{"title":"The influence of 8,786 Western China kindergarten teachers' emotional intelligence on work engagement.","authors":"Zedong Zhang, Yan Li, Ye Wang, Xiaomin An","doi":"10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542911","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Although emotional intelligence (EI) has been shown to influence work engagement significantly (WE) in many professions, the relationship between EI and WE among kindergarten teachers in Western China remains underexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating how the EI of kindergarten teachers affects their WE and whether educational background moderates this relationship. A sample of 8,786 kindergarten teachers completed the Emotional Intelligence Scale for Kindergarten Teachers and the Work Engagement Scale. The results indicate that EI is positively correlated with and predictive of WE among kindergarten teachers. However, within the internal structure of EI, emotional perception does not predict WE, while emotional identification negatively predicts it. Furthermore, the educational background of kindergarten teachers was found to moderate the relationship between EI and WE. To enhance WE among kindergarten teachers in the future, it is crucial to view EI as a developable skill. This can be accomplished by providing teachers with diverse social practice opportunities and offering structured EI training programs.</p>","PeriodicalId":12525,"journal":{"name":"Frontiers in Psychology","volume":"16 ","pages":"1542911"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2025-03-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11977667/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Frontiers in Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542911","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2025/1/1 0:00:00","PubModel":"eCollection","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Although emotional intelligence (EI) has been shown to influence work engagement significantly (WE) in many professions, the relationship between EI and WE among kindergarten teachers in Western China remains underexplored. This study aims to fill this gap by investigating how the EI of kindergarten teachers affects their WE and whether educational background moderates this relationship. A sample of 8,786 kindergarten teachers completed the Emotional Intelligence Scale for Kindergarten Teachers and the Work Engagement Scale. The results indicate that EI is positively correlated with and predictive of WE among kindergarten teachers. However, within the internal structure of EI, emotional perception does not predict WE, while emotional identification negatively predicts it. Furthermore, the educational background of kindergarten teachers was found to moderate the relationship between EI and WE. To enhance WE among kindergarten teachers in the future, it is crucial to view EI as a developable skill. This can be accomplished by providing teachers with diverse social practice opportunities and offering structured EI training programs.
期刊介绍:
Frontiers in Psychology is the largest journal in its field, publishing rigorously peer-reviewed research across the psychological sciences, from clinical research to cognitive science, from perception to consciousness, from imaging studies to human factors, and from animal cognition to social psychology. Field Chief Editor Axel Cleeremans at the Free University of Brussels is supported by an outstanding Editorial Board of international researchers. This multidisciplinary open-access journal is at the forefront of disseminating and communicating scientific knowledge and impactful discoveries to researchers, academics, clinicians and the public worldwide. The journal publishes the best research across the entire field of psychology. Today, psychological science is becoming increasingly important at all levels of society, from the treatment of clinical disorders to our basic understanding of how the mind works. It is highly interdisciplinary, borrowing questions from philosophy, methods from neuroscience and insights from clinical practice - all in the goal of furthering our grasp of human nature and society, as well as our ability to develop new intervention methods.