Career Calling and Job Satisfaction of Ideological and Political Education Teachers in China: The Mediating Role of Occupational Self-Efficacy

Analyzing job satisfaction could help to improve the subjective wellbeing of society. Although the topic of job satisfaction has aroused considerable scholarly interest, research has yet to determine how it relates to career calling and occupational self-efficacy. Drawing on social cognitive career theory, this study aimed to ascertain how career calling influences job satisfaction among ideological and political education teachers, based on the mediating role of occupational self-efficacy. Using the Structural Equation Modeling of survey data from 536 ideological and political education teachers in China, we found that career calling significantly influenced job satisfaction, and occupational self-efficacy was a key mediator between career calling and job satisfaction. These results may inform both improvements to teacher training programs and educational management initiatives to raise the levels of teachers’ job satisfaction.