Values, emotions and emotion regulation in special education teachers in Hong Kong: Influences on life satisfaction and occupational stress

Teachers in special education, compared with those in mainstream contexts, encounter more challenging situations in teaching and suffer from lower psychological and emotional well-being. The major research purpose was to test the effects of teacher values, emotions and emotion regulation on their psychological well-being. The current sample included 66 teachers from three special education schools. Results showed that teachers’ intrinsic value, enjoyment, as well as cognitive reappraisal all positively predicted teachers’ life satisfaction, while teacher anger negatively predicted occupational stress. Moving a step further, when teachers’ cognitive reappraisal levels were taken into consideration, teachers who reported high anger but low cognitive reappraisal were found to have significantly lower life satisfaction. Comparatively, higher life satisfaction was found among teachers who reported high cognitive reappraisal. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in relation to research advances in teacher emotions and emotion regulation. Copyright © 2021 selection and editorial matter, Junjun Chen and Ronnel B. King; individual chapters, the contributors.