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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1542911
This article is part of the Research Topic Emotional Intelligence in Educational Psychology: Enhancing Learning and Development View all articles
The influence of 8786 Western China Kindergarten Teachers' Emotional Intelligence on Work Engagement
Provisionally accepted- 1 Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
- 2 Xilingol Vocational College, Xilinhot, China
- 3 Changchun Normal College, Changchun, China
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.
Keywords: Correlation, Education background, Emotional Intelligence, Kindergarten teacher, Online survey, work engagement
Received: 10 Dec 2024; Accepted: 10 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Zhang, Li, Wang and An. 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:
Zedong Zhang, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
Ye Wang, Changchun Normal College, Changchun, China
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