Promoting Student Teachers’ Well-Being : A Multi-Study Approach Investigating the Longitudinal Relationship Between Emotional Exhaustion, Emotional Support, and the Intentions of Dropping Out of University

Abstract

Student teachers’ well-being is particularly important in times of teacher shortage. To prevent student dropout and promote students’ well-being, demands and resources within university teacher education need to be identified. Demands like workload or time pressure can lead to emotional exhaustion in the long-term, while resources like emotional support may foster well-being. By conducting a quantitative, longitudinal study on 903 student teachers from German universities, we investigate the relationship between the emotional support of peers (as a resource) and emotional exhaustion (an indicator of well-being). In addition, we conducted a qualitative study to analyze demands as possible reasons for dropout during teacher education. Latent change score models indicate that emotional exhaustion first increases and then slightly decreases over the course of three semesters. Emotional support by peers remains stable over time. The bivariate latent change model suggests that social support is not a predictor of later emotional exhaustion. The qualitative study analyzed three main dropout intentions: performance problems, lack of study motivation, and study conditions. Especially study conditions at university can be adjusted and act as a resource to increase students’ well-being.