ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1596750
How Emotional Labor Leads to Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Job Burnout and the Moderating Role of Social Support among Rural Physical Education Teachers in China
Provisionally accepted
- 1School of Kinesiology and Health, Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
- 2Student Affairs Department, Hexi university, Zhangye, China
- 3School of Physical Education and Training, Capital University of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
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Objective: To examine the mediating role of job burnout in the relationship between emotional labor strategies and turnover intention among rural physical education (PE) teachers in China, and to explore the moderating effect of social support in this mechanism.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,761 rural PE teachers using validated self-report scales. Structural equation modeling (SEM) via AMOS 26.0 was used to test the mediating effects of job burnout, followed by moderated mediation analyses using PROCESS macro Model 7, controlling for gender, age, teaching tenure, and education level.Results: Job burnout significantly mediated the associations between all three emotional labor strategies and turnover intention. Surface acting showed both direct and indirect effects, while deep acting and genuine expression were associated with turnover intention only through burnout. Additionally, social support moderated the relationship between surface acting and burnout, but not for the other two strategies. Conclusion: Emotional labor strategies influence turnover intention both directly and indirectly through job burnout, while social support serves as a key buffering resource against the negative impact of surface acting on burnout. These findings underscore the importance of optimizing emotional labor management strategies and strengthening social support networks to enhance teacher well-being and promote educational equity in rural schools.
Keywords: Emotional labor, Job burnout, turnover intention, social support, rural physical education teachers
Received: 21 Mar 2025; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Sun, Wang, Chen, Cui, Ma and Yan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ling Yan, School of Kinesiology and Health, Capital Institute of Physical Education and Sports, Beijing, China
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