Teaching Emotion Regulation: K-12 Teachers’ Perceptions and Practices across the Curriculum

Abstract

Students can gain a range of skills and knowledge from interactions in schools, including emotional competencies such as regulation of emotions. Teachers are positioned to support students’ development of emotion regulation in the social context of school. We sought to determine K-12 teachers’ sense of responsibility, preparation, engagement, comfort, and approach to teaching students emotion regulation. The quantitative and qualitative data we gathered from 155 general K-12 classroom teachers revealed a sense of responsibility, low preparation, varied engagement, and low to moderate comfort. We found differences by grade levels, school location, and teacher education level. There was moderate alignment between how the teachers regulate their emotions and the emotion regulation processes they teach their students. We share implications for school psychologists and suggest multiple directions for future research.