Emotion regulation and psychological well-being in teacher work engagement: A case of British and Iranian English language teachers

Employing a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach, this study investigated therole of emotion regulation and psychological well-being (PWB) as predictors of workengagement through using 108 British and 255 Iranian English language teachers as asample. A multi-group structural equation modelling was performed to identify differ-ences and similarities in the way emotion regulation and PWB could predict workengagement among British and Iranian English teachers. The valid measuring instrumentsof the three constructs were administered to collect the data in the two contexts. Theresults demonstrated measurement invariance, including both metric and scalar invari-ance, revealing that the constructs underlying the three scales possessed the sametheoretical structure across two groups (i.e., British vs. Iranian). It was also revealed thatboth emotion regulation and PWB significantly predicted work engagement for the wholesample of British and Iranian teachers. However, PWB appeared to be a stronger predictorof work engagement. Moreover, some cross-cultural differences were identified in theregression coefficients. On the whole, the association of the PWB and work engagementwas stronger for British teachers. The qualitative data analysis uncovered a number ofcategories and themes contributing to explaining differences between British and Iranianteachers. The results and implications are further discussed.