Emotional Intelligence, Unpleasant Emotions, Emotional Exhaustion, and Job Satisfaction in Physical Education Teaching

Purpose: Previous literature has demonstrated the contribution of emotional intelligence to various socioemotional processes including well-being, job performance, and leadership effectiveness. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among emotional intelligence, unpleasant emotions, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction in physical educators. Method: A total of 271 high school physical educators in the United States completed online questionnaires that measured the proposed variables. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were employed to test study hypotheses. Results: The results revealed that emotional intelligence was negatively associated with unpleasant emotions experienced by physical educators. In turn, unpleasant emotion was positively associated with emotional exhaustion and negatively associated with job satisfaction. In addition, emotional intelligence was negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Discussion/Conclusions: This is the first study to highlight the importance of emotional intelligence on well-being and job-related attitude in physical education contexts.