The interplay between EFL teachers' self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and perceived professional success

There has been abundant research concerning teachers' emotions in English teaching and learning contexts. However, the interplay between self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and perceived professional success of English language teachers has received scant attention so far. The current research aims to scrutinize whether self-efficacy and emotion regulation can predict English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers' perceived professional success. To this end, 364 EFL teachers aged between 22 and 47 from different universities in Iran were asked to fill out the self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and characteristics of successful teachers questionnaires. The correlation between the three variables, self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and professional success, was analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. Significant correlations between professional success and self-efficacy, as well as professional success and emotion regulation, were reported after data analysis. There was also a moderate and significant correlation between self-efficacy and emotion regulation. It is revealed that self-efficacy and emotion regulation play pivotal roles in achieving success and a sense of well-being for teachers, and this association is not limited to academic performances. This study offers some implications for both teachers and researchers who are interested in positive psychology and emotional variables.