The relationship between job crafting and job burnout among primary and secondary school physical education teachers: the chain mediating roles of positive psychological capital and work engagement.

OBJECTIVE: This study tested a chain mediation model examining the concurrent associations between job crafting and job burnout among primary and secondary school physical education teachers, with a focus on the sequential mediating roles of positive psychological capital and work engagement. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used. Participants were primary and secondary school physical education teachers in China, recruited through stratified sampling. Standardized scales measured job crafting, positive psychological capital, work engagement, and job burnout. After controlling for demographic variables such as age and gender, the bootstrap method was applied to examine the chain mediating pathways. RESULTS: Job crafting showed a significant negative association with job burnout (β = -0.384, p < 0.001). Mediation analysis indicated that job crafting was indirectly associated with burnout through three pathways: through the mediating role of positive psychological capital (β = -0.128, p < 0.001); through the mediating role of work engagement (β = -0.042, p < 0.001); and through the sequential mediating pathway of positive psychological capital and work engagement (β = -0.044, p < 0.001). The total indirect coefficient was -0.214, which accounted for 55.72% of the total association. Bootstrap confidence intervals for all indirect pathways excluded zero, indicating that these mediating pathways were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: This study found a negative association between job crafting and job burnout among primary and secondary school PE teachers, with positive psychological capital and work engagement serving as significant mediators both independently and in sequence. Job crafting was associated with lower burnout through higher psychological capital, through higher work engagement, and through a chain pathway from psychological capital to work engagement. These findings integrate the Conservation of Resources theory and the Job Demands-Resources model, outlining a possible psychological process from behavioral adjustment to resource accumulation and motivational activation. The chain mediation model provides a new theoretical perspective for understanding the internal associations between job crafting and burnout, and demonstrates the applicability of this integrated framework in an Eastern cultural context.