We examined the role of educator perceptions of school leader emotion regulation (ER) and emotional support (ES) in educator well-being during a typical year and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on emotion contagion theory, leaders’ (in)ability to regulate their own emotions may trigger ripple effects of positive or negative emotions throughout their organizations, impacting staff well-being. Additionally, based on conservation of resources theory, when experiencing psychologically taxing events, skillful emotional support provided by leaders may help to replenish staff’s depleted psychological resources, promoting staff well-being. In two national studies, a cross-sectional (N_{Study 1} = 4,847) and a two-wave study (N_{Study 2} = 2,749), we tested the association between United States preK-12 educator perceptions of school leaders’ ER and ES with educator well-being before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, employing structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling. In Studies 1 and 2, educator reports of their leaders’ ER and ES skills predicted greater educator well-being, including higher positive affect and job satisfaction and lower emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. In moderation analyses, perceived leader ER predicted well-being about equally among educators facing severe versus mild health impacts from COVID-19. In contrast, perceived leader ES was more strongly associated with educator well-being for some outcomes in those severely versus mildly impacted by COVID-19 illness and death. Leader ER played a role in the well-being of everyone, whereas leader ES was more predictive of well-being for those severely impacted by a crisis. Regarding implications for policy and practice, efforts to promote well-being among educators may be enhanced when combined with efforts to develop school leaders’ ER and ES skills, especially in times of crisis. Accordingly, school districts should consider the value of investing in systematic, evidence-based emotion skills training for their leaders.

Emotion perception is a primary facet of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and the underpinning of interpersonal communication. In this study, we examined meso-expressions—the everyday, moderate-intensity emotions communicated through the face, voice, and body. We theoretically distinguished meso-expressions from other well-known emotion research paradigms (i.e., macro-expression and micro-expressions). In Study 1, we demonstrated that people can reliably discriminate between meso-expressions, and we created a corpus of 914 unique video displays of meso-expressions across a race- and gender-diverse set of expressors. In Study 2, we developed a novel video-based assessment of emotion perception ability: The Meso-Expression Test (MET). In this study, we found that the MET is psychometrically valid and demonstrated measurement equivalence across Asian, Black, Hispanic, and White perceiver groups and across men and women. In Study 3, we examined the construct validity of the MET and showed that it converged with other well-known measures of emotion perception and diverged from cognitive ability. Finally, in Study 4, we showed that the MET is positively related to important psychosocial outcomes, including social well-being, social connectedness, and empathic concern and is negatively related to alexithymia, stress, depression, anxiety, and adverse social interactions. We conclude with a discussion focused on the implications of our findings for EI ability research and the practical applications of the MET.

Emotion understanding (EU) ability is associated with healthy social functioning and psychological well-being. Across three studies, we develop and present validity evidence for the Core Relational Themes of Emotions (CORE) Test. The test measures people’s ability to identify relational themes underlying 19 positive and negative emotions. Relational themes are consistencies in the meaning people assign to emotional experiences. In Study 1, we developed and refined the test items employing a literature review, expert panel, and confusion matrix with a demographically diverse sample. Correctness criteria were determined using theory and prior research, and a progressive (degrees of correctness) paradigm was utilized to score the test. In Study 2, the CORE demonstrated high internal consistency and a confirmatory factor analysis supported the unidimensional factor structure. The CORE showed evidence of convergence with established EU ability measures and divergent relationships with verbal intelligence and demographic characteristics, supporting its construct validity. Also, the CORE was associated with less relational conflict. In Study 3, the CORE was associated with more adaptive and less maladaptive coping and higher well-being on multiple indicators. A set of effects remained, accounting for variance from a widely used EU test, supporting the CORE’s incremental validity. Theoretical and methodological contributions are discussed.

Emotion beliefs are well-studied in clinical and social psychology, yet they remain relatively underexamined in applied psychology despite substantial interest in related topics, such as emotional labor and burnout. Across two large-scale national studies (Ntotal = 3,282), we integrated the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model with emotion mindset (EM) research to examine whether beliefs about emotions as malleable versus fixed functioned as personal resources associated with employee well-being (EWB) for workers in emotionally demanding jobs. We also tested whether emotion regulation (ER) strategy use mediated, and individual differences in ER ability moderated, these relationships. In Study 1, a malleable EM (T1) prospectively predicted more reappraisal and less rumination and disengagement (T2), and higher subsequent EWB (T2), accounting for baseline EWB (e.g., lower emotional exhaustion, greater job satisfaction). ER strategy use, especially less rumination, in part explained the relationship between EM and EWB, as rumination disrupts post-work recovery periods. In Study 2, conceptually replicating Study 1, a malleable EM was also related to healthier ER strategy use and higher EWB. Indirect effects varied by ER strategy, with rumination again showing the most consistent pattern. ER strategy use also mediated the association between EM and EWB more strongly for employees with higher ER ability test performance, primarily with rumination and partially with reappraisal as mediators. These findings suggest that EMs matter for EWB because they may factor into how employees regulate emotions. A malleable EM may be especially beneficial when employees have the ER ability to translate this belief into effective emotion management.