Informational teacher support strengthens the association between psychological resilience and academic self efficacy among preservice English teachers

In high-demand, high-stakes pre-service English teacher education, academic self-efficacy is critical for sustained engagement and performance in core tasks (e.g., microteaching, lesson planning, and classroom management). Yet evidence on how resilience translates into self-efficacy in this population remains limited. Guided by Social Cognitive Theory and Conservation of Resources theory, this explanatory mixed-methods study surveyed 202 pre-service English teachers and conducted hierarchical regression analyses, followed by semi-structured interviews with 7 participants for process-oriented explanation.

Results showed that resilience was positively associated with academic self-efficacy. Informational teacher support significantly strengthened the resilience–self-efficacy link, whereas emotional teacher support did not show a significant moderating effect. Qualitative findings suggested that resilience operated through sustained learning engagement, stronger competence appraisals, lower perceived pressure, and more adaptive learning strategies.

These findings clarify differentiated functions of teacher support and refine context-specific pathways to academic self-efficacy in pre-service English teacher education. We would like to thank the following for their financial support of this research: National-level Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (202510518013), and Hanjiang Normal University Teaching Research and Reform Project (2025W08). We would also like to extend our gratitude to the students majoring in English Teacher Education who participated in this survey.

School of Foreign Language and Education, Hanjiang Normal University, Shiyan, 442000, China The authors declare no competing interests. Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Hanjiang Normal University (Approval No.: HNV-2024-09-0014). Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

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