Exploring the relationship between teachers' perceived workload, challenge-hindrance stress, and work engagement: a person-centered approach.

Objective: This study explored the effects of teachers' perceived workload on their work engagement in Chinese primary and secondary schools using a person-centered approach. The aim was to investigate the relationship and the mediating roles of challenge and hindrance stress.

Methods: A total of 40,712 primary and secondary school teachers from China participated in this study. Participants were asked to rate their perceived workload across five major educational and teaching tasks. To assess their work engagement and challenge-hindrance stress, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the Challenge-Hindrance Stressors Scale were employed. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was conducted to classify the distinct workload categories. Subsequently, relative mediation analysis was performed to examine the relationships between perceived workload, work engagement, and the mediating roles of challenge and hindrance stress. The data analysis was carried out using Mplus 8.3, SPSS 26.0, and the PROCESS macro (version 3.3).

Results: The LCA identified five different classes of workload: low, relatively low, average, relatively high, and high, corresponding to different levels of teachers' perceived workload. There was a negative correlation between perceived workload and work engagement. Challenge stress positively mediated this relationship by increasing teachers' work engagement, whereas hindrance stress negatively mediated the relationship by decreasing work engagement.

Conclusions: The study reveals a complex interplay between teachers' perceived workload and work engagement, with challenge and hindrance stress acting as mediators. These findings offer insights for developing targeted intervention strategies to improve teacher well-being and performance.