Developmental vulnerabilities and educational contexts: an empirical study on teachers’ emotional competencies

Abstract

Growing scientific attention to developmental vulnerabilities in younger generations highlights the need to move beyond reductionist interpretations focused solely on students’ individual characteristics and to consider instead the role of educational contexts in socio-emotional development. International literature indicates that teachers’ socio-emotional competencies represent a key variable influencing classroom climate as well as students’ behavioral and emotional outcomes. In particular, the Prosocial Classroom Model (Jennings & Greenberg, 2009) emphasizes that teachers’ emotional awareness, regulation, and psychological wellbeing directly shape educational interactions and students’ self-regulation processes.

Within this framework, the present study examined the relationship between teachers’ emotional competencies and indicators of professional vulnerability through a quantitative survey involving 470 teachers, using a multidimensional emotional competence scale (27 items, Likert 1–5) and the Perceived Stress Scale – PSS-10. Results show overall adequate mean levels of emotional competence (M ≈ 3.74), but also reveal a substantial proportion of teachers reporting high perceived stress (scores ≥ 20 on a 0–40 scale), suggesting potential criticalities in professional emotional regulation and challenging the assumption that emotional competence, in itself, represents a protective factor against teacher stress.

Overall, the findings indicate that students’ vulnerabilities can be more accurately understood when the emotional quality of educational contexts is also considered, and they support the importance of systematically integrating socio-emotional competence development into teacher education as a preventive and promotive lever for educational wellbeing.