Affective and Physiological Associations of Teacher Emotional Exhaustion and Resilience During the COVID-19 Endemic

Teachers have continued to report elevated emotional exhaustion well into the COVID-19 endemic phase, yet the physiological correlates of this exhaustion and of teacher resilience remain poorly understood. This study examined the biopsychosocial associations of teacher well-being during the COVID-19 endemic (May 2022). As educators ( n = 44 expatriate teachers in the United Arab Emirates; M age = 37.2 years, SD = 8.9; 68.2% female) returned to in-person instruction, they faced prolonged professional demands impacting both psychological health and physiological regulation. Using a multimethods quantitative design, this study investigated how levels of perceived emotional exhaustion (MBI Emotional Exhaustion subscale) and resilience (CD-RISC-10) were associated with affective balance during teaching (PANAS-SF) and objective biomarkers of stress. Physiological assessments included the cortisol awakening response (CAR; n = 38) to measure hypothalamic – pituitary – adrenal (HPA) axis activity and heart rate variability (HRV; n = 19–36 depending on parameter) to assess autonomic nervous system (ANS) regulation during resting, teaching, and recovery phases. Results indicated that higher levels of perceived emotional exhaustion were significantly associated with lower affective balance and increased total cortisol output (CAR AUCG), suggesting elevated tonal HPA-axis load. Conversely, higher perceived resilience was strongly associated with superior autonomic recovery following classroom instruction (HRV recovery) and a more positive affective balance. These findings suggest that perceived emotional exhaustion and resilience are anchored in divergent physiological pathways: chronic endocrine activation and dynamic autonomic flexibility, respectively. These distinct biopsychosocial associations highlight the importance of recovery-oriented interventions in educational settings. Practical implications focus on HRV biofeedback and systemic structural supports to enhance teachers' self-regulatory capacity and physiological rebound.