Teachers’ emotional competencies and their contribution to the perceived responsiveness in social-emotional situations: the mediating role of empathy and resilience

Seismic events on both global and local scales, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, have exacerbated the emotional and social distress experienced by adolescents. This reality has expanded teachers’ responsibilities, requiring them to address aspects beyond academic knowledge, dealing with situations that demand social-emotional responses and promoting students’ social-emotional development and wellbeing. These additional responsibilities, which are not thoroughly addressed in high-school teacher training, highlight the emotional challenge inherent in the teacher’s role. Hence, this study aimed to examine how teachers’ Emotional Competencies contribute to their perceived ability to address social-emotional situations in their classrooms; in particular, we examined the contribution of emotional self-efficacy, empathy, and personal resilience. This cross-sectional study sampled 340 high-school teachers who completed a demographic questionnaire, an emotional self-efficacy scale, an empathy scale, a resilience scale, and a scale measuring teachers’ perceived ability to address social-emotional situations in their classrooms. The findings indicate a positive correlation between all the variables. Additionally, empathy and resilience were found to mediate the relationship between teachers’ emotional self-efficacy and their performance perception to address social-emotional situations in their classrooms. The study’s results underscore the importance of cultivating emotional self-efficacy, empathy, and resilience among high-school teachers to enhance their perceived performance in addressing social-emotional situations in routine school settings and particularly during times of crisis and stress.