The number of teacher well-being studies has been increasing in the international researches since the Millennium; however, this remarkable topic is not well investigated in every country. Present dissertation has got a double function: one intention of it is to explore the mediation role of work task motivation and coping with stress in the relationship between psychological capital and teacher well-being in Ethiopian higher education context, another goal is to develop an integrated teacher well-being model based on the contemporary theories of positive psychology, coping appraisal, and self-determination of motivation.
Using an associational and quantitative cross-sectional design, 3,517 university instructors participated in the research. Stratified random sampling was used for recruiting respondents, and their answers were statistically processed with the help of IBM SPSS 26 and AMOS 26. First, we examined the cross-cultural validation of psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ-12; Luthans et al., 2007), work task motivation scale for teachers (WTMST; Fernet et al., 2008), coping with stress questionnaire (CWS-Q; Rabenu et al., 2016), and teacher well-being scale (TWBS; Collie et al., 2015) using single and multi-modal confirmatory factor analysis. Secondly, we confirmed and explored the dimensions of the mediation role of work task motivation in the relationship between psychological capital and teacher well-being. Thirdly, based on the previous results, we added the coping with stress construct to assess its mediating role in the relationship between psychological capital and teacher well-being. Fourthly, we merged and examined the mediation role of work task motivation and coping with stress in the relationship between psychological capital and teacher well-being in the Ethiopian higher education cultural settings.
The measures developed and tested contribute to the Ethiopian higher education by ensuring a broader range of tools for university decision-makers. Based on the research findings it became possible to enhance higher education instructors’ well-being in the framework of positive psychological interventions, and to develop their coping with stress and motivational strategies. The verified teacher well-being model is suitable for being adopted and used worldwide.