Student aggression against teachers, stress, and emotional intelligence as predictors of withdrawal intentions among secondary school teachers

ABSTRACT

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
• perceived stress
• withdrawal intentions
• emotional intelligence
• teaching professionals
• moderated mediation

Acknowledgements

This research has been supported and funded in part by research projects from the University of Málaga and Junta de Andalucía/FEDER (UMA18-FEDERJA-147) and PAIDI Group CTS-1048 (Junta de Andalucía). This work was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (FPU16/02238).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because the dataset has been generated regarding a funded Research Project by Junta de Andalucia/FEDER funds (UMA18- FEDERJA-147). Requests to access the datasets should be directed to NE, [email protected]

Ethics statement

The procedure was approved by the ethics committee of the University of Málaga (66-2018-H).

Additional information

Funding

This research has been supported and funded in part by research projects from the University of Málaga and Junta de Andalucía/FEDER (UMA18-FEDERJA-147) and PAIDI Group CTS-1048 (Junta de Andalucía). This work was also supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (FPU16/02238).