, large class sizes, student behavioural
problems and increased workloads and non-teaching duties (Zhao
& Bi, 2003). With the popularity of the intensification of the
teaching profession in China (Mok, 1997), teachers have been asked
to follow a market logic wherein education is viewed as a product
produced by schools. Thus, objectively measurable student aca-
demic achievement has become synonymous with quality in
teachers' job achievement. For instance, enrolment rates and stu-
dent scores have become the most important evaluation criteria for
determining outstanding teachers (Dello-Iacovo, 2009). Such edu-
cation goals result in an ever-expanding teaching role, limited au-
tonomy and creativity and decreased time for social contact with
colleagues and families (Van Droogenbroeck et al., 2014). Moreover,
education is now expected to contribute to solving numerous social
problems (e.g. moral education, civic education, health education)
and teachers are expected to undertake tasks that were once car-
ried out by parents, social workers or others (Painter & Mok, 2008).
Thus, there is a significant increase in the non-teaching-related
(largely administrative) workload and teachers often find them-
selves in a contradictory situation where they face greater re-
sponsibility for their work, but have fewer social environment
resources to provide support (Eacute & Esteve, 2000). Conditions
including increased demands and limited resources facilitate a
sense of burnout among Chinese teachers, which could lead to
further turnover or turnover intention (Leung & Lee, 2006).
3. Methods
3.1. Participants
We recruited 307 middle school teachers (79.6% female, mean
age ¼ 42.01 years) from 14 public middle schools in five major cities
in mainland China. All teachers had more than 10 years teaching
experience and participated in an academic conference at our
campus. A total of 26.1% participants were guidance teachers, who
played both administrative and teaching roles. The remainder
worked only as classroom teachers. In terms of marital status,
85.03% reported that they were married, 14.26% were single and the
remainder were divorced or remarried. Approximately 93.21%
teachers had advanced education degrees. Annual incomes were
distributed as follows: 10.72% teachers reported that they earned
less than 20 000 RMB/year, 14.19% earned 20 000e30 000 RMB/
year, 18.63% earned 30 000e50 000 RMB/year and most (56.46%)
earned 50 000e80 000 RMB/year. The study sample included
participants that taught all junior high school grades (i.e. grades 7
to 9).
3.2. Measures
3.2.1. Emotional intelligence
To measure teachers' trait EI, we translated and back-translated
the original English self-report Wong Law Emotional Intelligence
Scale (Wong & Law, 2002) into Chinese. The scale consists of 16
brief statements and 4 dimensions, including self-emotion
61
appraisals (SEA), others' emotion appraisals (OEA), regulation of
emotion (ROE) and use of emotion (UOE). Item examples are as
follows: ‘I have good understanding of my own emotions’ (SEA), ‘I
am a good observer of others’ emotions' (OEA), ‘I have good control
of my own emotions’ (ROE) and ‘I always encourage myself to try
my best’ (UOE). Respondents were asked to rate their agreement on
a 5-point Likert-type scale (1 ¼ ‘strongly disagree’, 5 ¼ ‘strongly
agree’). The scale elicits a global EI score, with higher scores indi-
cating higher EI levels. Additionally, the scale has good psycho-
metric properties (Wong & Law, 2002). In this study, the Cronbach's
alpha coefficients for the four subscales were acceptable, with
SEA ¼ .73, ROE ¼ .70, OEA ¼ .80 and UOE ¼ .74. The Cronbach's
alpha coefficient for all 16 items was .72.
3.2.2. Perceived workplace social support
Perceived workplace social support was measured using a 10-
item instrument adapted from scales developed by Hobman,
Restubog, Bordia, and Tang (2009) and Brouwerset al.(2001). The
instrument measures supervisor (5 items) and colleague (5 items)
social support, and consists of items tapping into both instrumental
(provision of services and assistance) and emotional support
(provision of understanding and caring behaviours). Examples of
items assessing supervisor support include ‘I am confident that, if
necessary, I can ask a principal for advice’ and ‘When necessary, I
am able to bring up problems with principals’. Examples of items
assessing colleagues' support include ‘When it is necessary, I am
able to ask a colleague for assistance’ and ‘I am able to approach my
colleagues if I want to talk about problems at work’. Participants
responded to the items on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from
1 ¼ ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 ¼ ‘strongly agree’. The internal reliability
was acceptable (a ¼ 0.79 for supervisor support, a ¼ 0.88 for
colleague support and a ¼ .75 for all 10 items, respectively).
3.2.3. Teacher burnout
The Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES)
(Maslach, Jackson, & Leiter, 1986) was used to evaluate the severity
of participants' educator burnout. The 22-item instrument assesses
the frequency of feelings and attitudes related to burnout on a 7-
point scale. The MBI-ES has been found to have a good fit to a three-
factor construction including emotional exhaustion (9 items),
depersonalisation (5 items) and personal accomplishment (8 items,
reverse scored). Chan (2006) reported that the scale had good
reliability and validity when utilized in Chinese samples. Examples
of the items are as follows: ‘I feel emotionally drained by my work’
(emotional exhaustion), ‘I feel I treat some students as if they were
impersonal objects’ (depersonalisation) and ‘I feel I am positively
influencing other people's lives through my work’ (personal
accomplishment). Participants were instructed to evaluate each
item in terms of the frequency of their feelings ranging from
0 (‘never’) to 6 (‘every day’). Statistical analysis indices included one
total score and one score for each of the three dimensions, with
higher scores indicating a higher degree of burnout. The scale
showed acceptable levels of internal reliability (a ¼ 0.88 for
emotional exhaustion, a ¼ 0.77 for depersonalisation, a ¼ 0.84 for
personal accomplishment and a ¼ .89 for all 22 items, respectively).
3.3. Statistical analysis
The present study employed structural equation modelling
(SEM) to test the relationships between trait EI, workplace social
support and burnout among Chinese teachers. First, we used the
two-step procedure recommended by Anderson and Gerbing
(1988) to analyse the mediating effects of the variables. The mea-
surement model was first tested to assess the extent to which each
latent variable was represented by its indicators. If the
62 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67

measurement model was accepted, then the structural model was Table 2
tested using the maximum likelihood estimation. AMOS version Standardised factor loadings for confirmatory factor analysis.

17.0 was used for statistical analyses. To test for complete versus Measures and variables Factor loadings SE
partial mediation, we compared the model's fit to models with and Trait emotional intelligence
without the direct path between trait EI and burnout (i.e. Path c in Self-emotion appraisals (SEA) .48 .09
Fig. 1). Second, the moderation effects of gender and age were Others' emotion appraisals (OEA) .54 .07
examined using the means of multi-group SEM. This strategy Regulation of emotion (ROE) .59 .06
Use of emotion (UOE) .50 .07
involved comparing a model where regression coefficients among
Workplace social support
the variables in the theoretical model are constrained for equality Supervisors .62 .07
across groups (i.e. no moderation) with a model where coefficients Colleagues .70 .06
can vary across groups (i.e. moderation allowed). DCFI  .01 and Teacher burnout
DRMSEA  .015 were used as the cut-offs to indicate a substantial Emotional exhaustion .89 .02
Depersonalisation .84 .02
loss of fit caused by the introduction of invariance restrictions Low personal accomplishment .86 .02
(Chen, 2007). In addition to the chi-square statistic, the fit indices
used included the root mean squared error of approximation
(RMSEA), the goodness of fit index (GFI), the standardised root-
support suggested that teachers' emotional ability would increase
mean-square residual (SRMR) and the comparative fit index (CFI).
their perception and awareness of workplace social support. The
Finally, multi-group analyses were performed on the moderating
hypotheses that both EI (H1) and workplace social support (H2) act
effects of gender and age to determine if the pattern of the pro-
as protective factors for teacher burnout were also supported. Thus,
posed theoretical model was robust across different groups. The
our empirical data supported the three hypotheses (H1eH3) con-
following four indices were used to evaluate the model's goodness
cerning the direct relationship between the variables in our theo-
of fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999): (a) chi-square statistic, (b) RMSEA of .08
retical model.
or less, (c) SRMR of .08 or less and (d) CFI above .95.

4. Results 4.3. The mediating effect of workplace social support

4.1. Measurement model
The descriptive results and correlations between the investi-
gated variables are presented in Table 1. The measurement model
included three latent factors (trait EI, workplace social support and
teacher burnout) and nine observed variables. An initial test of the
measurement model revealed a satisfactory fit to the data: c2 (24,
N ¼ 307) ¼ 57.80; p < .001; RMSEA ¼ .068; SRMR ¼ .0468 and
CFI ¼ .962. All factor loadings for latent variable indicators were
significant (ranging from .49 to .93) (Table 2). This indicated that all
latent factors were represented by their respective indicators. As
expected, there was a significant positive correlation between trait
EI and workplace social support, a significant negative correlation
between trait EI and burnout and a significant negative correlation
between workplace social support and burnout.
4.2. Structural model
The mediating effect of workplace social support was tested
using the bootstrap estimation procedure (a bootstrap sample of
1000 was specified). MacKinnon, Lockwood, and Williams (2004)
suggested that the bootstrap method yields the most accurate
confidence intervals (CI) for indirect effects. The standardised
multiple indirect effects of trait EI on teachers' burnout via
perceived workplace social support was .24 (SE ¼ .07;
CI ¼ [.39, .15]; p < .001). Zero was not included in the CI, indi-
cating that the mediating effect between trait EI and teacher
burnout differed significantly from zero. In addition, to test for full
mediation, we constructed another model without a direct path
from trait EI to teacher burnout (i.e., Path c). The results indicated
that the full mediation model had a poorer fit: c2(25,
N ¼ 307) ¼ 65.65; p < .001; RMSEA ¼ .073; SRMR ¼ .0547 and
CFI ¼ .955. Thus, Hypothesis 4 was supported because workplace
social support partially mediated the relationship between trait EI
and teacher burnout.

As seen in Fig. 2, the results showed a good fit between our
theoretical model and the data: c2(24, N ¼ 307) ¼ 57.80; p < .001;
RMSEA ¼ .068; SRMR ¼ .0468 and CFI ¼ .962. All standardised path
coefficients were statistically significant (p < .01), indicating that
the hypothesised paths were significant. Consistent with
Hypothesis 3, the significant paths from EI to workplace social
4.4. Gender and age differences
A prerequisite for analyses of the moderating effects of gender
and age is that the measurement model of trait EI is sufficiently
equivalent across groups. Specifically, metric invariance (i.e.
equality of the factor loadings) must hold for moderation analyses,

Table 1
Means, standard deviations and zero order correlations of all variables.

M SD 1 2 3 4 5 5a 5b 5c

1. Gendera e
2. Age 42.01 8.74 .38** e
3. Trait emotional intelligence 3.37 .40 .14* .07 e
4. Workplace social support 3.94 .41 .05 .01 .29** e
5. Teacher burnout (total) 2.99 .74 .02 .00 .25** .31** e
5a. Emotional exhaustion 2.33 1.16 .03 .05 .37** .43** .76** e
5b. Depersonalisation 2.11 1.18 .02 .01 .37** .38** .72** .76** e
5c. Low personal accomplishment 1.97 1.15 .03 .08 .35** .45** .69** .84** .73** e

*p < .01.
**p < .001.
a
Gender was coded as a dummy variable: 0 ¼ male, 1 ¼ female.
 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67 63

Fig. 2. Standard estimates of the theoretical model (N ¼ 307). Note. The four Wong Law Emotional Scale subscales include OEA: others' emotion appraisals, UOE: use of emotion,
ROE: regulation of emotion and SEA: self-emotion appraisals. The workplace social support scale includes SS_C: support from colleagues and SS_S: support from supervisors. The
three Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey subscales include DP: depersonalisation, EE: emotional exhaustion and LPA: low personal achievement. All path coefficients
were significant at the .001 level.

and scalar invariance (i.e. equality of the factor loadings and item the current study integrated trait EI (as one aspect of personal re-
intercepts) must hold for testing latent mean differences (Brown, sources) and workplace social support (as one aspect of social re-
2006). Therefore, we tested for measurement invariance across sources) into a protective model for teacher burnout. The results of
gender and age as a preparatory step. The results of invariance the present study are consistent with the results of many related
analyses indicated that full scalar and metric invariance held for studies (Brackett et al., 2010; Platsidou, 2010), in that they confirm
both gender and age. That is, successively introducing invariance both the link between trait EI and teacher burnout and between
constraints did not lead to a substantial loss of model fit: DCFI < .01 workplace social support and teacher burnout. However, the cur-
and DRMSEA < .015 (Table 3). The findings pertaining to mea- rent study also revealed a possible mechanism for the effect of trait
surement invariance enabled us to validly investigate the potential EI on teacher burnout: the mediating role of workplace social
moderation effects of gender and age. support. Multi-group comparison analyses show that the medi-
The results of multi-group comparison analyses showed that the ating model was consistent across Chinese teachers' gender and
regression coefficients between trait EI and teacher burnout, trait EI age. Approximately 47% of the variance in teachers' burnout was
and workplace social support and workplace social support and explained by workplace social support and trait EI and 24% of the
teacher burnout were statistically invariant across gender and age variance of workplace social support was explained by trait EI.
(Table 4). For comparisons of male and female teachers and
younger and older teachers, the unrestricted baseline model that 5.1. Direct relationships between trait EI, workplace social support
allowed for moderation did not significantly fit the data better than and teacher burnout
models with equality constraints imposed on the regression co-
efficients. Thus, there is evidence that the mediation model was In the current study, trait EI was found to be a protective factor
robust across gender and age. for teacher burnout (r ¼ .28). This finding is consistent with
previous studies that report that trait EI is an important
5. Discussion personality-level predictor of work affect and job satisfaction
(Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008). Considering the consistency of
Using a sample of experienced teachers from mainland China, results demonstrating the connection between trait EI and burnout,
teachers should be assisted in the development of trait EI. For
example, Chan (2006) argued that enhancing positive emotion
Table 3 management and regulation can protect teachers from emotional
Fit indices for measurement invariance across gender and age (N ¼ 307). exhaustion, promote empathy and an appreciative stance for
Models c2 df RMSEA CFI SRMR p(Dc2) working with students and parents and help teachers reduce
Gender
depersonalisation. Furthermore, increasing positive utilisation of
Configural invariance model 108.307 48 .064 .934 .0858 emotional information in successful problem solving can generate
Metric invariance model 119.791 54 .063 .928 .0989 .075 teachers' personal accomplishments.
Scalar invariance model 135.926 63 .062 .920 .0988 .064 Workplace social support was negatively associated with
Age
teachers' burnout (r ¼ .50). This finding suggests that greater
Configural invariance model 79.687 48 .047 .965 .0571
Metric invariance model 88.168 54 .046 .962 .0601 .205 perceived support from supervisors and colleagues may lead to
Scalar invariance model 96.610 63 .042 .962 .0596 .323 lower burnout. Various researchers have suggested that increasing
Note. CFI: comparative fit index; p(Dc2):p-value of the c2 difference; RMSEA: root
the availability of teachers' social support may be a useful strategy
mean squared error of approximation; SRMR: standardised root-mean-square for preventing teacher burnout (Kahn et al., 2006). For instance,
residual. teachers that reported that they had supportive supervisors and
64 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67

Table 4
Moderation of the associations between teachers' trait emotional intelligence, workplace social support and teacher burnout by gender and age (N ¼ 307).

Models c2 df RMSEA CFI SRMR p(Dc2)

Gender
Baseline: Freely estimated regression coefficients 123.512 57 .062 .927 .1061
Equality constraint on path a 122.612 56 .063 .927 .1018 .343
Equality constraint on path b 121.335 56 .062 .929 .1055 .140
Equality constraint on path c 123.036 56 .063 .927 .1069 .490
Age
Baseline: Freely estimated regression coefficients 91.411 57 .045 .962 .0617
Equality constraint on path a 89.866 56 .045 .962 .0610 .214
Equality constraint on path b 90.529 56 .045 .961 .0616 .348
Equality constraint on path c 90.352 56 .045 .962 .0614 .304

Note. CFI: comparative fit index; p (Dc2): p-value of the c2 difference; RMSEA: root mean squared error of approximation; SRMR: standardised root-mean-square residual.

received positive feedback from others about their skills and abil-
ities were less vulnerable to burnout (Chan, 2002). These consistent
results suggest that another way to protect teachers from burnout
is by encouraging them to communicate with colleagues and su-
pervisors, and that creating a supportive school environment is
crucial for teachers' job satisfaction.
In addition, teachers' perceptions of workplace social support
were positively associated with trait EI (r ¼ .49), which has been
investigated in many other occupations (Ciarrochi, Deane, &
Anderson, 2002; Montes-Berges & Augusto, 2007). In a teaching
context, higher efficacy in accurately perceiving and positively
regulating emotions could help teachers form supportive inter-
personal relationships, thereby leading to perceptions of higher
levels of social support from supervisors and colleagues. This study
supports the idea that EI efficacy determines teachers' perceived
level of workplace social support. Similarly, other studies have
indicated that teachers with higher EI more effectively regulated
their emotions during interpersonal interactions, facilitating higher
quality social interactions with students, parents, colleagues, su-
pervisors and others (Lopes et al., 2004).
social support and teacher burnout can be generalised across
gender and age groups. Our findings revealed that male and female
teachers and younger and older teachers seemed to equally benefit
from trait EI and workplace social support. Specifically, the
regression coefficients in our model were invariant across the two
groups. In contrast to previous studies (Bindu & Thomas, 2006;
Geller & Hobfoll, 1994), we found that gender did not moderate
the relationship between trait EI and teacher burnout. This might
be related to the relatively higher number of female than male
teachers in China (Qiu & Yan, 2012), resulting in non-significant
gender differences. In terms of age differences, some studies
found that teaching experience can increase older teachers' EI.
However, in current study, age did not moderate the relationship
between EI and teacher burnout. This might be because we focused
on trait EI rather than ability EI. It is logical to assume that abilities
improve with age and experience, and that as teachers gain expe-
rience over time their emotion-related abilities may also improve.
However, age might not have moderated the relationship between
EI and teacher burnout in the current study because we viewed EI
as a trait.

5.2. Indirect relationships between trait EI, workplace social
support and teacher burnout
The present study initially explored an integrated model
whereby workplace social support was regarded as a mediator in
the relationship between trait EI and teacher burnout. As expected,
workplace social support had a significant but partial mediation
effect on the relationship between trait EI and burnout (indirect
effect ¼ .24). Several previous studies have considered the direct
relationship between social support and teacher burnout (Kahn
et al., 2006; Wang & Xu, 2004). Additionally, studies have re-
ported that there is a relationship between EI and teacher burnout
and examined this relationship using mediating mechanisms such
as positive/negative work affect (Kafetsios & Zampetakis, 2008),
emotional labour strategies (Yin, Lee, Zhang, & Jin, 2013) and
interpersonal relationships (Iordanoglou, 2007). However, few
studies employed workplace social support as the mediator in the
relationship between trait EI and teacher burnout. Our results
suggest that teachers with higher EI efficacy have a propensity to
experience greater support within the school environment (i.e.
from principals and colleagues), contributing to a decreased pos-
sibility of burnout. This is somewhat consistent with findings
indicating that social support mediates the relationship between
trait EI and life satisfaction (Lopes et al., 2005) and the relationship
between trait EI and mental distress among college students (Kong,
Zhao, & You, 2012). Our results indirectly support these findings
and extend them to teachers' occupational health issues.
Additionally, we conducted multi-group comparisons to test if
the assumed mediating relationship between trait EI, workplace
5.3. Implications and limitations
Our study has a number of implications regarding teaching
professionals' mental health and teacher education research. First,
our results suggest that educational policymakers should view trait
EI as an important component of teachers' skill sets. Consistently,
Hawkey (2006) argued that there was a lack of emphasis on EI in
pre-service teacher education. In addition, in-service teachers often
expressed their reluctance to play the roles of teacher-counsellors
or guidance teachers. This may occur because of low perceived
self-efficacy in helping others, and may also reflect a lack of EI
among Chinese in-service teachers (Chan, 2006). Although Chinese
educators have increasingly accepted the notion of EI and its
application to educational practices (Chan, 2004), they only
emphasise students' EI development. There is insufficient training
about management of work-related emotions in teacher education
programmes (Yin & Lee, 2012) and schools in China rarely provide
teachers with counselling services to help them contend with
emotional problems (e.g. anxiety and depression). Therefore,
appropriate emotion adjustment and regulation programmes
should be developed and implemented in the teacher education
system.
Additionally, workplace social support partially mediated the
relationship between EI and teacher burnout in our Chinese sam-
ple. This suggests that maintaining higher levels of perceived
workplace social support could protect teachers from experiencing
burnout. Accordingly, educational policymakers need to consider
how to promote teachers' perceived support within the school
environment. Cutrona and Russell (1987) assert that there are six
 C. Ju et al. / Teaching and Teacher Education 51 (2015) 58e67
kinds of social provisions for social support, including attachment,
social integration, reassurance of worth, guidance, reliable alliances
and opportunities for nurturance. Thus, the provision of each type
of social support from students, colleagues and supervisors could
be useful in increasing teachers' levels of social support. In regard to
colleagues, teachers should construct reliable alliances by estab-
lishing social integration with members of professional groups or
teaching teams. In addition, supervisors should provide teachers
with reassurance of worth, guidance and further training or edu-
cation opportunities. Although students' social support was not
assessed in the current study, we believe that teachers would also
benefit from this source of support because many studies have
indicated that teacherestudent relationships can contribute to
teacher psychological wellbeing (See the review by Spilt, Koomen,
& Thijs, 2011). Thus, teachers should be encouraged to build mutual
supportive relationship with colleagues, supervisors and students.
Similar suggestions were made by Van Maele and Van Houtte
(2012), who encouraged teachers and school leaders to pay atten-
tion to the quality of social relationships (e.g. trust relations) in
school settings in order to strengthen job satisfaction and retention.
There are also a number of limitations to the current study. First,
because the study used a cross-sectional design it is not possible to
infer causal relationships. Thus, the results of mediation analyses of
cross-sectional data should be interpreted cautiously. As a result,
future studies should use longitudinal or hierarchical linear models
to test mediating effects. Second, data were collected using self-
report measures, which might have led to subjective social desir-
ability bias. Furthermore, although student-level variables were not
incorporated into our integrated model, they may also have an
influence on teacher burnout (Friedman, 1995; Hastings & Bham,
2003). Consequently, future studies should adopt multiple evalu-
ation methods (e.g. peer and supervisor reports) and include stu-
dents' influence on teacher burnout. Third, in the current study, the
three burnout dimension scores (i.e. emotional exhaustion,
depersonalisation and personal accomplishment) had a similar
correlation pattern between trait EI and workplace social support
(Table 1); thus, we did not explore our three key variables in terms
of each dimension. However, previous studies have suggested that
trait EI and social support have stronger correlations with
emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation than low personal
accomplishment (Cordes & Dougherty, 1993; Greenglass et al.,
1997). According to Chan (2006), different EI dimensions have
different correlations with different teacher burnout dimensions.
Therefore, future studies should investigate the relationship be-
tween trait EI, social support and burnout using multiple
dimensions.
5.4. Conclusions
The most salient finding of this study pertains to the integrated
model in which workplace social support mediates the relationship
between trait EI and teacher burnout. Trait EI not only has a direct
impact on teacher burnout but also an indirect impact on teacher
burnout via workplace social support This model emphasises the
interaction between personal and environmental resources for
understanding teacher burnout. Teachers with higher trait EI are
able to form supportive interpersonal relationship with others (i.e.
colleagues and supervisors), leading to perceptions of increased
social support from the school environment. Subsequently,
increased perceived workplace social support can further protect
teachers from burnout. However, school administrators seem to
neglect the fact that many teachers lack the necessary personal (e.g.
emotional regulation efficacy) (Chan, 2006) and environmental
resources (e.g. workplace social support) (Brackett & Katulak,
2006) to contend with workplace frustrations. Thus, it is not
65
surprising that teacher burnout has become a critical problem.
According to our results, providing both effective EI training pro-
grammes and increasing the social support available to teachers
should be useful strategies for preventing teacher burnout.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the MOE (Ministry of Education
of China) Key Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences (11JZD044)
and Shaanxi Normal University Project of Higher Education
Research (201415) for funding this research. The authors thank the
help of all teachers who answered our questionnaires. In addition,
many thanks are due to the editors and the anonymous reviewers
for their supportive comments.
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