Background and objectives: This exploratory study aimed to test the buffering effect of emotional intelligence in the associations between aggression against teachers, perceived stress, and withdrawal intentions.
Design and methods: A sample of 329 secondary school teachers (51.4% female) completed questionnaires assessing aggression against teachers, perceived stress, withdrawal intentions, and emotional intelligence.
Results: The results showed that emotional intelligence was negatively related to perceived stress and withdrawal intentions. Across moderated-mediation analysis, there were mixed findings regarding the moderating effects of emotional intelligence in the proposed model. Findings indicated that emotional intelligence moderated only the association between perceived stress and withdrawal intentions.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that emotional intelligence is a psychological resource for mitigating the negative effects of perceived stress on negative work attitudes among teaching professionals in the context of harmful student behaviors. Possible avenues for including emotional intelligence in the field of teacher victimization are discussed.
Keywords: Aggression against teachers; emotional intelligence; moderated mediation; perceived stress; teaching professionals; withdrawal intentions.