Exploring relations between teacher emotions, coping strategies, and intentions to quit: A longitudinal analysis

Abstract

Although previous research has indicated that emotions have a substantial impact on teacher well-being, research is lacking concerning the relationships between teachers' emotions, coping strategies, and quitting intentions. This current five-month, two-wave longitudinal study investigated the relations between these variables in a sample of 1086 Canadian teachers (female: 81.3%; M_age = 42). Results from cross-lagged analyses revealed that teachers' trait emotions corresponded with coping strategies and that trait emotions and coping strategies both corresponded with intentions to quit the teaching profession. Mediational latent change analyses further showed that baseline levels of teachers' anxiety corresponded with greater emotion-focused disengagement coping that, in turn, led to stronger intentions to quit the teaching profession. Finally, decreases in teachers' anxiety over time additionally corresponded with decreases in disengagement coping. Limitations and practical implications concerning the importance of providing meaningful support to teachers for reducing anxiety, improving coping, and reducing quitting intentions are discussed.

Keywords: Coping strategies; Cross-lagged models; Mediational latent change; Quitting intentions; Teacher emotions.