LAUSR

It is essential to understand how teachers cope with stress and how this affects their wellbeing as teachers work in very demanding environments. The study employed the transactional model of stress and coping as a theoretical framework to investigate the relationship between the Psychological Capital dimensions (self-efficacy, hope, resilience, optimism), future-oriented coping (proactive, preventive coping) and work-related wellbeing (job satisfaction, work engagement). An online survey was completed by 213 secondary school teachers in Germany. Multiple hierarchical regression analyses indicated that optimism and self-efficacy were significant predictors of proactive coping, and hope predicted preventive coping. Optimism, hope, and resilience had a significant impact on job satisfaction. Furthermore, hope, optimism, and proactive coping significantly predicted work engagement. Proactive coping mediated the relationship between teachers’ self-efficacy and work engagement as well as between optimism and work engagement, whereas preventive coping was not a significant mediator. The results imply that developing PsyCap dimensions and proactive coping through interventions can be a valuable avenue to increase teacher wellbeing.