Emotion regulation and teacher work-related well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: A serial mediation model

Ansiedad y Estrés, (2026), 32(2), 103-110
https://doi.org/10.5093/anyes2026a12
https://www.ansiedadyestres.es
Bibliography reference

Emotion regulation and teacher work-related well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: A serial mediation model

INFO ARTICLE

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Received 10 June 2026
Accepted 20 July 2026

 

ABSTRACT

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Teachers’ ability to regulate emotions is widely recognized as a fundamental personal resource for handling stress and buffering the negative effects of occupational strain on well-being. Yet, studies exploring how emotion regulation is related to teachers’ well-being during the COVID-19 period remain relatively limited. The COVID-19 pandemic represented a major stressor for teachers worldwide, profoundly disrupting school communities and creating unprecedented challenges for educators’ health and well-being. During this period, teachers faced numerous demands and stressors that negatively affected their occupational well-being, highlighting the critical role of personal resources in facilitating positive job attitudes. This exploratory study tested an integrative model of the links between emotion regulation and job satisfaction via work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in a Spanish teacher sample (N = 723; 62.4% female; Mage = 44.39 years). Work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion played a sequential mediating role between emotion regulation and job satisfaction. These findings underscore the importance of addressing stress management and emotion regulation development as part of multifaceted interventions to protect teacher well-being against the psychological burden of global crises.

 

KEYWORDS

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Emotion regulation
work-related rumination
emotional exhaustion
job satisfaction
structural equation modeling

Ansiedad y Estrés, (2026), 32(2), 103-110
https://doi.org/10.5093/anyes2026a12
https://www.ansiedadyestres.es
Bibliography reference

 

RESUMEN

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La habilidad del profesorado para regular sus emociones es ampliamente reconocida como un recurso personal fundamental para afrontar el estrés y amortiguar los efectos negativos del estrés laboral sobre el bienestar. Sin embargo, los estudios que exploran cómo se ha relacionado la regulación emocional con el bienestar del profesorado durante el periodo de la COVID-19 siguen siendo relativamente limitados. La pandemia de COVID-19 representó un estresor de gran magnitud para el profesorado de todo el mundo, alterando profundamente a las comunidades educativas y planteando desafíos sin precedentes para la salud y el bienestar de este colectivo profesional. Durante este periodo, el profesorado se enfrentó a numerosas demandas y estresores que afectaron negativamente a su bienestar laboral, lo que resalta el papel crítico de los recursos personales para facilitar actitudes laborales positivas. Este estudio exploratorio evaluó un modelo integrador de los vínculos entre la regulación emocional y la satisfacción laboral a través de la rumiación relacionada con el trabajo y el agotamiento emocional en el contexto de la pandemia de COVID-19 en una muestra docente española (N = 723; 62.4% mujeres; Medad = 44.39 años). La rumiación relacionada con el trabajo y el agotamiento emocional desempeñaron un papel mediador secuencial entre la regulación emocional y la satisfacción laboral. Estos hallazgos subrayan la importancia de abordar el manejo del estrés y el desarrollo de la regulación emocional como parte de intervenciones multifacéticas para proteger el bienestar docente frente a la carga psicológica de las crisis globales.

 

PALABRAS CLAVE

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Regulación emocional
rumiación relacionada con el trabajo
agotamiento emocional
satisfacción laboral
modelado de ecuaciones estructurales
 

Introduction

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The COVID-19 pandemic introduced new challenges to professionals’ health and well-being (Alves et al., 2020; Demerouti & Bakker, 2022; Navarro-McCarthy et al., 2025). Within the educational context, the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory posits that while job and personal resources facilitate motivation and well-being, job demands consistently activate a health-impairment process leading to strain and burnout (Li et al., 2025). Throughout this period, professionals including teachers encountered unprecedented demands that adversely affected their work-related health and well-being, underscoring the importance of personal resources in mitigating such impacts (Alves et al., 2020; Vilte et al., 2022). Given that teaching is characterized by high emotional demands, identifying key protective factors associated with well-being is critical for preventing impaired functioning in times of crises (Li et al., 2025; Madigan & Kim, 2021; Sacré et al., 2023). Emotion regulation is a key personal resource enabling teachers to recognize early signs of strain and regulate their emotional states effectively (Bakker & de Vries, 2021). Conversely, when teachers show difficulties with these regulatory processes they may engage in maladaptive self-regulation, such as work-related rumination, which is conceptualized in this study as a personal demand forcing teachers to continue investing cognitive effort into work-related problems during off-job time (Bakker & de Vries, 2021). By preventing necessary psychological recovery, rumination fuels a negative cycle where strain prevents the recuperation of resources, leading to exhaustion (Bakker & de Vries, 2021).

Although the protective role of personal resources is highlighted in healthcare (e.g., Vilte et al., 2022), the cognitive-affective mechanisms sustaining well-being among teaching professionals have received less attention. Recent meta-analytic reviews have shown that a substantial proportion of variance in teacher occupational outcomes remains unexplained, highlighting the need to examine personal resources such as emotion regulation in combination with occupational well-being indicators such as burnout and job satisfaction (Madigan & Kim, 2021). Furthermore, recent warnings from the World Health Organization regarding escalating public health emergencies underscore the need for studies retrospectively exploring how these resources protect work-related well-being (Mouzo, 2026; Sacré et al., 2023; UNESCO, 2020).

Conducting a retrospective study on the COVID-19 pandemic may provide critical scientific impact as extended formulations of the JD-R framework in demanding periods posit that job characteristics alone are insufficient to capture strain in critical times, making it necessary to evaluate how individual regulatory resources buffer the spillover effects of unexpected demands (Alves et al., 2020; Demerouti & Bakker, 2022; Sacré et al., 2023). Therefore, the primary objective of this retrospective study was to investigate whether teachers exhibiting greater confidence in regulating their emotions show a better capacity to disengage from job demands, which would be sequentially associated with reduced feelings of exhaustion and increased job satisfaction. Furthermore, these findings seek to contribute to the development of tailored intervention programs for teachers in the context of demanding potential health crises (Alves et al., 2020).

Job satisfaction during COVID-19

Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the swift transition to remote teaching, the necessity to adapt to new technologies, and concerns regarding health and safety all contributed to substantial shifts in teachers' work-related well-being (Alves et al., 2020). Employment conditions during the pandemic severely exacerbated stress and burnout, with nearly one in four teachers expressing a likelihood of leaving their positions (Steiner & Woo, 2021). Furthermore, these threats had a significant impact on student performance, teacher–student relationships, and students’ emotional development (Sacré et al., 2023; UNESCO, 2020).

In this study, we focused on job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion to provide a comprehensive view of teachers’ attitudes and feelings about their work. On the one hand, job satisfaction is defined as an evaluative state that reflects contentment with and positive feelings about one’s job (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Job satisfaction encompasses both cognitive (i.e., satisfaction) and affective (i.e., positive emotions) aspects, reflecting an individual's commitment to and favorable feelings about their job (Judge & Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). The consistent association between teachers’ job satisfaction and their professional performance has been demonstrated (Wartenberg et al., 2023), emphasizing the role of positive job attitudes in teachers’ effectiveness. On the other hand, emotional exhaustion represents a core dimension of burnout syndrome that encompasses feelings of being emotionally overextended and drained of one’s emotional and physical resources from intense contact with students (Maslach et al., 2001). Similarly, past studies on teacher burnout underscored the effects of emotional exhaustion on students’ achievement (Madigan & Kim, 2021).

Given that job satisfaction and burnout are key in determining teachers’ decisions about leaving their profession, further research is needed to evaluate their antecedents in the context of COVID-19 pandemic (Madigan & Kim, 2021). In this vein, personal resources could act as vital protective factors for facilitating well-being (Alves et al., 2020). Vilte et al. (2022) reported that specific emotion regulation strategies are critical for preventing emotional exhaustion in occupational sectors characterized by severe emotional overload during the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings highlight the need to explore individual mechanisms that promote positive functioning at work in highly demanding situations (Alves et al., 2020; Vilte et al., 2022). Therefore, this study focuses on emotion regulation as a key personal resource associated with both job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion.

Emotion regulation and teachers’ work-related well-being

In accordance with the ability model, emotional intelligence (EI) is defined as "the ability to reason validly with emotions and with emotion-related information, and to use emotions to enhance thought" (Mayer et al., 2016, p. 295). This framework posits that specific trainable abilities including emotion appraisal, understanding, and regulation of emotions in oneself and others are instrumental in facilitating well-being (Mayer et al., 2016). Accordingly, emotion regulation constitutes a core dimension within the EI construct, conceptualized as “the ability to effectively manage one’s own emotions to achieve a desired outcome” (p. 294). Following the taxonomy of Ashkanasy and Daus (2005), stream 1 instruments measure EI through ability-based performance tests, whereas stream 2 tools assess self-perceived abilities through self-report ability EI tests. The current study focuses on perceived emotion regulation (stream 2), capturing teachers’ unique insights into emotional-affective processes (Wong & Law, 2002).

Emotion regulation plays an essential role in modulating teachers’ emotional states, being a highly relevant antecedent for work-related well-being (Aldrup et al., 2024; Bardach et al., 2022). Prior research examined the role of potential mechanisms in the link between teachers’ emotion regulation and job satisfaction, with positive affect emerging as a salient mediator (Luque-Reca et al., 2022). An expanding body of research has explored the association between teachers’ emotion regulation and reduced emotional exhaustion (Yin et al., 2019). Still, there remains a relative scarcity of understanding regarding the mediating role of work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion as affective-related dimensions in the association between teachers’ emotion regulation and job satisfaction.

The mediating role of work-related rumination between emotion regulation and emotional exhaustion

Work-related rumination involves persistent thoughts about work during non-work hours (Geisler et al., 2019; Mohr et al., 2006). Following the JD-R theory, this factor acts as a personal demand by imposing a continuous cognitive and emotional burden that may trigger negative cycles characterized by significant physical and psychological costs, eventually leading to feelings of exhaustion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (Bakker & van Wingerden, 2021; Vilte et al., 2022). Theoretically, teachers with increased emotion regulation abilities would engage less often in ruminative processes and, eventually, would be less exhausted than their less-skilled counterparts (Aldrup et al., 2024; Yin et al., 2019). Previous studies have revealed that adaptive emotion regulation correlates with reduced emotional exhaustion. Specifically, human service professionals, including teachers, who employ reappraisal strategies report lower exhaustion due to decreased involvement in work-related rumination (Geisler et al., 2019). The link between emotion regulation and work-related rumination assumed particular significance within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, where boundaries between professional and personal life became increasingly blurred (Alves et al., 2020; Demerouti & Bakker, 2022). However, whether this regulation process sequentially relates to job satisfaction through associations with work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion in the specific context of the COVID-19 pandemic remains to be clarified.

The mediating role of emotional exhaustion between emotion regulation and teachers’ job satisfaction

Past researchers on teacher burnout have called for the need for prevention programs directed at improving connectedness between teachers and students as well as involving the educational community in teachers’ practices to achieve their goals (Madigan & Kim, 2021). In line with the JD-R theory, when teachers experience high levels of emotional exhaustion, they may display lower involvement with their tasks and maintain less meaningful relationships with their colleagues, thereby leading to more negative affective evaluations of their jobs (Madigan & Kim, 2021; Yin et al., 2019). Relatedly, when teachers show a stronger self-perceived ability to manage their emotions, they might experience less exhaustion and, consequently, exhibit more positive attitudes toward their work (Yin et al., 2019). However, little is known about potential mediators underlying these associations.

The current study

Based on the aforementioned literature, the present study aimed to elucidate the relationship between emotion regulation and teachers’ job satisfaction in the context of COVID-19 by exploring the serial mediating roles of work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion (see Figure 1). Based upon this theoretical and empirical evidence, the following hypotheses were proposed:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Emotion regulation will be directly associated with increased job satisfaction.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Emotion regulation will be negatively related to work-related rumination.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Work-related rumination will be associated with increased emotional exhaustion.

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Emotional exhaustion will be negatively related to job satisfaction.

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Emotion regulation will be positively and indirectly related to job satisfaction, mediated by (lower) work-related rumination and (lower) emotional exhaustion.

(Figure 1)

Methods

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Participants

The sample included 723 (451 females) teaching professionals with a mean age of 44.39 years (SD = 10.17; range: 22–67) and a mean teaching experience of 14 years (M = 13.92; SD = 10.97). Participants worked as teaching professionals in diverse levels including childhood (with pupils from 3–5 years old; 15.8%), primary (with pupils 6–11 years old; 30.8%), and secondary (with pupils 12–17 years old; 48.4%) education. Thirty-six participants did not specify their teaching level. Finally, the contractual status of participants was primarily stable (i.e., they held an indefinite contract at state-run institutions; 68.5%), followed by temporary contracts (16%).

Measures

In line with prior research (Sacré et al., 2023), a retrospective design was employed to capture, using validated scales, the responses from participants regarding work-related rumination, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. For emotion regulation and work-related rumination, we used brief and validated subscales that showed strong internal consistency in this sample (? = .83 and .88, respectively). Finally, our survey collected sociodemographic information (e.g., age, gender, level of specialty).

Emotion regulation was assessed using a subscale of the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (Wong & Law, 2002). Participants self-reported their emotion regulation abilities across four items, using a 7-point response scale ranging from (1) totally disagree to (7) totally agree. An example item is “I am quite capable of controlling my own emotions”. We used the well-validated Spanish version of the scale (Extremera et al., 2019). The internal consistency of this measure in our study was good (? = .83).

Work-related rumination was assessed using the cognitive irritation subscale of the Irritation Scale (Mohr et al., 2006). Participants were asked to report their work-specific ruminations across three items, using a 7-point response scale ranging from (1) totally disagree to (7) totally agree. The Spanish version of the scale, validated by Tejedor et al. (2006), was utilized. An example item is “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, even at home I often thought of my problems at work”. The internal consistency of this measure in our study was good (? = .88).

Emotional exhaustion was measured using the emotional exhaustion subscale of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach et al., 1996). This subscale is comprised of nine items designed to assess the frequency of feelings associated with emotional overextension and exhaustion specifically related to teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Spanish version of the instrument was used (Seisdedos, 1997). An illustrative item from the scale is “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, at the end of the day, I have felt exhausted”. The internal consistency of this measure in our study was good (? = .86).

Job satisfaction was evaluated using the Job Satisfaction Scale (Judge et al., 1998), a concise instrument measuring overall job satisfaction with five items rated on a 7-point scale ranging from (1) completely disagree to (7) completely agree. An example item is “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have felt quite satisfied with my job”. We used the Spanish version (Extremera et al., 2018). Reliability analysis yielded good results in this study (? = .82).

Procedure

Using a non-probability convenience sampling method, trained psychology students recruited teaching professionals from educational institutions in Southern Spain for this voluntary and anonymous survey on work-related well-being. Participants were briefed on the objectives, and the confidential nature of their involvement was emphasized. No financial compensation was provided. The protocol received approval from the Research Ethics Committee [details removed for blind review]. Data collection occurred between September and November 2021, approximately 18 months after the first national lockdown, allowing for a retrospective assessment of their experiences regarding COVID-19 in line with prior research on teacher well-being (Sacré et al., 2023). The study used a paper-and-pencil format, with surveys and instructions provided in sealed envelopes. The survey took approximately 15–20 minutes to complete.

Statistical analysis

For basic descriptive analysis, we utilized IBM’s SPSS (Version 26). For more advanced data analysis, we employed the MPlus 8.6 software (Muthén & Muthén, 2017). We employed a two-step process for analyzing data using structural equation models (Anderson & Gerbing, 1988). In the first step, we verified the goodness of fit for our theoretical model through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Since the data did not fit a normal distribution from a multivariate perspective, we employed a maximum likelihood estimator with robust standard errors (MLM). Reliability and convergent and discriminant validity were assessed using composite reliability (CR), average variance extracted (AVE), and the square roots of AVE (Fornell & Larcker, 1981). The square roots of AVE for each variable should exceed their correlations with all other variables (Chin, 1998). In the second step, we used the CFA results to compute the structural equation model, which included four latent variables and 19 manifest variables. The structural model was tested using ML estimation with bootstrap (10,000 iterations) to estimate 95% confidence intervals. Model fit was evaluated following Hair et al. (2006): CFI and TLI > .92, RMSEA < .07, SRMR < .08.

Results

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Descriptive statistics

The descriptive statistics, correlation coefficients, and reliability indices for the relevant variables are presented in Table 1. As expected, regulation of emotion was negatively associated with work-related rumination and exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction. Moreover, work-related rumination was positively associated with exhaustion and negatively linked with job satisfaction. Finally, the internal consistency indices (evaluated using McDonald’s ?) showed optimal values ranging between .82 and .88.

(Table 1)

Confirmatory factor analysis

Before calculating the structural equation model, a CFA was conducted to test the reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of the measurement model. Based on modification indices and content review, error terms for items 1 and 2 of the emotional exhaustion scale were allowed to covary, yielding a good model fit: ?2S-B = 433.69; df = 145; p < .001; CFI = .95; TLI = .94; RMSEA = .06 [.05, .06], and SRMR = .05. Both items assess feeling exhausted due to work, differing mainly in whether this exhaustion is framed generally or specifically at the end of the workday; this near-identical wording plausibly accounts for shared residual variance beyond the general factor (Brown, 2015). Factor loadings and CR values (Tables 2 and 3) confirmed adequate reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity for all constructs. Regarding convergent validity, three of the four constructs showed AVE values above the recommended .50 threshold. Although the AVE for emotional exhaustion fell below this threshold, its CR remained above .60, which is considered an acceptable indicator of convergent validity even when AVE is below .50 (Fornell & Larcker, 1981).

(Table 2)

(Table 3)

Structural equation modeling analysis

To determine whether work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion acted as serial mediators in the relationship between emotion regulation and job satisfaction, we tested the hypothesized model using structural equation modeling (SEM). Gender, age, and teaching level were entered as covariates of the three endogenous variables, given the influence these variables have shown in previous studies (Cropley et al., 2023; Klassen & Chiu, 2010; Rey et al., 2012). The model fit our data well, with ?2 = 585.08; df = 193; p < .001; CFI = .94; TLI = .93; RMSEA = .05 [.05, .06], and SRMR = .04. Figure 2 summarizes the model including the standardized path coefficients. None of the covariates significantly predicted rumination or emotional exhaustion; for job satisfaction, gender showed a small but significant positive effect (ß = .09, p < .05, indicating higher satisfaction among women) and teaching level a significant negative effect (ß = -.12, p < .01, indicating that teachers working at more advanced educational stages reported lower job satisfaction), while age was non-significant (ß = -.04, p = .22). H1 posited that emotion regulation would be positively related to job satisfaction; a significant relationship was found (? = .29, 95% CI [.204, .383], p < .001). H2 posited a negative relationship between emotion regulation and work-related rumination, which was also confirmed (? = -.23, 95% CI [-.310, -.143], p < .001). H3 proposed that work-related rumination would be positively related to emotional exhaustion; this was supported (? = .33, 95% CI [.248, .412], p < .001). H4 proposed a negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction, which was likewise confirmed (? = -.40, 95% CI [-.484, -.303], p < .001). Notably, work-related rumination showed a significant positive direct effect on job satisfaction (? = .09, 95% CI [.026, .174], p < .05), opposite in sign to its significant negative indirect effect via emotional exhaustion (? = -.13, 95% CI [-.181, -.088], p < .001), such that the total effect of rumination on job satisfaction was non-significant (? = -.04, p = .355), reflecting a pattern of inconsistent mediation (suppression). Additional paths from the sequential mediation model are reported in Figure 2 and Table 4. H5 proposed that emotion regulation would be indirectly related to job satisfaction through the serial mediation of rumination and exhaustion. As shown in Table 4, the total indirect effect was positive; most notably, the sequential indirect effect through both mediators in series was significant and positive (? = .03, 95% CI [.016, .048], p < .001), supporting this hypothesis. Interestingly, emotion regulation also showed a negative indirect effect on job satisfaction through rumination alone (? = -.02, 95% CI [-.045, -.003], p < .05), and a positive indirect effect through emotional exhaustion alone (? = .08, 95% CI [.041, .121], p < .001). Variance explained by the model for each variable is displayed in Figure 2.

(Figure 2)

(Table 4)

Discussion

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Considering the scarce research on personal protective factors in the context of teacher work-related rumination and work-related well-being, this study explored the role of emotion regulation in predicting job satisfaction via work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, the findings supported our proposed hypotheses. Per H1, teachers with higher levels of perceived ability to manage their own emotions reported more positive attitudes toward their work, which is supported by previous meta-analytic reviews (Yin et al., 2019). In line with H2, results indicated that the positive link between emotion regulation and job satisfaction might be not only directly but also indirectly mediated through reduced work-related rumination. Teachers displaying a stable self-perception of their ability to manage their own emotions reported a lower tendency to engage in ruminative processes regarding their work during the COVID-19 pandemic, which expands recent findings on the protective role of teachers’ emotion regulation in contexts of crises (Aldrup et al., 2024). According to existing results, teachers perceiving themselves as capable of controlling their own emotions may be more able to reduce the effects of their job demands with adaptive emotion regulation strategies and show greater involvement and contentment with their work (Bardach et al., 2022). Regarding H3 and H4, emotional exhaustion emerged as a deleterious affective state mediating the relationship between work-related rumination and job satisfaction. Work-related rumination correlated with increased emotional exhaustion such that teachers involved in repetitive and persistent thoughts about their job reported an increased feeling of being emotionally overextended (Bakker & de Vries, 2021). Teachers’ emotional exhaustion emerged as an affective driver of negative evaluations on whether the teacher’s job met their needs (Madigan & Kim, 2021). This suppression pattern suggests rumination may carry two distinct implications: independent of exhaustion, engaging with work-related thoughts might reflect ongoing job investment, whereas the exhaustion it produces erodes satisfaction. Future studies should examine whether specific rumination facets (e.g., problem-solving pondering vs. affective rumination) explain this divergence.

According to H5, in line with past studies, our results reflected that emotion regulation acted as a key personal resource with implications for well-being among educators in demanding contexts (cf. Aldrup et al., 2024; Bardach et al., 2022). Following recent extensions of the JD-R theory in times of crises, this serial pathway shows a specific cognitive-affective mechanism mitigating the deleterious impact of job demands that contributes to exhaustion and dissatisfaction (Bakker & de Vries, 2021; Demerouti & Bakker, 2022). Teachers who confidently report an active capacity to control their emotional responses report fewer difficulties disconnecting from school problems at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. By minimizing persistent rumination, teachers may successfully reduce the cumulative health-impairment process and so protect themselves against feeling emotionally drained. Ultimately, this process might allow teachers to mitigate the negative cycle of feeling frustrated or annoyed by teaching tasks, with implications for work attitudes. Notably, sociodemographic covariates did not predict rumination or exhaustion, suggesting that the psychological burden of the pandemic was relatively uniform across age, gender, and teaching level groups. In sum, these findings suggest that strong beliefs in emotion regulation may facilitate the use of preventive, antecedent-focused strategies that adaptively buffer the resource-depleting cognitive cycles of work-related rumination before they impair occupational functioning (Aldrup et al., 2024; Bakker & de Vries, 2021).

Limitations and future research

Although suggestive, our preliminary findings should be interpreted cautiously. First, this study relied on a retrospective design regarding experiences since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which may introduce recall bias, as participants’ current emotional state could color their retrospective ratings of rumination and exhaustion (Sacré et al., 2023). Such a design prevents drawing causal inferences, and these findings should therefore be replicated using prospective or diary designs that also allow investigating which specific strategies elucidate the link between emotion regulation and reduced emotional exhaustion (Bakker & de Vries, 2021). Second, participants were recruited through non-probability convenience sampling, which limits the generalizability of our findings beyond the specific educational institutions and regions surveyed. Future studies involving larger, more diverse, and ideally probabilistic samples may yield more robust insights into how protective factors like emotion regulation mitigate the adverse effects of work-related rumination on teachers’ well-being. Third, although contractual stability was described for sample characterization purposes, it was not included as a covariate in the structural model; future studies should examine whether contractual stability moderates the psychological impact of occupational stressors such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fourth, all study variables were assessed via self-report at a single measurement occasion, raising the possibility of common method variance (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Although the good fit of our four-factor measurement model offers some indirect reassurance against a dominant single-method factor, this concern cannot be fully discarded, and future research would benefit from multi-source or multi-wave designs. This line of research could be expanded by considering key educational actors, such as students, and exploring how adaptive emotion regulation develops across different developmental stages and under the guidance of educational initiatives (Ballabrera & Limonero, 2025). Relatedly, future studies should consider the inclusion of performance-based EI tests and observer-reports of teacher emotionally intelligent behaviors. Indeed, future research in this line may test whether teachers’ emotion regulation and well-being act as contextual resources for students’ well-being and academic outcomes (Extremera et al., 2025).

Theoretical and practical implications

Considering the above-mentioned limitations, this study was one of the first attempts to explore the affective underpinnings (i.e., work-related rumination and emotional exhaustion) between a core EI facet (emotion regulation) and job satisfaction in the context of a pandemic. In doing so, these findings may expand our understanding of the health-impairment process by showing that teachers better equipped with personal resources involving emotion regulation-related knowledge are more capable of buffering maladaptive cognitive cycles such as work-related rumination under demanding conditions, thereby protecting themselves from overwhelming feelings of exhaustion and job dissatisfaction (Bakker & de Vries, 2021; Geisler et al., 2019; Vilte et al., 2022).

In terms of practical implications, our findings suggest avenues for the development of individual-level intervention programs aimed at reducing teacher exhaustion and enhancing work-related well-being via proactive prevention strategies. Educational institutions are advised to integrate emotion regulation training into ongoing professional development programs (Alves et al., 2020; Schoeps et al., 2019). By developing emotion regulation abilities among teachers, there may be benefits in terms of enhancing the likelihood of employing adaptive strategies to manage stress-inducing situations (Aldrup et al., 2024; Yin et al., 2019). For instance, practitioners could focus on the development of evidence-based techniques including relaxation, acceptance, and psychological detachment to facilitate adaptive recovery and mitigate the harmful effects of job demands on energy levels (Bakker & de Vries, 2021). Moreover, programs could focus on instructional strategies to sustain student well-being under demanding conditions such as hybrid or remote learning (Alves et al., 2020).

Consistent with the JD-R theory, beyond these individual-level resources, educational centers should also foster job resources including social support and transformational leadership, as these contextual resources are key to buffering the energy depletion caused by potential unexpected and high-intensity demands and to protect work-related well-being (Floman et al., 2024; Li et al., 2025). Implementing these actions could act as a promising avenue for nurturing adaptive emotion management within their school communities, particularly among younger students vulnerable to emotional distress (Ballabrera & Limonero, 2025; UNESCO, 2020). Finally, educational institutions should cultivate a positive organizational culture prioritizing well-being as a collective goal, ensuring that teachers feel valued and supported while navigating the evolving demands of the educational communities.

Conclusions

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This study has shed light on the links between emotion regulation, work-related rumination, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction among Spanish teachers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the emotional challenges faced by teachers and emphasize the relevance of interventions aimed at enhancing emotion regulation skills that promote their work-related well-being.

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