Teacher Emotional Labor, Burnout, and SEL Fidelity: Pathways to Student Behavioral Outcomes

Abstract Teacher wellbeing is widely debated as a workforce concern, yet far less is known about how educators’ psychological states travel through instruction to shape student behavior. This study treats teacher mental health as a pedagogical variable and tests a sequential pathway from emotional labor to burnout, from burnout to classroom climate and social-emotional learning (SEL) implementation fidelity, and onward to student behavioral outcomes. A cross-sectional, multi-informant survey was conducted with 238 teachers in 24 public primary and secondary schools in Lagos and Jos, Nigeria, combining self-report measures, student surveys, observation, and administrative records. Two in five teachers (41.2%) scored above the conventional threshold for high emotional exhaustion. Surface acting predicted exhaustion (β = .44, p < .001), which in turn predicted poorer classroom climate (β = −.42) and weaker SEL fidelity (β = −.36). Both mediators independently predicted student externalizing and internalizing difficulties and office discipline referrals; once they entered the model, the direct effects of exhaustion became non-significant, consistent with full mediation. Teacher mental health is therefore not peripheral to instruction but a measurable input into it, and SEL reforms that ignore educator wellbeing risk building on quicksand. Keywords—Teacher burnout; emotional labor; social-emotional learning; implementation fidelity; classroom climate