Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism

Abstract Background Teachers’ leadership styles have a significant impact on students’ academic performance, physical health and mental health. Authoritarian leadership, as a typical leadership style, is prevalent in the teacher community. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanisms by w...

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Main Authors: Song Peng, Yu Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2024-10-01
Series:BMC Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02110-z
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author Song Peng
Yu Huang
author_facet Song Peng
Yu Huang
author_sort Song Peng
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Background Teachers’ leadership styles have a significant impact on students’ academic performance, physical health and mental health. Authoritarian leadership, as a typical leadership style, is prevalent in the teacher community. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanisms by which authoritarian leadership impacts students’ well-being. We also examined the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of narcissism. Methods This study is based on conservation of resources theory. We selected a sample of 369 students from a university in Sichuan province, collected data through two time points, and tested the data using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 22.0. Results It was found that teachers’ authoritarian leadership negatively impacted students’ well-being and that emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and well-being. Narcissism not only moderated the effect of authoritarian leadership on emotional exhaustion, but also moderated the mediation role of emotional exhaustion. Conclusions Our findings enriched the research on authoritarian leadership and narcissism, and also had important practical implications for future teacher teaching in higher education.
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spelling doaj-art-b4c6146922db4dfd8d7c204bdf986fca2025-08-20T02:11:49ZengBMCBMC Psychology2050-72832024-10-0112111110.1186/s40359-024-02110-zTeachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissismSong Peng0Yu Huang1College of Physical Education, Sichuan UniversityCollege of Physical Education, Sichuan UniversityAbstract Background Teachers’ leadership styles have a significant impact on students’ academic performance, physical health and mental health. Authoritarian leadership, as a typical leadership style, is prevalent in the teacher community. The purpose of this study was to examine the mechanisms by which authoritarian leadership impacts students’ well-being. We also examined the mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of narcissism. Methods This study is based on conservation of resources theory. We selected a sample of 369 students from a university in Sichuan province, collected data through two time points, and tested the data using SPSS 24.0 and AMOS 22.0. Results It was found that teachers’ authoritarian leadership negatively impacted students’ well-being and that emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between authoritarian leadership and well-being. Narcissism not only moderated the effect of authoritarian leadership on emotional exhaustion, but also moderated the mediation role of emotional exhaustion. Conclusions Our findings enriched the research on authoritarian leadership and narcissism, and also had important practical implications for future teacher teaching in higher education.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02110-zAuthoritarian leadershipWell-beingEmotional exhaustionNarcissismConservation of resources theory
spellingShingle Song Peng
Yu Huang
Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
BMC Psychology
Authoritarian leadership
Well-being
Emotional exhaustion
Narcissism
Conservation of resources theory
title Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
title_full Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
title_fullStr Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
title_full_unstemmed Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
title_short Teachers’ authoritarian leadership and students’ well-being: the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
title_sort teachers authoritarian leadership and students well being the role of emotional exhaustion and narcissism
topic Authoritarian leadership
Well-being
Emotional exhaustion
Narcissism
Conservation of resources theory
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-024-02110-z
work_keys_str_mv AT songpeng teachersauthoritarianleadershipandstudentswellbeingtheroleofemotionalexhaustionandnarcissism
AT yuhuang teachersauthoritarianleadershipandstudentswellbeingtheroleofemotionalexhaustionandnarcissism