Empowering Exceptional Children

Empowering Exceptional Children

The Mediating Role of Occupational Hardiness in the Relationship between Spiritual Well-being and Occupational Fatigue in Exceptional School Teachers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Reza Ghasemi Jobaneh 1
Iman Baharvand 2
Amirmohamad Tavakhosh 3
1 Assistant Professor of Counseling, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Lorestan University, Khorramabad
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Humanities, Hazrat-e Masoumeh University, Qom, Iran.
3 MA in Rehabilitation Counseling, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
10.22034/ceciranj.2025.532238.1969
Abstract
The purpose of this research was to investigate the mediating role of occupational hardiness in the relationship between spiritual well-being and occupational fatigue in exceptional school teachers. The present research method was descriptive-correlational, which was conducted using path analysis based on the partial least squares (PLS) approach. The statistical population included teachers of special schools in Ahvaz city, from whom 93 people were selected by voluntary sampling method and answered the occupational fatigue questionnaire (Ahsberg, 2000), occupational hardiness questionnaire (Moreno-Jimenez et al., 2104) and spiritual wellbeing scale (Golparvar et al., 2015). The collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient, path analysis, and bootstrap method with Spss-23 and SmartPLS-3 software. The findings showed that spiritual well-being positively predicted occupational hardiness with a coefficient of 0.42 (P<0.01) and negatively predicted occupational fatigue with a coefficient of -0.22 (P<0.05); Also, spiritual well-being indirectly predicted occupational fatigue by the mediating role of occupational hardiness with a coefficient of -0.11 (P>0.05).The research findings show the importance of spiritual well-being in explaining job-related constructs, such that with an increase in spiritual well-being, Occupational Hardiness increases and consequently Occupational Fatigue decreases.
Keywords
Exceptional School Teacher
Occupational Fatigue
Occupational Hardiness
Spiritual Well-being

Subjects

Ahmadi Amoei, Y., & Karimi Zeverdegani, S. (2023). Association between Fatigue and Job Burnout Dimensions with Job Satisfaction in Taxi Drivers in Isfahan, Iran (2022). Journal of Occupational Health and Epidemiology, 12(1), 42-49.
Ahsberg, E. (2000). Dimensions of fatigue in different working populations. Scandinavian journal of psychology, 41(3), 231-241.
Alsayed, S.A., Abou Hashish, E.A., & Alshammari, F. (2022). Occupational Fatigue and Associated Factors among Saudi Nurses Working 8-Hour Shifts at Public Hospitals. SAGE open nursing, 8, 1-5.
Asutay, M., Buana, G. K., & Avdukic, A. (2022). The impact of Islamic spirituality on job satisfaction and organisational commitment: exploring mediation and moderation impact. Journal of Business Ethics, 181(4), 913-932.
Azmoon, H., Salmani Nodooshan, H., Jalilian, H., Choobineh, A., & Kargar Shouroki, F. (2018). The Relationship between Fatigue and Job Burnout Dimensions in Hospital Nurses. Health Scope, 7(2), e80335.
Benitez Ojeda, A.B., & Carugno, P. (2022). Special Education. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
Boswell, G. H., Kahana, E., & Dilworth-Anderson, P. (2006). Spirituality and healthy lifestyle behaviors: Stress counter-balancing effects on the well-being of older adults. Journal of Religion and Health, 45(4), 587-602.
Chenji, K., & Sode, R. (2024). Synergizing workplace spirituality: fostering happiness, hardiness and psychological well-being in organizations. Industrial and Commercial Training, 56(4), 390-405.
Chirico, F., Batra, K., Batra, R., Öztekin G.G., Ferrari, G., Crescenzo, P., & Yildirim, M. (2023). Spiritual well-being and burnout syndrome in healthcare: A systematic review. Journal of Health and Social Sciences, 8(1), 13-32.‏
Chirico, F., Sharma, M., Zaffina, S., & Magnavita, N. (2020). Spirituality and Prayer on Teacher Stress and Burnout in an Italian Cohort: A Pilot, Before-After Controlled Study. Frontiers in psychology, 10, 2933.
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. Second Edition. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Dehghani, F., Foroughian Yazdi, F., & Askari, R. (2019). The job performance of emergency nurses and its relationship with spiritual intelligence and occupational hardiness. Journal of Research Development in Nursing and Midwifery, 16(2), 1-10.
Delgado, C. (2005). A discussion of the concept of spirituality. Nursing science quarterly,18(2), 157–162.
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied psychology, 86(3), 499.
Eun-Young, P., & Mikyung, S. (2020). A Meta-Analysis of Special Education Teachers’ Burnout. SAGE open, 10(2), 1-5.
Garg, N. (2017). Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance in Indian Context: Mediating Effect of Organizational Commitment, Work Motivation and Employee Engagement.  South Asian Journal of Human Resources Management, 4(1), 1-5.
Goodluck, O.C.,  Chinaka, N.J.,  & Caroline, U.N. (2022). leadership  Style  and  Occupational  Hardiness  as  Predictors  of  Job  Engagement  Among Employees  of  Selected  Tertiary  Institutions  in  Ijebu  and  Remo  Administrative  Zones  of Ogun State. Journal of education, 8(2), 16-30.
Grayson, J. L., & Alvarez, H. K. (2008). School climate factors relating to teacher burnout: A mediator model. Teaching and teacher education, 24(5), 1349-1363.
Hair, J.F, Hult, G.T.M., Ringle, C.M., & Sarstedt, M. (2017). A primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Second Edition. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 2017.
Hosseini, S. M., Hesam, S., & Hosseini, S. A. (2022). Relationship of hardiness components to general health, spiritual health, and burnout: The path analysis. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry, 17(2), 196-207.
Hu, L.t., & Bentler, P.M. (1998). Fit Indices in Covariance Structure Modeling: Sensitivity to Underparameterized Model Misspecification. Psychological Methods, 3(4), 424-453.
Klusmann, U., Richter, D., & Lüdtke, O. (2016). Teachers’ emotional exhaustion is negatively related to students’ achievement: evidence from a large-scale assessment study. Journal of educational psychology, 108(8), 1193.
Kobasa, S.C., Maddi, S.R., & Kahn, S. (1982). Hardiness and health: A prospective study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42(1), 168–177. 
Komariah, M., Firdaus, M., Aryal, K.P., & Latif, M.A. (2021). Correlation between spiritual well-being and level of fatigue among patients suffering from breast cancer. Journal Keperawatan Padjadjaran, 9(1), 52-60.‏
Kord, B., & Biadar, S. (2019). Predictive Role of Spiritual Well-Being for Optimism and Life Expectancy among Women Who Referred To Health Centers. Health Spiritual Med Ethics, 6(4), 23-28.
Kumar Vedpuria, N., & Muni Dubey, K. (2021). Role and Functions of Special Teacher to Special Education Children. Psychology and education, 58(4), 3751-3755.
Martínez, C.L., Moraga, S.P., Paredes, C.S., Vásquez, A.S., & Villarroel, C.M.V. (2019). Occupational fatigue and work absenteeism in female assistant nurses of a high-complexity hospital, Chile. Ciencia & Saude Coletiva, 25(1), 243–249.
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual review of psychology, 52(2001), 397-422.
Moreno-Jiménez, B., Rodríguez-Muñoz, A., Garrosa Hernández, E., & Blanco, L.M. (2014). Development and validation of the Occupational Hardiness Questionnaire. Psicothema, 26(2), 207–214.
Nuri, C., & Uzunboylu, H. (2017). Psychological Symptoms in Special Education Teachers. International Journal of Scientific Study, 5(8), 255-260.
Padmanabhanunni, A., & Pretorius, T. B. (2025). Psychological Hardiness and Burnout in the Context of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Among South African First Responders. Chronic stress (Thousand Oaks, Calif.), 9, 24705470251373021.
Phenwan, T., Peerawong, T., & Tulathamkij, K. (2019). The Meaning of Spirituality and Spiritual Well-Being among Thai Breast Cancer Patients: A Qualitative Study. Indian journal of palliative care, 25(1), 119–123.
Pong, H. K. (2022). The correlation between spiritual well-being and burnout of teachers. Religions, 13(8), 760.
Rogers, M., Windle, A., Wu, L., Taylor, V., & Bale, C. (2022).  Emotional well-being, spiritual well-being and resilience of advanced clinical practitioners in the United Kingdom during COVID-19: an exploratory mixed method study. Journal of nursing management, 30(4), 883–891.
Sargazi, M., & Dehghan, M. (2024). Relationship of Spiritual Intelligence and Hardiness with Quality of Work Life in University Employees. Iranian Journal of Organizational psychology, 1(3), 26-35.
Snider, A.M., & McPhedran, S. (2014). Religiosity, spirituality, mental health, and mental health treatment outcomes in Australia: A systematic literature review. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 17(6), 568-581.‏
Stuetzle, K.V., Pavlin, B.I., Smith, N.A., & Weston, K.M. (2018). Survey of occupational fatigue in anaesthetists in Australia and New Zealand. Anaesthesia and intensive care, 46(4), 414–423.
Syahir, A. N. A., Abidin, M. S. Z., Sa'ari, C. Z., & Rahman, M. Z. A. (2025). Workplace Spirituality and Its Impact on Employee Well-Being: A Systematic Literature Review of Global Evidence. Journal of religion and health, 64(5), 3313–3345.
Tehranian, M., Khadivi, A., & Tehranian, Z. (2025). The Impact of Religious Spirituality on Teachers' Self-efficacy with an Emphasis on Islamic Knowledge Schools in Mashhad. Journal of Pizhūhish dar dīn va salāmat, 11(2), 13-24.
Vafaeinia, R., Baloochi Beydokhti, T., Moghadam Abbaspour, L., & Ajamzibad, H. (2024). Spiritual Health, Nursing Stress, Compassion Fatigue and COVID-19: A Descriptive Correlational Study. Journal of Research and Health, 14(1), 9.‏
Zwingmann, C. (2025). Religiosity, Spirituality and Mental Health: Meta-analysis of Studies from the German-Speaking Area. Journal of Religion and Health, 1, 1-26.
 

  • Receive Date 02 July 2025
  • Revise Date 02 December 2025
  • Accept Date 28 November 2025