Teacher Self-Efficacy and Well-Being: The Mediating Role of Satisfaction with Students, Colleagues, and Parents

The recent literature has increasingly drawn attention to the role of teachers’ personal and relational resources in managing stress and sustaining their well-being. In this study, we examined how self-efficacy and satisfaction in key school relationships contribute to teachers’ psychological health. A sample of 339 Italian teachers (Mage = 49.7, SD = 9.26; 85.5% female) completed measures assessing their self-efficacy, satisfaction in relationships with students, colleagues, and parents, and their overall well-being. We tested a parallel mediation model to explore whether these three forms of relational satisfaction helped explain the link between self-efficacy and well-being. The analyses indicated that higher self-efficacy was associated with greater satisfaction across all relational domains, as well as with better well-being. Moreover, satisfaction with students, colleagues, and parents each emerged as a significant mediator, while the direct effect of self-efficacy remained significant, suggesting a pattern of partial mediation. Taken together, these findings underscore how both individual competencies and everyday relational experiences contribute to teachers’ well-being, pointing to the value of interventions that strengthen self-efficacy and enhance the quality of relationships within the school context.