Giacomo Angelini

Teacher well-being and performance represent critical challenges for educational systems worldwide. While organizational compassion has been identified as a protective resource, it remains unclear for whom compassion is most beneficial. Drawing on Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) theory and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, we examined whether teachers’ self-efficacy moderates the relationship between workplace compassion and performance perceptions, testing differential patterns for individual versus organizational performance evaluations. Italian public-school teachers (N = 218; 82% female; M teaching experience = 11.6 years) completed an online survey measuring compassion at work, self-efficacy, and perceptions of individual and organizational performance. We employed a two-stage approach, first validating the measurement model through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), then testing moderation hypotheses using path analysis with mean-centered variables. Bootstrap confidence intervals (5000 iterations) verified the reliability of interaction effects. Self-efficacy significantly moderated the effect of compassion on individual performance perceptions (β = −0.006, p = 0.006; bootstrap 95% CI: [−0.010, −0.002]), revealing a compensatory pattern. Teachers with lower self-efficacy benefited substantially from workplace compassion (simple slope β = 0.31, p < 0.001), whereas teachers with high self-efficacy showed no significant benefit (β = 0.06, ns). The hypothesized synergistic effect on organizational performance perceptions was not supported (β = 0.006, p = 0.027; bootstrap CI included zero). Organizational compassion functions as a compensatory resource, most powerfully supporting teachers who lack personal resources. This challenges assumptions that organizational interventions uniformly benefit all employees and suggests that compassion-based interventions should be strategically targeted toward teachers experiencing lower self-efficacy. The study advances theoretical understanding of resource substitution mechanisms and provides actionable guidance for optimizing limited organizational resources in educational settings.

The recent literature has increasingly drawn attention to the role of teachers’ personal and relational resources in managing stress and sustaining their well-being. In this study, we examined how self-efficacy and satisfaction in key school relationships contribute to teachers’ psychological health. A sample of 339 Italian teachers (M_age = 49.7, SD = 9.26; 85.5% female) completed measures assessing their self-efficacy, satisfaction in relationships with students, colleagues, and parents, and their overall well-being. We tested a parallel mediation model to explore whether these three forms of relational satisfaction helped explain the link between self-efficacy and well-being. The analyses indicated that higher self-efficacy was associated with greater satisfaction across all relational domains, as well as with better well-being. Moreover, satisfaction with students, colleagues, and parents each emerged as a significant mediator, while the direct effect of self-efficacy remained significant, suggesting a pattern of partial mediation. Taken together, these findings underscore how both individual competencies and everyday relational experiences contribute to teachers’ well-being, pointing to the value of interventions that strengthen self-efficacy and enhance the quality of relationships within the school context.

Research has widely recognized the role of personal norms, connection to nature, and different forms of identity as important factors that promote individuals' environmental actions, as well as the role of moral disengagement to diminish these. However, less attention has been given to one's moral identity as a key driver for proenvironmental behavior. Extending current literature, we therefore explored if moral identity could promote proenvironmental behavior. Participants in our study (N = 359) completed a series of questionnaires. Correlational analyses, path analysis, mediation analysis, and moderation analysis, where relevant, were used in testing four possible models. Only the model in which moral identity and connection to nature predicted proenvironmental behavior directly, and indirectly through the effect of personal norms and moral disengagement, showed good fit indices. Our findings highlight the multifaceted nature of proenvironmental engagement, in which a sense of moral obligation to act sustainably could facilitate behavior stemming from moral identity and the feeling of being connected to nature.

Engaged teachers experience a positive, fulfilling, and work-related state of mind related to their work tasks able to affect their well-being positively. Nevertheless, teachers are particularly exposed to burnout risk, which is highly probable to occur during teachers’ professional careers. The current study investigates the mediating effect of burnout, through which work engagement influences subjective well-being. Participants were 807 Italian teachers (Female, 91.7%; M_age= 47.54; SD = 9.91). Self-report instruments were administered to evaluate teachers’ burnout (BAT, Burnout Assessment Tool), well-being (WHO-5 Well-being Index), and work engagement (UWES-3, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale). Findings show that exhaustion (β = −0.2162, p < 0.001) and psychological distress (β = −0.2811, p < 0.001) mediate the relationship between work engagement and well-being (total effect, β = 0.6409, p < 0.001). These results enable us to gain a deeper understanding of how the phenomenon of burnout impacts teachers’ well-being, allowing us to design training, prevention, and evaluation programs that consider the complex nature of burnout.

Despite the well-known link between earlier children’s emotional dysregulation and their high risk of developing later ADHD symptoms, few studies investigated the relationships between positive and negative emotion dysregulation, on the one hand, and ADHD symptoms, on the other one, via parent stress. This pilot study aimed to investigate the mediating role of parental stress on the relationship between children’s positive and negative emotion dysregulation and ADHD risk indices. A sample of 62 children (Female = 38.2%; M = 65.90 months; SD = 3.8) was rated by one of their parents (i.e., mothers), using the subscales of the Italian Temperament Questionnaire (QUIT; i.e., positive and negative emotionality) and the subscales of Conners’ Parent Rating Scale-Revised (CPRS; i.e., hyperactivity and inattentions deficit). Furthermore, parents reported their stress levels by completing the Parenting Stress Index—Short Form (PSI-SF) self-report. Findings show the mediating role of parental stress on the relationship between negative emotion dysregulation and both measures of ADHD symptoms (hyperactivity/impulsivity and inattention deficit).