BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1490810
Work-Related Social Media Exposure and Teacher Burnout in Pre-Pandemic China: The Mediating Role of Work-to-Family Conflict
Provisionally accepted
- 1Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
- 2Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
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Teacher burnout negatively impacts educational quality and the interpersonal relationships among teachers, parents, and students. In the context of increasing integration of social media in education, this brief report examines the relationship between work-related social media exposure (SME) and burnout. Adopting a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected via an online questionnaire in early 2019 from middle school teachers (N=141) in China's Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS 26.0 and its PROCESS macro for mediation analysis. The results reveal significant correlations between work-related SME and burnout, with work-tofamily conflict serving as a partial mediator. Drawing on the Conversation of Resources (COR) theory, this study highlights the detrimental effects of excessive work-related SME on teachers' mental health and professional functioning, evening before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These findings underscore the urgency for educational policymakers to develop targeted interventions, including (1) institutional protocols to mitigate SME-induced boundary permeability, and (2) evidence-based strategies for preserving work-family boundary.
Keywords: Burnout 1, Chinese Middle School Teacher 2, Social Media Exposure 3, Work-to-Family Conflict 4, COVID-19
Received: 03 Sep 2024; Accepted: 28 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wu, Mao and AN. 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: Qianqian Mao, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
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