Teachers’ social competencies, occupational health, and personal well-being are associated with their use of snark in the classroom

Snark is a form of verbal aggression that uses humor to diminish a victim. The present study explored predictors of U.S. teachers’ use of snark in the classroom. Kindergarten-12th grade teachers ( N = 516) self-reported on their social and emotional competencies (i.e., perspective taking, forgiveness, mindfulness, expressive suppression, and decision-making skills), experiences of occupational health and personal well-being (i.e., burnout, job satisfaction, depression, and life satisfaction) and snark use. Stepwise multilevel models indicated that teachers’ social and emotional competencies, and subsequently, their occupational health and well-being, explained significant portions of the variance in snark use. Specifically, teachers with greater perspective taking skills reported less frequent snark use, and those who used expressive suppression reported more frequent snark use. Burnout, job satisfaction, depression, and life satisfaction were all positively associated with greater snark use. Results are described in relation to research on adult social and emotional competencies, teachers’ occupational health and well-being, and teachers’ conflict management strategies. This study sets the stage for future research to investigate the effects of teachers’ snark use on student outcomes.