Teacher resilience matters: a buffering and boosting effect between job driving factors and their well-being and job performance

This study investigated the mediation role of teacher resilience between job demands and resources and their well-being and job performance using a sample of 407 teachers from Hong Kong, SAR and mainland China. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were employed to deal with the dataset. The results indicated that the professional dimension and the emotional dimension of teacher resilience were affected by decision latitude (potential control over the job tasks and conducts) and school support respectively and predicted teacher well-being. The motivational dimension and the social dimension of teacher resilience promoted teacher job performance, influenced respectively by task overload (negatively) and role demand (positively) along with school support. This model is the first attempt to represent the relevance of the Job Demands-Resources theory that teacher resilience can buffer negative job demands and boost positive job resources to promote their well-being and performance in a specific societal and educational context. Implications for cultivating teacher resilience to everyday challenges and adversities were proposed in order to assist teachers to not only survive, recover, and thrive, but also to establish a school resilience cascade (potential resilience chain affecting a system due to an act of teacher resilience) for these turbulent times.