What Is the Association Between Teachers' Autonomous Motivation, Controlled Motivation and Students' Emotional Well‐Being? A Multilevel Mediation Analysis

ABSTRACT Teachers' motivation, which pertains to the reasons to sustain teaching, plays a pivotal role in shaping students' learning motivation, school engagement, and academic achievement. However, the relationship between teachers' motivation and students' emotional well‐being remains unclear. This study, grounded in self‐determination theory and the prosocial classroom model, investigated the associations between teachers' autonomous motivation and controlled motivation with students' emotional well‐being and examined the potential mediating role of students' perceived teacher‐student relationships and teacher support in these associations. The current study involved 49 homeroom teachers and 1853 students, assessing teachers' autonomous motivation, controlled motivation, students' perception of teacher support, teacher‐student relationships, and emotional well‐being. The results of the multilevel analysis indicated that (1) teachers' autonomous motivation positively predicted students' emotional well‐being, mediated by teacher support; (2) teachers' controlled motivation negatively predicted students' emotional well‐being, mediated by both students' perception of the student‐teacher relationship and teacher support. The findings underscore the significance of intervening in teachers' work motivation, particularly controlled motivation, in educational and teaching practices to improve students' mental health.