Work-Family Conflict and Rural Teachers&#x02019; Negative Working Emotion: Mindfulness in Teaching as a Mediator and Psychological Safety as a Moderator

Tian Huidong; Xu Qiangqiang; Zhang Yuhong; Wang Dongrong; Wei Yixin

doi:10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240120

PDF(727 KB)

Journal of Psychological Science ›› 2024, Vol. 47 ›› Issue (1) : 170-177. DOI: 10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240120

Social, Personality & Organizational Psychology

Work-Family Conflict and Rural Teachers’ Negative Working Emotion: Mindfulness in Teaching as a Mediator and Psychological Safety as a Moderator

Tian Huidong¹, Xu Qiangqiang^1,2, Zhang Yuhong¹, Wang Dongrong¹, Wei Yixin¹

Author information +

History +

Abstract

Teachers, who are engaged in heavy emotional labor, are prone to emotional exhaustion, which leads to negative emotions such as depression and anxiety. According to the Affective Events Theory, rural teachers who face heavy workloads and difficulties are more likely to breed negative working emotions. If this negative emotion is accumulated longitudinally and cannot be relieved in an appropriate way, it may not only adversely impact teachers' mental health, but also cause moral misconduct, which in turn may disrupt their students' mental health. Rural teachers are constrained by the particularity of their posts, and undertake a lot of teaching and non-teaching work. The heavy work pressure makes it challenging to balance the relationship between work and family, and it is inevitable that the confusion and conflict of roles will result from the poor balance. In particular, rural teachers are more and more living in a "migratory bird" state between work and life. The separation of work and life makes it more difficult to balance the relationship between work and family, and the conflict between work and life is more intense. Although previous studies have shown that work-family conflict is the key inducing factor of teachers' negative emotion, few studies have paid attention to the influence of work-family conflict on rural teachers' negative working emotion and its mechanism.
Based on this, from the perspectives of Work/family Border Theory, the Conservation of Resources, the Job Demands-Resources model, and the Person-Situation Interaction Theory, this study explores the generation mechanism of rural teachers' negative working emotion from three micro subsystems: work environment (psychological safety), family life (work-family conflict) and individual characteristics (mindfulness in teaching). A sample of 896 rural teachers were recruited in the study to complete the Work-family Conflict Scale, the Mindfulness in Teaching Scale, the Psychological Safety Scale, and the Negative Affectivity Subscale.
The results showed that: (1) Work-family conflict significantly positively predicted rural teachers' negative working emotion. (2) The relationship between mindfulness in teaching significantly mediated work-family conflict and rural teachers' negative working emotion. (3) Psychological safety moderated the first half and the second half of the mediation process in which work-family conflict affected negative working emotion of rural teachers. Specifically, the negative predictive effect of work-family conflict on mindfulness in teaching was weakened in rural teachers with high psychological safety, while the negative predictive effect of mindfulness in teaching on negative working emotion was only significant on rural teachers with high psychological safety. This study revealed the influence of work-family conflict on rural teachers' negative working emotion and its mechanism, and provided evidence to promote the mental health and team building among rural teachers.

Key words

rural teachers / work-family conflict / mindfulness in teaching / negative working emotion / psychological safety

Cite this article

EndNote

Ris (Procite)

Bibtex

Download Citations

Tian Huidong, Xu Qiangqiang, Zhang Yuhong, Wang Dongrong, Wei Yixin. Work-Family Conflict and Rural Teachers’ Negative Working Emotion: Mindfulness in Teaching as a Mediator and Psychological Safety as a Moderator[J]. Journal of Psychological Science. 2024, 47(1): 170-177 https://doi.org/10.16719/j.cnki.1671-6981.20240120

References

[1] 程良宏. (2021). 嵌入乡村社会: “候鸟型”教师扎根乡村的基本路径. 教师教育研究, 33(3), 111-116.
[2] 程秀兰, 张慧, 马颖, 曹金金. (2022). 幼儿园教师教学正念与职业倦怠的关系: 情绪智力和自我效能感的链式中介效应. 学前教育研究, 3, 65-78.
[3] 丁俊浩, 赵甜, 周晖. (2020). 中文版正念教学量表的信效度检验. 心理学探新, 40(5), 444-450.
[4] 冯利伟. (2018). 国外工作家庭冲突研究态势——基于文献计量的分析. 经济管理, 40(4), 187-208.
[5] 傅海伦, 张丽. (2020). 中小学乡村教师消极情绪体验的社会学分析——以山东省域数据调查为例. 山东师范大学学报(人文社会科学版), 65(1), 116-125.
[6] 高中华, 赵晨. (2014). 工作家庭两不误为何这么难? 基于工作家庭边界理论的探讨. 心理学报, 46(4), 552-568.
[7] 胡青, 孙宏伟. (2016). 情绪劳动与心理健康的关系: 工作倦怠的中介作用. 心理与行为研究, 14(5), 662-667.
[8] 黄明明, 陈丽萍, 郭莉萍, 赵守盈. (2021). 工作-家庭冲突与幼儿教师离职意向的关系: 职业认同感与职业倦怠的序列中介作用. 心理与行为研究, 19(5), 679-686.
[9] 姜超. (2018). 工作生活两地化: 城镇化背景下乡村教师职业新样态. 中国教育学刊, 7, 94-99.
[10] 蒋小群, 李超平. (2020). 校长服务型领导如何降低教师情绪衰竭——心理安全感和不确定性规避的作用. 教育学报, 16(2), 109-118.
[11] 李宁, 严进. (2007). 组织信任氛围对任务绩效的作用途径. 心理学报, 39(6), 1111-1121.
[12] 李琼, 吴丹丹. (2014). 提升教师的心理韧性: 学校工作条件与人际信任的影响作用. 教师教育研究, 26(1), 62-68.
[13] 李永占. (2016). 工作家庭冲突视角下幼儿教师情感耗竭的心理机制: 情绪智力的作用. 心理与行为研究, 14(4), 492-500.
[14] 林彦梅, 刘洪, 齐昕. (2019). 工作家庭冲突背景下弹性工作的作用机制研究——基于工作-家庭边界理论. 商业经济与管理, 12, 78-87.
[15] 刘家国, 周媛媛, 石倩文. (2017). 组织公民行为负效应研究——整合广义交换、印象管理和进化心理学的分析. 管理评论, 29(4), 163-180.
[16] 刘锦涛, 王晶. (2020). 工作-家庭冲突对农村幼儿教师工作投入的影响——心理资本的调节作用. 甘肃高师学报, 25(5), 80-84.
[17] 马惠霞, 苏鑫, 刘静. (2016). 中小学教师的情绪及其对学生的情绪传递初探. 教育理论与实践, 36(26), 31-33.
[18] 田国秀, 刘忠晖. (2021). 教师情绪劳动: 三类情绪的区分与关系协调. 比较教育研究, 43(4), 3-10.
[19] 卫武, 倪慧. (2020). 工作家庭冲突对员工工作行为的影响: 基于资源保存理论和身份认同理论的视角. 管理工程学报, 34(1), 25-33.
[20] 温忠麟, 叶宝娟. (2014). 有调节的中介模型检验方法: 竞争还是替补. 心理学报, 46(5), 714-726.
[21] 吴士健, 刘国欣, 聂国栋. (2020). 企业社交媒体常载与过载使用对员工工作绩效的影响. 软科学, 34(7), 108-113.
[22] 徐今雅, 蔡晓雨. (2012). 工作期待与家庭守望的冲突与困惑——农村女教师工作家庭关系的质性研究. 浙江师范大学学报(社会科学版), 37(3), 58-64.
[23] 徐智华, 彭剑锋. (2017). 心理安全感研究述评及展望. 现代管理科学, 4, 18-20.
[24] 杨进, 李广, 杨雪. (2021). 何以坚守——基于勒温“场动力理论”谈乡村教师流失的规避. 杭州师范大学学报(社会科学版), 43(2), 114-121.
[25] 杨炎轩, 王珺瑶. (2021). 压力视阈下我国中小学教师师德失范行为的归因与治理. 现代教育管理, 6, 99-106.
[26] 叶宝娟, 雷希, 方小婷, 符皓皓, 游雅媛, 陈佳雯. (2018). 心理资本对大学生职业决策困难的影响: 有调节的中介模型. 心理发展与教育, 34(1), 58-64.
[27] 余鹏, 周占武. (2021). 工作——家庭冲突对民族地区女性教师职业认同的影响——领悟社会支持的中介作用. 民族教育研究, 32(4), 82-87.
[28] 张静, 宋继文, 王悦. (2017). 工作场所正念: 研究述评与展望. 外国经济与管理, 39(8), 56-70, 84.
[29] 周浩, 龙立荣. (2004). 共同方法偏差的统计检验与控制方法. 心理科学进展, 12(6), 942-950.
[30] 周兆海. (2021). 乡村教师非教学性工作负担问题及其对策. 教育科学研究, 7, 88-92.
[31] 邹艳春, 印田彬. (2017). 多层次视角下的心理安全研究评述. 中国人力资源开发, 4, 66-75, 121.
[32] Agarwal, P., & Farndale, E. (2017). High-performance work systems and creativity implementation: The role of psychological capital and psychological safety. Human Resource Management Journal, 27(3), 440-458.
[33] Amstad F. T., Meier L. L., Fasel U., Elfering A., & Semmer N. K. (2011). A meta-analysis of work-family conflict and various outcomes with a special emphasis on cross-domain versus matching-domain relations. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(2), 151-169.
[34] Bandura A., Pastorelli C., Barbaranelli C., & Caprara G. V. (1999). Self-efficacy pathways to childhood depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(2), 258-269.
[35] Carlson D. S., Kacmar K. M., & Williams L. J. (2000). Construction and initial validation of a multidimensional measure of work-family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 56(2), 249-276.
[36] Clark, S. C. (2000). Work/family border theory: A new theory of work/family balance. Human Relations, 53(6), 747-770.
[37] Demerouti E., Bakker A. B., Nachreiner F., & Schaufeli W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499-512.
[38] Edmondson, A. C. (2003). Managing the risk of learning: Psychological safety in work teams. In M. A. West, D. Tjosvold, & K. G. Smith (Eds.), International handbook of organizational teamwork and cooperative working (pp. 1-38). John Wiley & Sons.
[39] Frank J. L., Jennings P. A., & Greenberg M. T. (2016). Validation of the mindfulness in teaching scale. Mindfulness, 7(1), 155-163.
[40] Frone M. R., Yardley J. K., & Markel K. S. (1997). Developing and testing an integrative model of the work-family interface. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 50(2), 145-167.
[41] Guidetti G., Viotti S., Badagliacca R., Colombo L., & Converso D. (2019). Can mindfulness mitigate the energy-depleting process and increase job resources to prevent burnout? A study on the mindfulness trait in the school context. PLoS ONE, 14(4), Article e0214935.
[42] Hobfoll, S. E. (2001). The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing conservation of resources theory. Applied Psychology, 50(3), 337-421.
[43] Hollanda, P. (2020). Antecedents and outcomes of work-family conflict and work-family enrichment: A longitudinal, multilevel, and multimethod study. In: M. Las Heras Maestro, N. Chinchilla Albiol, & M. Grau Grau (Eds.), The new ideal worker (pp. 223-249). Springer.
[44] Hue, M. T., & Lau, N. S. (2015). Promoting well-being and preventing burnout in teacher education: A pilot study of a mindfulness-based programme for pre-service teachers in Hong Kong. Teacher Development, 19(3), 381-401.
[45] Iani L., Lauriola M., Chiesa A., & Cafaro V. (2019). Associations between mindfulness and emotion regulation: The key role of describing and nonreactivity. Mindfulness, 10(2), 366-375.
[46] Ito, J. K., & Brotheridge, C. M. (2003). Resources, coping strategies, and emotional exhaustion: A conservation of resources perspective. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 63(3), 490-509.
[47] Kabat-Zinn, J. (2003). Mindfulness-based interventions in context: Past, present, and future. Clinical Psychology Science and Practice, 10(2), 144-156.
[48] Lee K., Kim E., Bhave D. P., & Duffy M. K. (2016). Why victims of undermining at work become perpetrators of undermining: An integrative model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(6), 915-924.
[49] Li C. X., Kee Y. H., & Wu Y. D. (2019). Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the mindfulness in teaching scale. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(13), Article 2405.
[50] Liu K. X., Yin T. T., & Shen Q. (2020). Relationships between sleep quality, mindfulness and work-family conflict in Chinese nurses: A cross-sectional study. Applied Nursing Research, 55, Article 151250.
[51] Ma Y., Wang F., & Cheng X. L. (2021). Kindergarten teachers' mindfulness in teaching and burnout: The mediating role of emotional labor. Mindfulness, 12(3), 722-729.
[52] May D. R., Gilson R. L., & Harter L. M. (2004). The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77(1), 11-37.
[53] Obrenovic B., Jianguo D., Khudaykulov A., & Khan, M. A. S. (2020). Work-family conflict impact on psychological safety and psychological well-being: A job performance model. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, Article 475.
[54] Pu J., Hou H. P., Ma R. Y., & Sang J. Y. (2017). The effect of psychological capital between work-family conflict and job burnout in Chinese university teachers: Testing for mediation and moderation. Journal of Health Psychology, 22(14), 1799-1807.
[55] Senejani M. J., Dast T. T., & Farhangi A. H. (2016). Examining the relationship between psychological security, emotional maturity, and attachment styles and marital adjustment. International Journal of Medical Research and Health Sciences, 5(9), 229-239.
[56] Shahid, S., & Din, M. (2021). Fostering psychological safety in teachers: The role of school leadership, team effectiveness & organizational culture. International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management, 9(2), 122-149.
[57] Shapiro S. L., Carlson L. E., Astin J. A., & Freedman B. (2006). Mechanisms of mindfulness. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62(3), 373-386.
[58] Speights S. L., Bochantin J. E., & Cowan R. L. (2020). Feeling, expressing, and managing emotions in work-family conflict. Journal of Business and Psychology, 35(3), 363-380.
[59] Spreitzer G., Porath C. L., & Gibson C. B. (2012). Toward human sustainability: How to enable more thriving at work. Organizational Dynamics, 41(2), 155-162.
[60] Van Katwyk P. T., Fox S., Spector P. E., & Kelloway E. K. (2000). Using the job-related affective well-being scale (JAWS) to investigate affective responses to work stressors. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5(2), 219-230.
[61] Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. In B. M. Staw, & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior: An annual series of analytical essays and critical reviews (pp. 1-74). Elsevier.
[62] Woodman R. W., Sawyer J. E., & Griffin R. W. (1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. The Academy of Management Review, 18(2), 293-321.
[63] Yardley, K. (2012). Psychological capital as a positive resource to assist with the organisational outcomes of work family conflict (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Massey University, Albany, New Zealand.