Teacher-student relationships and early childhood teachers' well-being in China: the mediating effect of emotion regulation

Early childhood education (ECE) teachers have emotion regulation functions in building positive teacher-student relationship to enhance children development and teaching quality. Currently, there has been a gradual increase in research attention towards exploring teacher-student relationships, teacher well-being and emotion regulation. However, studies in this field in China might still be limited, especially for ECE teachers. Therefore, this study examines associations between teacher-student relationships, teacher well-being, and emotion regulation in Chinese ECE teachers. A cross-sectional study was performed and the data were obtained from 610 ECE teachers in China. All of them completed the Student-Teacher Relationships Scale-Short Form (STRS-SF), Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES), Teacher Job Satisfaction Scale (TJSS-9), 10-item Version of the Depression Scale (CES-D-10), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between teacher-student relationships and teacher well-being for Chinese ECE teachers. Teachers who maintained positive teacher-student relationships (more closeness and less conflict) tended to have a higher level of self-efficacy and job satisfaction and a lower level of depression. Furthermore, it was found that emotion regulation partially mediated the relationships between teacher-student relationships and teacher well-being. These findings support the significance of teacher-student relationships for ECE teachers' well-being, and also highlight the important role of teachers' emotion regulation in building teacher-student relationships and enhancing teacher well-being. In addition, implications and limitations of the results are identified.