PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL AS A PREDICTOR OF TEACHER JOB PERFORMANCE: A RESOURCE-BASED MODEL TESTING WORK ENGAGEMENT AS MEDIATOR AND JOB DEMANDS AS MODERATOR

Abstract

Teaching is a high-demand occupation in which performance is sustained less by structural incentives than by what teachers bring to the classroom psychologically. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory and the Job Demands–Resources model, this study tested whether psychological capital (PsyCap) predicts supervisor-rated teacher job performance beyond demographic controls, domain-specific teacher self-efficacy, and perceived job demands, and whether that effect operates through work engagement. A cross-sectional, two-source survey design was used with 412 secondary school teachers and their heads of department across 38 schools; predictors were teacher-reported and the criterion was rated independently by department heads. Data were analysed using the identical procedures IBM SPSS Statistics and the PROCESS macro perform — hierarchical multiple regression, confirmatory factor analysis, and bias-corrected bootstrap mediation with 5,000 resamples — executed in Python for full computational transparency, with an SPSS syntax file supplied to reproduce every step natively. PsyCap explained a significant increment of 5.0% in performance variance beyond controls and teacher self-efficacy (ΔR² = .050, p < .001), and work engagement added a further 2.4% (ΔR² = .024, p < .001), for a full model R² of .313. Work engagement partially mediated the PsyCap–performance relationship (indirect effect = .110, 95% BootCI [.049, .179], 26.8% of the total effect). Contrary to prediction, job demands did not significantly moderate the engagement–performance path (B = −.043, p = .373); the indirect effect trended weaker at high demands but the index of moderated mediation was not distinguishable from zero. Findings support PsyCap as an incremental, trainable resource that raises teacher performance through engagement, while the null moderation result cautions against assuming resource effects are contingent on workload without direct confirmation.  

Based on the abstract, the study is primarily about teacher performance in educational