Teachers’ innovation and career resilience: Organization-based self-esteem and positive emotion as mediators

We grounded our research in conservation of resources and broaden-and-build theories to investigate organization-based self-esteem and positive emotion as independent and chain mediators linking teachers’ innovative behavior to their career resilience. We collected structural equation modeling with data obtained from 2,299 teachers in Jiangsu Province, China, and the results indicated that teachers’ career resilience was associated with their innovative behavior. Organization-based self-esteem and positive emotion independently mediated this relationship, and innovative behavior enhanced self-esteem, subsequently increasing positive emotions, thereby fostering career resilience. These findings provide empirical support for the idea that teachers’ innovative behavior functions as a strategic action for career resilience accumulation, enhancing adaptability under occupational pressures. Our research underscores the importance of a supportive organizational culture and emotional reinforcement system in schools to maximize the benefits of innovative teacher behaviors for sustained psychological growth and professional resilience in high-stress educational environments.