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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1434407

Kindergarten teachers' emotional intelligence and surface acting: The chain mediating effects of self-efficacy and work engagement

Provisionally accepted
Shucun Sun Shucun Sun Zhonglian Yan Zhonglian Yan Caixia Sun Caixia Sun *
  • Faculty of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background Emotional labor, distinct from physical and mental labor, has gained significant attention in contemporary organizational psychology research. As a strategy for performing emotional labor, surface acting refers to the process of faking emotions to meet the demands of organizations' norms. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and surface acting among Chinese kindergarten teachers, focusing on the mediating role of self-efficacy and work engagementMethodsIntegrating the conservation of resources theory and the job demands-resources model, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 1,017 Chinese kindergarten teachers using Wong & Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, Self-Efficacy Scale, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, and Surface Acting Scale. SPSS 26.0 was used to conduct descriptive statistics and correlation tests. Structural equation modeling and mediation analysis were constructed using AMOS 28.0.ResultsThe results showed reveals several key findings. Firstly, kindergarten teachers' emotional intelligence significantly positively predicted surface acting rather than negatively. Secondly, self-efficacy and work engagement respectively mediate the relationship between emotional intelligence and surface acting in kindergarten teachers. Additionally, self-efficacy and work engagement have chain mediating effects in the relationship between kindergarten teachers' emotional intelligence and surface acting.ConclusionsThe research findings reveal the influencing mechanism of kindergarten teachers' emotional intelligence on surface acting, providing a theoretical basis and practical implications for understanding and promoting the reasonable use of surface acting by kindergarten teachers in the Chinese context.

    Keywords: Kindergarten Teachers, Emotional Intelligence, Surface acting, self-efficacy, work engagement

    Received: 02 Jul 2024; Accepted: 14 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Yan and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Caixia Sun, Faculty of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China

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