The relationship between challenge-hindrance stress,professional identity,and emotional labor of Chinese preschool teachers

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Teaching will bring work stress and affect emotions, as well as require a high level of professional identity. However, few have examined trilateral relationships between work stress (in terms of challenge-hindrance stress), professional identity, and emotional labor among Chinese preschool teachers during COVID-19.

OBJECTIVE:

Based on the conservation of resource theory, this study aimed to examine the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress, emotional labor, and professional identity, as well as explore the mediating effects of professional identity between job stress and emotional labor among Chinese preschool teachers.

METHODS:

A cross-sectional study was conducted, with 753 preschool teachers completing a self-report questionnaire. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS 26.0 and included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation effect testing.

RESULTS:

Research indicated that 1) challenge-hindrance stress was positively correlated with surface acting (r = 0.21, p < 0.01, and r = 0.28, p < 0.01) but negatively correlated with the expression of naturally felt emotions (r = –0.08, p < 0.05, and r = –0.12, p < 0.01); 2) Challenge-hindrance stress was negatively correlated with professional identity (r = –0.08, p < 0.05, and r = –0.20, p < 0.01); 3) Professional identity exhibited positive correlations with the three dimensions of emotional labor (r = 0.12, p < 0.01; r = 0.64, p < 0.01; and r = 0.56, p < 0.01) and partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor.

CONCLUSION:

The study underscored that challenge-hindrance stress affected emotional labor directly and indirectly through the mediating role of professional identity. Interventions focusing on alleviating work stress and promoting professional identity through comprehensive training could effectively mitigate emotional labor among preschool teachers.

Keywords

Challenge-hindrance stress emotional labor professional identity preschool teachers mediating effect the conservation of resource theory

1 Introduction

Teaching is perceived as a full emotional activity and requires emotional labor by teachers [1, 2]. Emotional labor is an emotional management process in which teachers adhere to specific guidelines and adjust inner feelings and outer expressions to achieve the goals of education [3, 4]. It comprises three dimensions: surface acting (SA), deep acting (DA), and the expression of naturally felt emotions (ENFE) [5, 6]. SA involves displaying emotions by faking or suppressing negative emotions and pretending to have positive emotions; DA is related to an individual’s efforts to regulate emotions by adapting self-persuasion and distraction cognitive techniques; and ENFE is a genuine expression of emotions that meets public expectations. Teaching also brings work stress that significantly impacts the emotions of teachers. Evidence shows that teachers under stress have below-average physical and psychological health in all professions [7, 8], and the clinical depression rate ranks second in the 55 occupations analyzed [9]. Depending on the different stressors, work stress can be divided into challenge stress and hindrance stress [10, 11]. Challenge stress is characterized as an opportunity that might benefit teachers’ working performance or spiritual prosperity. It catalyzes overcoming adversity, stimulating individual enthusiasm, resilience, and a sense of accomplishment in work [12, 13]; while hindrance stress is perceived as a factor to impedes individual career development and goal achievement [14]. Furthermore, teaching demands a high level of professional identity, which can help teachers reduce turnover intentions and maintain high job satisfaction [15].

The conservation of resources theory (COR theory), as proposed by Hobfoll et al. [16], provides theoretical support for explaining the relationship between emotional labor, work stress, and professional identity. This theory holds that individuals have the propensity to safeguard existing resources and acquire new resources to facilitate goal attainment [17]. Employee emotional labor formation at work includes antecedent variables, processes, and outcomes. The antecedent variables encompass personal traits, organizational factors, and situational factors [18, 19]. Work stress, as a situational antecedent variable, significantly influences emotional labor [20]. Professional identity, functioning as a dynamic process, can play a moderator or moderator among various variables. Individuals may exhibit different emotional outcomes based on the antecedent variables and processes, and then select appropriate emotional strategies. According to COR theory, individuals facing stressful work situations and perceiving the threat of resource loss instinctively strive to protect their resources [21]. This can lead to feelings of insecurity, and negative emotions, and show more surface emotional behaviors to disguise themselves. When professional identity appears in the process, it transforms into an attribution strategy for individuals facing stressful situations. They may utilize alternative resources to mitigate losses [22], facilitating the generation of positive emotions and enabling the display of deeper emotional behaviors.

Cultural context is considered to be a condition that cannot be ignored in research on teachers’ emotions, stress, and identity; nevertheless, most relevant studies are conducted in Western countries [23]. Recent statistics indicate that the number of children in kindergartens in 2023 is approximately 40.9 million in China, but the number of PTs is only about 3.1 million [24]. Due to large class sizes and student-teacher ratios in kindergartens [25], PTs may become emotionally exhausted and have job burnout. Secondly, with the construction of a strong education country and a high-quality education system, the Chinese government has strengthened its support for preschool education, implementing policies to develop high-quality and inclusive preschool education, and increasing financial investment [26]. PTs become a profession protected by the system and policies, thus their sense of professional identity becoming stronger [27].

Simultaneously, the COVID-19 pandemic, as an emergency public health event, has brought a new challenge to teaching. On the one hand, faced with the sudden outbreak, teachers need to transition to online teaching. Due to inadequate preparation and a lack of systematic training, most teachers experience apprehension about the challenges ahead [28]. They must undergo a process of relearning and adapting to new teaching methods, resulting in work stress. On the other hand, while many companies experienced layoffs or shutdowns, exacerbating negative emotions and impacting the mental health of employees [29], staff in government-affiliated organizations or institutions, including teachers and medical workers, may be somewhat immune to the unemployment crisis. This might alter the perception of the teaching profession [30], making them devoted to working, including positive emotional engagement, and alleviating the negative impact of stress on emotions [31]. Combined with the cultural background and epidemic situation, this study tries to examine the relationship between work stress, professional identity, and emotional labor of PTs.

1.1 The relationship between work stress and emotional labor

Work stress refers to the emotional responses triggered when external job demands surpass an employee’s internal capacities, resources, or requisites [32]. Emotional labor, as an important emotional resource, correlates significantly with work stress [33]. Empirical studies showed that if employees were facing much work stress, their emotions would sharply deteriorate, resulting in emotional distress [34]. Subsequently, they might adopt different strategies to regulate emotional states to meet organizational requirements [35]. Specifically, SA in emotional labor only alters external emotional displays without affecting internal emotional states. It cannot make up for the emotional resources depleted by stress and will diminish the positive emotions. Conversely, DA and ENFE involve regulating internal emotions to align with external expectations and relieve stress. They can preserve emotional resources to relieve stress and enhance positive emotions during work [36]. Therefore, work stress exhibits a positive correlation with SA but a negative correlation with DA and ENFE [37].

Moreover, various types of work stress can impact emotional health differently. Based on the framework of stressor analysis, LePine et al. [38] proposed that challenge stress can not only positively directly affect emotional performance, but also indirectly by counteracting strains and stimulating motivation. Hindrance stress can not only negatively directly affect emotional performance but also indirectly through strains and motivation. Kern et al. [39] further argued that challenge stress was closely associated with positive emotion requirements, whereas hindrance stress might cause negative emotion requirements and emotion-rule dissonance in certain service contexts. Considering the different effects of challenge-hindrance stress on emotions evidenced by the literature, the study proposed these hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1a. Challenge stress is negatively related to the SA of PTs.

Hypothesis 1b. Challenge Stress is positively related to the DA and ENFE of PTs.

Hypothesis 2a. Hindrance Stress is positively related to the SA of PTs.

Hypothesis 2b. Hindrance Stress is negatively related to the DA and ENFE of PTs.

1.2 The relationship between professional identity and emotional labor

Identity is a complex structure that encompasses how individuals perceive themselves, how they present themselves, and how they wish to be recognized by others and the wider community [40]. Professional identity is defined as a teacher’s perception of the profession, or perception of the organizational community, which runs throughout an individual’s entire career [41]. Existing studies have demonstrated a strong relationship between professional identity and emotional labor [42, 43]. For example, Hochschild [4] proposed that individuals with a high perception of professional identity might take organizational requirements as a goal and improve emotional expression flexibly, while people with a low perception of professional identity prefer SA to disguise true emotions. In other words, the higher the sense of individual professional identity, the less showing SA, and the more showing DA and ENFE [44]. Studies have also identified a reciprocal relationship between these two variables. Employing appropriate emotional labor strategies (e.g.DA and ENFE) can assist teachers in establishing positive emotional experiences in their work, enhancing their understanding of teaching roles, and fostering a sense of value and meaning to others [27]. Given the literature suggesting that professional identity positively influences individual emotional management, the study proposed the following hypotheses:

Hypothesis 3a. Professional identity is negatively associated with SA of PTs.

Hypothesis 3b. Professional identity is positively associated with DA and ENFE of PTs.

1.3 The relationship between work stress and professional identity

Drawing upon the transactional stress theory, individuals evaluate stressors based on situational demands and their capabilities [45]. If the stressor can promote the achievement of goals and their growth (such as challenge stress), it is more likely to trigger a positive work attitude and motivation, and then produce a higher sense of professional identity. Conversely, if the stressor is difficult to overcome, or even hinders development (such as hindrance stress), it will harm professional identity. Positive psychology theory provides another theoretical perspective, suggesting that positive emotional experiences serve as the foundation to improve their professional identity [46]. Among them, challenge stress can stimulate teachers’ work enthusiasm and obtain positive emotional experience, increase teaching effectiveness, and then deepen their identity cognition. On the contrary, hindrance stress might make teachers suffer from teaching frustration and insecurity, feel negative emotional experiences, and reduce their identity cognition. What’s more, Stiglbauer & Zuber [47] highlighted that hindrance stress can strongly predict teachers’ psychophysiological symptoms. Once teachers’ work stress continues for too long, it will cause physical disease, which then gradually reduces their perception of professional identity. Thus, two hypotheses are proposed:

Hypothesis 4. Challenge stress is positively associated with the professional identity of PTs.

Hypothesis 5. Hindrance stress is negatively associated with the professional identity of PTs.

Regarding the role of professional identity, existing research showed that it can serve as a mediating variable between an individual emotional state and work status. For example, Ding & Xie [48] proposed that professional identity could partially mediate psychological empowerment and job burnout among school teachers. The COR theory further states that work stress might consume emotional resources or stimulate emotion regulation, while professional identity belongs to individual characteristics of work resources, which might compensate for the loss of employees’ emotional resources and promote emotional management [49]. Challenge stress and hindrance stress represent two-dimensional structures of work stress, corresponding to different levels of work requirements. Challenge stress is a positive influence factor, which can make PTs motivated to face problems, and gain a sense of professional identity, then proactively manage emotion; while hindrance stress is a negative influence factor, which leads to emotional resources consumption and a decreased sense of professional identity, thereby impeding the flexible monitoring and adjustment of emotions. Considering this, the last hypothesis was proposed:

Hypothesis 6. Professional identity mediates challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor of PTs.

Based on the hypotheses outlined above, the conceptual model was proposed in Fig. 1. Notably, this research can be presented as a coherent whole that tries to connect and synthesize different earlier findings and deeply interprets these variables in the Chinese context during COVID-19. To address existing gaps, this study has two objectives: 1) to examine the relationship between work stress, professional identity, and emotional labor among Chinese PTs during the pandemic; 2) to investigate the mediating role of professional identity between work stress and emotional labor.

Fig. 1

A conceptual model diagram of professional identity in the relationship between work stress and emotional labor of PTs.

2 Method

2.1 Participants and procedure

All procedures involving human participants in the study followed the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its ethical standards. Questionnaires were conducted anonymously and received approval from the Academic Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University. The researchers contacted administrative personnel of the Education Bureau and kindergarten principals in Jilin Province of China and through them sent the electric questionnaires to teachers. The selection of Jilin Province as the research location was grounded in the researchers’ longstanding collaboration with the local Education and aimed to address practical problems associated with work stress and emotional management on PTs. The sample selection process considered the economic development level across various regions and the diversity of kindergarten types within Jilin Province to ensure representativeness. Specifically, the criteria for selecting participants were that they were full-time teachers in kindergartens, with relatively high professional quality and willingness to actively participate; being from both kindergartens in economically developed regions such as Changchun, and economically underdeveloped regions such as Baishan; being from both public kindergartens and private kindergartens. The informed consent was presented based on voluntarily in the front of the whole questionnaire. It took 10–15 minutes to complete the questionnaire for teachers. In return, we gave PTs needs-based online training. The study was conducted from March 1 to April 30, 2022, spanning two months. A total of 836 questionnaires were initially collected, with the incomplete or short-response-time questionnaires subsequently removed. Ultimately, 753 valid questionnaires were obtained, with an effective recovery rate of 90.07%. The basic demographic description used from existing literature [50], including gender, educational level, age, teaching length, and monthly income, was presented in Table 1.

Table 1
Demographic description of the participants (N = 753)

Demographics Number (%)

Gender Female 740 (98.27)

Male 13 (1.73)

Educational Level Junior college or below 318 (42.23)

Bachelor 426 (56.57)

Master and above 9 (1.20)

Age Below 25 years old 174 (23.11)

26–30 years old 203 (26.96)

31–35 years old 166 (22.05)

Above 36 years old 210 (27.88)

Teaching Length 0–2 years 150 (19.92)

3–5 years 176 (23.38)

6–8 years 149 (19.79)

9–11 years 76 (10.09)

Above 12 years 202 (26.82)

Monthly Income Below 2000 yuan 63 (8.37)

2000–4000 yuan 522 (69.32)

4000–6000 yuan 144 (19.12)

Above 6000 yuan 24 (3.19)

Demographics		Number (%)
Gender	Female	740 (98.27)
	Male	13 (1.73)
Educational Level	Junior college or below	318 (42.23)
	Bachelor	426 (56.57)
	Master and above	9 (1.20)
Age	Below 25 years old	174 (23.11)
	26–30 years old	203 (26.96)
	31–35 years old	166 (22.05)
	Above 36 years old	210 (27.88)
Teaching Length	0–2 years	150 (19.92)
	3–5 years	176 (23.38)
	6–8 years	149 (19.79)
	9–11 years	76 (10.09)
	Above 12 years	202 (26.82)
Monthly Income	Below 2000 yuan	63 (8.37)
	2000–4000 yuan	522 (69.32)
	4000–6000 yuan	144 (19.12)
	Above 6000 yuan	24 (3.19)

2.2 Measurements

The questionnaire was revised by researchers regarding the existing scales. It mainly included demographic information, as well as three scales on emotional labor, challenge-hindrance stress, and professional identity, with a total of 53 questions. To facilitate comprehension, we have modified the wording of certain items in these scales, such as substituting “organization” with “kindergarten”, and “customs” with “children”, aligning them more closely with the context of preschool education. The measurements are provided below.

Challenge-Hindrance Stress. Challenge-Hindrance Stress Scale was developed by Cavanaugh et al. [51]. It contained 2 dimensions: 1) Challenge stress measured with 6 items (e.g. “The amount of time I spend at work” “The amount of responsibility I have”); 2) Hindrance stress measured with 5 items (e.g. “The inability to clearly understand what is expected of me on the job” “The amount of red tape I need to go through to get my job done”), which were rated on a 5-point Likert scale from “no stress at all” to “very stressful”. The higher the scores on the scale, the higher the levels of challenge-hindrance stress. The reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the scale were verified by Xu et al. [52]. In the sample, Cronbach’s α coefficient reached upper levels (α_CS = 0.89, α_HS = 0.95). AMOS 22.0 was used to examine confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for the validity of the scale. The validity of the two-dimension scale was χ²/df = 4.61, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.92, Tucker– Lewis index (TLI) = 0.90, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07.

Emotional Labor. Emotional Labor Scale was developed by Diefendorff et al. [5]. This scale included 3 dimensions: 1) SA measured with 7 items (e.g. “I fake the emotions I show when dealing with children and their parents”); 2) DA measured with 4 items (e.g. “I try to experience the emotions that I must show to children and their parents”); 3) ENFE measured with 3 items (e.g. “The emotions I express to children and their parents are spontaneous and genuine.”), which were rated on a 5-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. The reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Emotional Labor Scale have been verified by Yin et al. [53]. The Cronbach’s α coefficient in this research were acceptable levels (α_SA = 0.84, α_DA = 0.83, and α_ENFE = 0.71). The validity of the three-dimension scale was χ²/df = 4.86, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.92, Tucker– Lewis index (TLI) = 0.89, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07.

Professional Identity. Professional Identity Scale of Chinese Teachers was developed by Wei [54]. This scale contained 18 items, such as “A career in teaching can fulfill my life’s values” “I think the teaching profession is very important to promote the development of human beings” and “I care about how others perceive the teaching profession” and so on. It is rated on a 5-point Likert scale from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”. Existing studies have testified to the scale’s reliability and validity [27], and the total Cronbach’s α coefficient of the current study was 0.96, as well as each dimension ranged from 0.89 to 0.92. The validity of the four-dimension scale was χ²/df = 4.11, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.94, Tucker– Lewis index (TLI) = 0.93, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07.

2.3 Data analysis

Before analyzing the data, we screened all data and deleted 83 invalid ones. Among these, 45 questionnaires were discarded due to missing values, and an additional 38 questionnaires were deemed to have been carelessly answered due to insufficient time to answer. Subsequently, we utilized statistical software to perform formal data analysis. SPSS 26.0 was used for scale reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis about challenge-hindrance stress, emotional labor, and professional identity. Additionally, we conducted T-tests and ANOVA analysis on emotional labor (including three dimensions of SA, DA, and ENFE) across several demographic variables. Since there were no significant differences in emotional labor in terms of gender and educational background, but there were significant differences in age, teaching length, and monthly income, it did not present the different test results, but these three variables (age, teaching experience, monthly income) were included in the regression analysis. AMOS 22.0 was used for confirmatory factor analysis and scale validity analysis. The mediation effect test used the bias-corrected percentile bootstrap calculations to repeatedly sample the data 5000 times through the SPSS process [55]. This results in a 95% confidence interval to test the significance of the indirect effect of the challenge-hindrance stress on emotional labor through professional identity. Moreover, CFI, TLI, and RMSEA were used to evaluate the fit of the model, and CFI and TLI greater than 0.9 and RMSEA less than 0.08 were used as the criteria for evaluating whether the model fits the data well.

3 Results

3.1 Common method deviation test

Considering that PTs’ responses to the questionnaire were self-reported, procedural control was applied to avoid common method bias, and exploratory factor analysis was used to rotate 14 factors with characteristic roots greater than 1. The maximum variance interpretation rate of the first factor was 33.78%, which was lower than the criterion of 40%. The data is presented in Table 2. This indicates that the goodness of fit of the single-factor model is significantly lower than that of the multi-factor model [56, 57], demonstrating no common method bias.

Table 2
Common deviation analysis

Factors Initial eigenvalues Extracting the sum of squares of loadings

Total Variance Cumulative Total Variance Cumulative

Percent (%) Percent (%) Percent (%) Percent (%)

1 4.73 33.78 33.78 4.73 33.78 33.78

2 2.82 20.12 53.90 2.82 20.12 53.90

3 1.22 8.72 62.62 1.22 8.72 62.62

4 0.94 6.68 69.29

5 0.69 4.96 74.25

6 0.62 4.42 78.67

7 0.52 3.75 82.42

8 0.51 3.64 86.06

9 0.45 3.24 89.30

10 0.38 2.73 92.03

11 0.36 2.59 94.63

12 0.30 2.16 96.79

13 0.26 1.85 98.64

14 0.19 1.36 100

Factors	Initial eigenvalues	Extracting the sum of squares of loadings
1	4.73	33.78	33.78	4.73	33.78	33.78
2	2.82	20.12	53.90	2.82	20.12	53.90
3	1.22	8.72	62.62	1.22	8.72	62.62
4	0.94	6.68	69.29
5	0.69	4.96	74.25
6	0.62	4.42	78.67
7	0.52	3.75	82.42
8	0.51	3.64	86.06
9	0.45	3.24	89.30
10	0.38	2.73	92.03
11	0.36	2.59	94.63
12	0.30	2.16	96.79
13	0.26	1.85	98.64
14	0.19	1.36	100

3.2 Description, correlation, and regression analysis

The mean, standard deviations, and Person’s correlations of challenge-hindrance stress, emotional labor, and professional identity were all shown in Table 3.

Table 3
Description and correlation of main variables

Variables M±SD 1 2 3 4 5 6

1. challenge stress 3.38±1.14 1

2. hindrance stress 3.04±1.16 0.76^ 1

3. SA 3.29±0.83 0.21^ 0.28^ 1

4. DA 4.16±0.59 –0.01 –0.06 0.31^ 1

5. ENFE 3.99±0.66 –0.08^* –0.12^ 0.10^ 0.55^** 1

6. professional identity 4.30±0.77 –0.08^* –0.20^ 0.12^ 0.64^ 0.56^ 1

Variables	M±SD	1	2	3	4	5	6
1. challenge stress	3.38±1.14	1
2. hindrance stress	3.04±1.16	0.76^**	1
3. SA	3.29±0.83	0.21^**	0.28^**	1
4. DA	4.16±0.59	–0.01	–0.06	0.31^**	1
5. ENFE	3.99±0.66	–0.08^*	–0.12^**	0.10^**	0.55^**	1
6. professional identity	4.30±0.77	–0.08^*	–0.20^**	0.12^**	0.64^**	0.56^**	1

Note:^*p < 0.05,^**p < 0.01,^***p < 0.001, M is the mean, and SD is the standard deviation.

It showed that both challenge stress and hindrance stress exhibited significant positive associations with SA among PTs (r = 0.21, p < 0.01 and r = 0.28, p < 0.01, respectively). Similarly, both challenge stress and hindrance stress had significant negative associations with ENFE among PTs (r = –0.08, p < 0.05, and r = –0.12, p < 0.01, respectively). However, no significant relationships were observed between challenge stress and hindrance stress with DA (r = –0.01, p > 0.05, and r = –0.06, p > 0.05, respectively). Additionally, both challenge stress and hindrance stress were negatively associated with professional identity (r = –0.08, p < 0.05, and r = –0.20, p < 0.01, respectively). Finally, professional identity was positively associated with SA, DA, and ENFE (r = 0.12, p < 0.01; r = 0.64, p < 0.01; r = 0.56, p < 0.01, respectively).

Furthermore, regression analysis was conducted, and several control variables (i.e. ages, teaching length, and monthly income) were included to test the proposed hypotheses using SPSS 26.0. These control variables were selected based on prior research indicating their significant impact on PTs’ emotional labor. By incorporating control variables, we aimed to more precisely assess the effect of challenge-hindrance stress on emotional labor. As shown in Table 4, the standardized regression coefficients from challenge stress and hindrance stress to SA were positively significant (β= 0.19, p < 0.001; β= 0.28, p < 0.001, respectively). Similarly, the standardized regression coefficients from challenge stress and hindrance stress to ENFE were negatively significant (β= –0.09, p < 0.05; β= –0.12, p < 0.001, respectively). Additionally, the standardized regression coefficients from professional identity to SA, DA, and ENFE were all positively significant (β= 0.10, p < 0.001; β= 0.64, p < 0.001; β= 0.56, p < 0.001, respectively).

Table 4

Regression analysis of the challenge-hindrance stress and professional identity on the emotional labor of PTs

	Outcome Variable: Emotional Labor
Predictor Variable	SA	DA	ENFE
Challenge Stress	0.19 ^***	–0.02	–0.09^*
Age	0.02	0.04	0.02
Teaching Length	0.15^*	0.12^*	0.13
Monthly Income	–0.03	0.02	0.01
Δ R ²	0.06	0.01	0.01
F	8.52^***	5.11	4.50^**
Hindrance Stress	0.28^***	–0.06	–0.12^***
Age	–0.04	0.02	0.03
Teaching Length	0.17^**	0.11^**	0.11
Monthly Income	–0.01	0.05	0.04
Δ R²	0.10	0.01	0.02
F	15.15^***	6.14	6.00^***
Professional Identity	0.10^***	0.64^***	0.56^***
Age	–0.04	0.05	0.04
Teaching Length	0.16^*	–0.01	0.01
Monthly Income	0.03^*	0.05	–0.04
Δ R ²	0.03	0.41	0.31
F	5.05^***	258.95^**	114.32^***

Note:ΔR² refers to the explained adjusted variance attributable to the variable.

3.3 The mediating role of professional identity

Figure 2 illustrates a conceptual mediation model of direct and indirect effects in mediation analysis, along with coefficients b and standard error (SE). The direct effect represents the impact of challenge-hindrance stress on teachers’ emotional labor, while the indirect effect indicates the effect of challenge-hindrance stress on emotional labor mediated by professional identity. The data regarding the direct and indirect effects, along with their confidence intervals, are detailed in Table 5. Since DA was not significantly associated with challenge-hindrance stress, it was not further examined.

Fig. 2

A mediation model of professional identity in the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor.

Table 5

The mediating effect of professional identity Bootstrap test

	Path	Effect	SE	95% Confidence Intervals
Direct effects	Challenge Stress⟶SA	0.16	0.03	[0.10, 0.22]
	Hindrance Stress⟶SA	0.27	0.03	[0.21, 0.33]
	Challenge Stress⟶ENFE	–0.03	0.02	[–0.07, –0.01]
	Hindrance Stress⟶ENFE	–0.01	0.02	[–0.05, –0.04]
Indirect effects	Challenge Stress⟶Professional Identity⟶SA	–0.01	0.01	[–0.02, –0.01]
	Hindrance Stress⟶Professional Identity⟶SA	–0.03	0.01	[–0.04, –0.01]
	Challenge Stress⟶Professional Identity⟶ENFE	–0.03	0.01	[–0.05, –0.01]
	Hindrance Stress⟶Professional Identity⟶ENFE	–0.08	0.02	[–0.10, –0.05]
Total effects	Challenge Stress⟶SA	0.15	0.03	[0.09, 0.21]
	Hindrance Stress⟶SA	0.24	0.03	[0.18, 0.30]
	Challenge Stress⟶ENFE	–0.06	0.02	[–0.10, –0.01]
	Hindrance Stress⟶ENFE	–0.08	0.03	[–0.13, –0.03]

Path analysis revealed that challenge stress negatively predicted professional identity (b = –0.08, p < 0.05), while professional identity positively predicted SA (b = 0.13, p < 0.01). The indirect effect of challenge stress on SA was significant (b = –0.01, 95% CI = [–0.02, –0.01], p < 0.01), and the direct effect remained significant (b = 0.16, 95% CI = [0.10, 0.22], p < 0.01). Similarly, hindrance stress negatively predicted professional identity (b = –0.21, p < 0.01), while professional identity positively predicted SA (b = 0.13, p < 0.01). The indirect effect of hindrance stress on SA was significant (b = –0.03, 95% CI = [–0.04, –0.01], p < 0.01), with the direct effect remaining significant (b = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.21, 0.33], p < 0.01). Thus, professional identity partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and SA of PTs.

Meanwhile, path analysis indicated that challenge stress negatively predicted professional identity (b = –0.08, p < 0.05), while professional identity positively predicted ENFE (b = 0.36, p < 0.01). The indirect effect of challenge stress on ENFE was significant (b=–0.03, 95% CI = [–0.05, –0.01], p < 0.05), and the direct effect remained significant (b = –0.03, 95% CI = [–0.07, –0.01], p < 0.01). Similarly, hindrance stress negatively predicted professional identity (b = –0.21, p < 0.01), and professional identity positively predicted ENFE (b = 0.36, p < 0.01). The indirect effect of hindrance stress on ENFE was significant (b = –0.08, 95% CI = [–0.10, –0.05], p < 0.01), with the direct effect also remaining significant (b = –0.01, 95% CI = [–0.05, –0.04], p < 0.01). Therefore, professional identity partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and ENFE. In summary, professional identity partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor among PTs in this research.

4 Discussion

This research explored the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress, emotional labor, and professional identity, and verified that professional identity partially mediated the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor among PTs. Original hypotheses were partially supported. However, challenge stress, as a positive factor, has the same homogenous impact on emotional labor and professional identity as hindrance stress. These are worthy of further explanation.

Firstly, it found that both challenge stress and hindrance stress were positively associated with SA, negatively correlated with ENFE, and uncorrelated with DA. The result supported Hypothesis 2a but was contrary to Hypothesis 1a, Hypothesis 1b, and Hypothesis 2b, which was also inconsistent with the findings of Moin et al. [58]. The relationship between challenge stress and emotional labor diverged from previous research. This may be because COVID-19 has brought potential stress to PTs and exacerbated the complexity of childcare work [59, 60]. Under high work requirements, they might perceive challenge stress as an unbearable burden. The sense of accomplishment derived from completing work may not keep up with the fatigue of time and energy invested, leading to negative emotions. Besides, although challenge stress has a positive significance for individual development, its impact on emotions has a critical threshold. If it exceeds this boundary, the burden of overloaded work tasks can easily cause negative emotions such as tension and anxiety [61, 62]. In addition, individuals have different subjective perceptions about challenge stress. What may be perceived as mild work for some can enhance their performance, while for others, it might escalate into work overload, impeding performance and triggering negative emotional reactions just like hindrance stress [63]. PTs often lack effective coping strategies to handle emotional frustration experiences [64], coupled with inadequate support, resulting in challenging work in kindergartens becoming a negative stressor. The generally low educational level among preschool teachers in China, with nearly half (42.23%) in this study only holding a junior college or below, caused insufficient professional ability, agency, and resilience to handle challenge stress and regulate emotions [65, 66].

In specific terms, challenge-hindrance stress was positively correlated with SA because, although challenge stress can be managed through individual emotional strategies, conducting more emotional performance to attract children’s attention may be a challenging stressor for PTs. Especially under the impact of COVID-19, teachers faced more new pressure, consumed more emotional resources, felt anxious, and then engaged in SA [50]. Moreover, working in kindergartens exposes teachers to hindrance stress which depletes their emotional energy and physical demands. When teachers work excessively long hours and have a heavy workload, they are prone to losing their enthusiasm for teaching, which hurts individuals’ emotions and prompts them to rely more on SA [67].

Challenge-Hindrance stress was negatively correlated with ENFE because, ENFE essentially emphasizes authentic emotions from the heart, expresses real emotions, and conforms to public expectations. Such expression requires teachers to love their job and have a strong internal motivation for personal growth [68]. However, in realistic conditions, PTs in China faced severe career advancement barriers and departure risks. They lack the initiative to perceive the positive utility of challenge stress, resulting in low internal motivation and a corresponding decrease in ENFE [69]. Besides, previous studies have discovered that endless tasks such as hindrance stress might greatly drain emotional resources, during the epidemic, and they are more likely to lose patience and produce job burnout [67]. When the supplement of emotional resources is insufficient, teachers’ negative emotions cannot be regulated and alleviated in time, and their emotions and behaviors are difficult to express naturally [49].

Challenge-hindrance stress was not related to DA in the specific emotional expression norms of the PT profession. Cavanaugh et al. [51] pointed out that job responsibilities belong to the challenge stress. PTs are required to demonstrate a higher level of responsibility, empathy, vigilance, and sensitivity to foster a safe and nurturing interaction with children [70]. Faced with these work requirements, they usually choose to avoid being deeply emotionally involved in everything to reduce the emotional toll of their daily work. Therefore, whether it is hindrance stress or challenge stress if individuals increase stress by high responsibility, they tend to adopt negative emotional strategies to address and use DA less [36].

Secondly, the results examined that professional identity was positively associated with the emotional labor of PTs, which supported Hypothesis 3b, but against 3a. In line with social identity theory, PTs hope interaction targets (including children, children’s parents, colleagues, and kindergarten principals) consider them as qualified professionals and help them defend against negative evaluations [71]. Thus, they will use different emotional strategies according to the role that society expects and conduct automatic emotional regulation. If PTs’ cognition, emotion, willingness, and teaching needs all reach a high level, they can internalize the professional norms, hold positive emotional experiences of the profession, and stick to their posts [72]. In addition, teachers who maintain a high sense of professional identity, have more flexibility in selecting SA, DA, or ENFE as emotional strategies, allowing them to express emotions rationally and fulfill the requirements of their professional roles.

Thirdly, this study demonstrated that challenge-hindrance stress was negatively associated with professional identity, confirming Hypothesis 5 but against Hypothesis 4, which was inconsistent with the findings of Zhao et al. [73]. This inconsistency may stem from the inability of PTs to fully take advantage of challenge stress and the absence of adequate support to mitigate the adverse effects of hindrance stress [47], leading both of them to become homogeneous stressors. Furthermore, teachers require more emotional resources when facing work stress, but the loss of emotional resources makes them feel negative and depressed [74], ultimately diminishing their sense of professional identity. It was worth noting that, professional identity ranked above the medium level in this study, a trend likely attributed to the inherent nature of the variable. Unlike work stress and emotional labor, which were heavily influenced by immediate environmental factors (e.g., COVID-19), professional identity, shaped by politics, history, and culture, tended to exhibit stability [75, 76]. Individuals opting for careers in teaching typically displayed heightened motivation and a stronger sense of identity [77], contributing to the observed level of professional identity.

Finally, the results confirmed that professional identity can mediate the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress and emotional labor, supporting hypothesis 6. This is because the noisy work environment of kindergartens requires teachers to invest a lot of emotional labor, and the COVID-19 situation has intensified their work stress. These combined factors make teachers more prone to negative emotional states, and their emotional management ability and emotional intelligence are decreased [59]. Drawing from COR theory, professional identity can function as a bridge by supplying more emotional resources to reduce the adverse impact of work stress on emotional labor. Notably, individuals employ varied emotional processing strategies when confronted with similar work stressors. Teachers with a strong sense of professional identities might full use of personal emotional resources, control their negative emotions, and adapt appropriate emotional strategies to alleviate work stress. Conversely, teachers with low professional identity struggle to compensate for emotional loss and exhibit less flexibility in emotional regulation [78]. Thus, whether challenge stress or hindrance stress, professional identity serves as a mediator between work stress and emotional labor.

4.1 Limitations and further directions

This research still has some limitations that need to be improved in the future. Firstly, it relied on self-reports to measure challenge-hindrance stress, professional identity, and emotional labor, which might have homogeneity errors. Due to topics such as emotional labor and professional identity, teachers might have concerns when filling out the answers, resulting in biased final deviation. Future research should consider longitudinal or follow-up studies to explore the causal relationship between these three variables through before-and-after comparisons and in combination with other sources (e.g., leaders, colleagues, and children’s parents). Secondly, although professional identity in the challenge-hindrance stress mechanism of teachers’ emotional labor relations is examined, it still lacks job requirements, organizational support, emotional intelligence, and other variables. Future studies could consider more variables and make predictions about teachers’ emotional labor mechanism from a comprehensive analysis. Thirdly, the research detailed in the discussion section whether the results were consistent with the hypothesis and the reasons for the differences, but it lacked a comparison with similar studies. Future studies should further collect similar studies in terms of the purpose of the study, the target population, and methodology, and compare them with this article. Last but not least, this study only investigated the sample of China. However, there may be differences in the perception of professional identity, emotional expression rules, and emotional requirements of work in different cultural contexts. Future studies could have cross-cultural research (eg., collectivist culture, individualistic culture) to make the results more credible.

5 Conclusion

This study underscored the significance of examining the emotional labor experienced by Chinese preschool teachers during COVID-19. It revealed a positive correlation between challenge-hindrance stress and SA, along with a negative correlation with ENFE in emotional labor. Furthermore, professional identity showed a positive correlation with emotional labor and a negative correlation with challenge-hindrance stress. Additionally, as a protective factor, professional identity could partially mediate the adverse effects of challenge-hindrance stress on emotional labor. It suggested strengthening comprehensive training interventions in the future to help teachers master strategies for coping with challenge stress; improving external support for coping with hindrance stress, changing the management system of kindergartens, focusing on teachers’ professional development, and stimulating inner professional identity, which in turn promotes positive emotion management. In the post-epidemic era, work stress remains prevalent, and teaching still requires emotional labor. The findings of this study can be extended to the current research on teachers’ work status, offering insights to improve professional identity and alleviate the negative impact of work stress on emotional labor.

Ethical approval

All procedures involving human participants in the study adhered to the ethical standards outlined in the 1964 Helsinki Declaration. Questionnaires were administered anonymously and obtained approval from the Academic Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University.

Informed consent

The study was conducted with the informed consent of kindergarten principals and preschool teachers. Participants were provided with both written and oral explanations regarding the study’s objectives and procedures before signing the consent form. In appreciation, all participants received professional training based on their needs.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

Appreciation is expressed to the administrative personnel of the Education Bureau, kindergarten principals, and preschool teachers, for supporting this research.

Funding

This study was supported by the Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (Grade C) of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant Number GZC20230923, and supported by the first-class discipline funds for Pedagogy in Middle-aged and Young Innovative Team Building Project (5000-30101240301). It was also supported by the Excellent Seed and Representative Achievement Cultivation Project of Central China Normal University in 2024 (CCNU24XJ008).

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Factors	Initial eigenvalues			Extracting the sum of squares of loadings
	Total	Variance	Cumulative	Total	Variance	Cumulative
		Percent (%)	Percent (%)		Percent (%)		Percent (%)
1	4.73	33.78	33.78	4.73	33.78	33.78
2	2.82	20.12	53.90	2.82	20.12	53.90
3	1.22	8.72	62.62	1.22	8.72	62.62
4	0.94	6.68	69.29
5	0.69	4.96	74.25
6	0.62	4.42	78.67
7	0.52	3.75	82.42
8	0.51	3.64	86.06
9	0.45	3.24	89.30
10	0.38	2.73	92.03
11	0.36	2.59	94.63
12	0.30	2.16	96.79
13	0.26	1.85	98.64
14	0.19	1.36	100