Effect of Resilience on the Mental Health of Special Education Teachers: Moderating Effect of Teaching Barriers

PURPOSE: The study intended to explore the effect of resilience on the mental health of special education teachers and the moderating effect of teaching barriers. METHODS: A sample of 681 special education teachers were recruited to complete the questionnaires of the Chinese Adult Resilience Scale, the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) and the Teaching Barrier to Special Education Teacher Questionnaire. RESULTS: The study found that 1) there was a significant correlation between resilience and mental health symptoms of the special education teachers, and resilience and its different factors had significant negative predictive effects on mental health symptoms and its different factors; and 2) teaching barriers played a negative moderating role on the effect of resilience on mental health symptoms. CONCLUSION: The results of the study demonstrated the significance of constructing the theoretical framework of promoting special education teachers’ mental health, and it could enlighten researchers and educators to improve the mental health level of special education teachers by enhancing resilience and removing teaching barriers.