Background Teachers are a high-risk group for job burnout, and alleviating this issue is increasingly urgent. Teachers’ social–emotional competence is closely associated with alleviating occupational burnout and plays a pivotal role in professional development. Consequently, identifying effective methods to reduce teacher burnout has become a central concern in educational science, psychology, and teacher professional development. Methods Grounded in the Job Demands–Resources framework, this study developed and tested a mediation model using survey data from 924 Chinese elementary and secondary school teachers. This study delves into the positive role of social–emotional competence in mitigating teacher burnout and elucidates its underlying mechanisms of influence. Results Teachers’ social–emotional competence and teaching efficacy negatively predicts teacher burnout. Meanwhile, teaching efficacy mediates the relationship between social–emotional competence and teacher burnout. Conclusion Teachers’ social–emotional competence and teaching efficacy, as crucial individual resources, can mitigate teachers’ occupational burnout through dual pathways: “social-emotional competence, occupational burnout” and “social-emotional competence, teaching efficacy, occupational burnout”. This study provides both theoretical insights and practical implications for reducing teachers’ occupational burnout by strengthening teachers’ social–emotional competence and teaching efficacy.
Wang et al. (2026) studied this question.