Browsing by Author "Pylvänäinen, Salli"

Objectives. Previous research has shown that emotional regulation can promote an individual’s well-being and help cope with difficult emotions. The means of emotional regulation can be categorized in different ways. Also strong self-compassion supports well-being, and research shows that a teacher's high self-compassion can help tolerate stress as well as protect against exhaustion. This study explores the connection between a teacher’s self-compassion and various means of emotional regulation. The aim of the study was to identify the means that teachers working in primary school use to support the development of pupils’ emotional regulation. In addition, the connection of teachers’ self-compassion to their ability to support the development of emotional regulation and their means of supporting the pupils’ emotional regulation was explored. Methods. The data collection was carried out through an online survey in May/June 2020. Teachers who responded to the survey (N = 30) worked at the primary school mainly as a class teacher, a special class teacher, or a special education teacher. The research material was analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative analysis of the data was performed by theory-guiding content analysis based on the process model of emotional regulation by Gross (1998). The groups with different self-compassion strength were compared using quantitative non-parametric methods such as the Mann-Whitney U-test and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Results and conclusions. Teachers could be divided into groups of moderate and high self-compassion based on their self-compassion score. No teacher ranked in the lowest group. No statistical link was found between teachers' self-compassion and gender, teaching experience or job description. A review of supporting the means of emotional regulation for pupils showed that teachers made comprehensive use of various means of the process model of emotional regulation. Means and their prevalence did not differ statistically between groups. Teachers’ self-compassion was found to be related to how they perceive their ability to support the development of pupil emotional regulation since a statistically significant link was found between high self-compassion and the ability. The findings show how different the means to support the development of student emotional regulation can be. In addition, the research provides information on the benefits that teacher self-compassion may have in supporting the development of pupils’ emotional regulation.