Understanding the role of preservice teachers’ attachment in shaping core self-evaluations: the mediating effect of academic emotions in teacher education contexts

TL;DR

This study explores how preservice teachers' attachment styles influence their self-evaluations through academic emotions like disappointment and interest.

Contribution

The study identifies academic emotions as mediators between attachment orientations and core self-evaluations in teacher education.

Findings

Attachment orientations, academic emotions, and CSE were significantly intercorrelated.

Disappointment fully mediated the negative link between attachment anxiety and CSE.

Interest and pride jointly mediated the positive link between closeness/dependence and CSE.

Abstract

Core self evaluations (CSE) are critical for preservice teachers’ professional functioning, yet the emotional and attachment related processes that shape CSE remain understudied. This study tested whether academic emotions mediate associations between attachment orientations and CSE.

A sample of 307 preservice teachers completed self report measures of attachment anxiety and a composite of closeness and dependence, six discrete academic emotions (disappointment, interest, pride, shame, hope, pleasure), and the Core Self Evaluations Scale. We conducted correlational analyses, hierarchical multiple regression, and bootstrapped mediation analyses.

Attachment orientations, academic emotions, and CSE were significantly intercorrelated. In hierarchical regression, attachment anxiety, the closeness and dependence composite, and the six academic emotions together accounted for 47% of variance in CSE (R2 = 0.47). Disappointment emerged as the strongest negative predictor of CSE. Bootstrapped mediation models indicated that disappointment fully mediated the negative association between attachment anxiety and CSE, whereas interest and pride jointly mediated the positive association between the closeness and dependence composite and CSE.

Academic emotions, particularly disappointment, play a central role in translating attachment orientations into preservice teachers’ core self evaluations. Interventions that reduce academic disappointment and cultivate interest and pride, alongside efforts to foster secure attachment related experiences, may bolster preservice teachers’ professional self evaluations.

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