A gender-focused prism on the long-term impact of teachers’ emotional mistreatment on resilience: do men and women differ in their quest for social-emotional resources in a masculine society?

Abstract

As a personal resource, resilience enables individuals to cope with stressful life events and to adapt to diverse situations. In the framework of Conservation of Resource (COR) theory, the cur-rent study investigates whether personal and social resources, namely emotional intelligence (EI) and gender, can contribute to resilience for individuals who experienced teacher mistreatment as adolescents. Our findings show that men and women differ in their baselines concerning mistreatment and emotional intelligence. Individual resources in the form of EI and social resources, and particularly gender, affect resilience. Moreover, gender and the Use of Emotion (UOE) facet of EI interact in their contribution to resilience. These findings provide better insights into the interrela-tionships between the diverse resources affected by past teacher mistreatment. An enhanced understanding can help us mitigate teacher mistreatment and promote more socially sustainable communities that are just and equitable, and support the emotional and social growth and resilience of its members.