The mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between physical education and sports teachers' mindfulness and psychological resilience

Abstract

Introduction Although associations among mindfulness, emotional intelligence, and psychological resilience have been reported in previous research, evidence clarifying the indirect pathways among these variables within specific occupational contexts, particularly among physical education and sports teachers, remains limited. Therefore, this study examined the associations between teachers' dispositional mindfulness and psychological resilience and investigated the mediating role of emotional intelligence in this relationship.Methods Using a cross-sectional correlational design, data were collected from 366 physical education and sports teachers working in public secondary and high schools in Erzurum province, T & uuml;rkiye. Mindfulness was assessed using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), emotional intelligence using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF), and psychological resilience using the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS). Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate the measurement properties of the instruments. Indirect effects were tested using PROCESS Model 4 with bootstrap resampling (5,000 samples), while controlling for years of professional experience. In addition, a complementary parcel-based structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis was conducted to examine the robustness of the mediation findings under a latent-variable framework.Results The results indicated that dispositional mindfulness was positively associated with psychological resilience. Emotional intelligence demonstrated a significant mediating effect in the relationship between mindfulness and resilience. While the composite-score analysis suggested partial mediation, the complementary SEM analysis supported full mediation.Conclusion These findings suggest that higher levels of mindful attention and awareness are associated with greater psychological resilience, primarily through emotional intelligence-related capacities. Given the cross-sectional and self-report nature of the data, the findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal. Overall, the results highlight the potential relevance of mindfulness- and emotion-focused approaches in supporting the psychological functioning of physical education and sports teachers.