The relationship between job crafting and professional identity among primary and secondary school physical education teachers: a chain mediation analysis.

Background: Job crafting is a proactive behavior through which teachers adjust their work tasks, relationships, and cognitions, and is positively associated with professional identity. However, the psychological mechanism linking job crafting to professional identity remains unclear among primary and secondary school physical education (PE) teachers. This study investigated this relationship, focusing on the chain mediating roles of work stress and positive psychological capital. Methods: The sample consisted of 850 primary and secondary school physical education teachers from 10 provinces in China (50% male, 50% female; mean age 34.75 ± 8.42 years). They completed measures of job crafting, professional identity, work stress, and positive psychological capital. Mediation analysis was conducted using SPSS 26.0 with the PROCESS macro (Model 6), applying 5,000 bootstrap resamples. Results: Job crafting was significantly and positively correlated with professional identity (r = 0.433, Conclusion: Job crafting is positively associated with professional identity among primary and secondary school physical education teachers, with work stress and positive psychological capital serving both independent and chain mediating roles. These findings highlight that reducing work stress and boosting positive psychological capital form a key psychological pathway through which job crafting is associated with higher levels of professional identity, offering practical value for designing targeted teacher development interventions.