Teacher Characteristics as Predictors of Emotion-Focused Teaching Practices: A Study on Chinese Preschool Teachers

Preschool teachers are regarded as important socializers for young children’s social-emotional development. Moreover, preschool teachers’ emotion-focused teaching practices have gained increasing attention. This study examined relations between three sets of teacher characteristics (i.e., professional background, emotion-focused teaching beliefs, and psychological skills) and teachers’ emotion-focused teaching practices. Based on data collected from 287 Chinese preschool teachers, this study revealed that teachers’ emotion-related teaching beliefs and certain psychological skills (i.e., emotional intelligence and self-efficacy) positively predicted their emotion-focused teaching practices. However, having more years of teaching experience was related to poorer emotion-focused teaching practices. The findings advance the understanding of antecedent factors of emotion-focused teaching in the Chinese preschool contexts by highlighting the significance of teachers’ emotion-focused beliefs, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy in promoting their teaching practices related to emotion socialization. Professional development programs may endeavor to cultivate positive emotion-oriented teaching beliefs and augment teachers’ emotional intelligence and self-efficacy.