Professional Identity and Work Engagement Among Chinese University Faculty: A Moderated Mediation Model

Occupational stress among faculty has become an important research topic in psychology. Unlike previous studies, this research integrates resilience, job satisfaction, and psychological capital into a unified analytical framework based on Social Identity Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory. It aims to investigate the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions between professional identity and work engagement. Using a cross-sectional survey design, we collected data from 950 Chinese university faculty through questionnaire assessments, focusing on the relationships among professional identity, resilience, job satisfaction, psychological capital, and work engagement. Results indicate that professional identity shows a significant positive association with work engagement. Resilience and job satisfaction play parallel mediating roles in this relationship. The main contributions of this study include revealing the complex internal processes linking professional identity and work engagement, and verifying the significant moderating role of psychological capital in the path from professional identity to resilience. These findings offer a new theoretical perspective for understanding the formation mechanism of work engagement among university faculty. They also provide empirical support for higher education management practices that emphasize building professional identity, fostering resilience, and developing psychological resources.