A Study on the Relationships Between Self-Leadership, Neijuan Anxiety, Career Confidence and Teacher Well-Being Among Novice Teachers in Chinese Vocational Colleges

Neijuan (内卷; involution) anxiety is a state or phenomenon characterized by defensive competition, chronic burnout and internalization failure. It is considered detrimental to the psychological well-being of the individual and those around them. It is especially prevalent in China where many teachers find themselves in an neijuan environment of extreme excessive irrational competition, which is not necessarily good for the work development and occupational health of novice teachers. As a result, relative issues have received much attention. Based on the self-regulation theory (SRT), this study adopted an anxiety-based self-regulation model to explore the relationships among self-leadership, neijuan anxiety, career confidence and teacher well-being. To achieve this goal, this study adopted convenience sampling and collected questionnaires via an online platform. A total of 536 valid data were collected (effectiveness rate 89.3%), including from 204 male (38.1%) and 332 female (61.9%) teachers. The data were then processed using the SPSS and AMOS software, and finally a research model was constructed. The study results showed that: 1. Self-leadership negatively predicts neijuan anxiety while positively predicting both teachers' well-being and career confidence; 2. Neijuan anxiety significantly negatively predicts both teachers' well-being and career confidence; and 3. Career confidence positively predicts teachers' well-being. This study innovatively conceptualizes “neijuan anxiety” as a maladaptive strategy, thereby enriching the conceptual framework of SRT. It also confirms that neijuan anxiety is detrimental to the well-being of early-career teachers, suggesting that teachers be helped to develop self-leadership styles to cope with challenges in their teaching careers.