The job stress and subjective well-being among Chinese primary and secondary school teachers: the role of marital quality and social support

Xiaolong Wang¹Ting An²Feng Xu³Hongliu Ouyang^4*

• ¹East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
• ²Kashgar University, Kashgar, China
• ³Other
• ⁴Sichuan Preschool Educators College, Mianyang, China

Although the relationships among job stress, subjective well-being, social support, and marital quality have been established in various cultural contexts, they remain underexplored in the Chinese cultural setting, particularly the potential mechanisms involving social support and marital quality in the interplay between job stress and subjective well-being. This study examined the mechanisms linking job stress, subjective well-being, social support, and marital quality among Chinese teachers. A total of 189 married teachers from primary and secondary schools in China were recruited. Results revealed that marital quality emerged as a key mediator in the relationship between job stress and subjective well-being. Moreover, marital quality and social support play a partial sequential mediating role in the association between teachers' job stress and subjective well-being, revealing cross-system processes through which stress cascades from school to family and broader social networks. These findings extend ecological systems theory by showing how the interdependence of school, family, and social contexts is linked to teachers' well-being.