The effects of an online positive psychology intervention on pre-service teachers' efficacy, ability to cope and emotional regulation

Abstract

Pre-service teachers have been identified as a risk group for developing burnout syndromes over the course of their careers due to increased perceived psychological distress and, in particular, if there is a lack of coping strategies. To provide pre-service teachers with appropriate techniques and concepts that can be successfully applied in educational and work contexts, an online positive psychology intervention was designed to improve participants' resilience, in particular their self-efficacy, emotion regulation and ability to cope. Linear mixed models that simultaneously analyse variability between subjects and over time revealed that pre-service teachers who participated in the intervention benefited from the programme with respect to an increase of their emotion regulation strategies, self-efficacy and ability to cope compared to the control group—although at baseline, they exhibited less beneficial emotion regulation, self-efficacy and ability to cope. The findings suggest that such positive psychology interventions could help pre-service teachers build their resilience.