The relationship between self-compassion and teacher self-efficacy in early childhood teachers: the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of core self-evaluation.

Background: The professional psychological state of early childhood teachers is associated with their teaching quality and career stability. As a core professional psychological trait, self-efficacy is related to various psychological factors in its formation and stability. To better understand the underlying mechanism, this study adopts the Conservation of Resources Theory. We propose a moderated mediation model. This model examines the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the association of self?compassion with self?efficacy in early childhood teachers. Whether core self-evaluation plays a moderating role is also examined. Methods: Standardized measures of self-compassion, emotional exhaustion, core self-evaluation, and self-efficacy are used in this work. We collected data from 552 Chinese early childhood educators. We used the PROCESS Macro 4.2 plugin in SPSS to perform path analysis. Results: Self-compassion showed a strong positive correlation with self-efficacy. Emotional exhaustion showed a partial mediating role in this relationship. The completely standardized indirect effect was 0.135 (95% bootstrap CI [0.095, 0.175]). Core self-evaluation positively moderated emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy. Conclusions: This study takes an empirical perspective on the correlates of self?efficacy and describes a theoretical basis for intervention design. These interventions are intended to be associated with the professional mental health of these teachers.