Sustaining language teacher careers: Self‐Care, professional quality of life, and intent to leave

Abstract

Abstract Relationships between domain‐specific self‐care, professional quality of life, and career intentions among language teachers were investigated using survey data from K‐12 world language and ESoL teachers ( N = 120). Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine relationships among professional quality of life, career intentions, and self‐care practices across physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and professional domains to address three research questions examining patterns of self‐care, relationships between self‐care and professional quality of life dimensions (burnout, compassion satisfaction, and secondary traumatic stress), and relationships between self‐care and career intentions. Results indicated that self‐care was broadly associated with lower burnout and higher compassion satisfaction; however, these relationships were domain‐specific. Physical self‐care was most strongly associated with reduced burnout and secondary traumatic stress, whereas professional and spiritual self‐care predicted compassion satisfaction. Emotional self‐care was positively associated with secondary traumatic stress, suggesting a reactive coping pattern. Self‐care practices were also linked to career intentions in differentiated ways across domains. These findings suggest a need for teacher education and professional support initiatives that emphasize accessible, domain‐specific self‐care practices alongside structural support for teacher well‐being and retention.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Foreign Language Annals, 2026 · DOI ↗