Purpose

Prior to COVID-19, teachers were able to fulfill their roles at home and school stably. However, the sudden implementation of online teaching created a conflict between their two roles, which exerted a heavy impact on teachers̓ emotions. From the perspectives of the Job Demands and Resources (JD-R) model and the Conservation of Resource Theory (COR), the study examines the mediating role of teachers̓ family-work conflict in the relationship between school online teaching demands, school online teaching resources and teachers̓ emotional exhaustion during the home-based online teaching situation amid COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

The conceptual model was tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) on survey data collected from 496 elementary school teachers in Taiwan with home-based online teaching experience during the pandemic, in order to validate the research hypotheses.

Findings/results

The results show that school online teaching demands did not directly affect teachers̓ emotional exhaustion, because family-work conflict fully mediated the positive effect of school online teaching demands on teachers̓ emotional exhaustion. In other words, the positive impact of school online teaching demands is transmitted through conflicts between work and family roles. Furthermore, family-work conflict partially mediated the relationship between school online teaching resources and teachers̓ emotional exhaustion, implying that school online resources can both directly alleviate emotional exhaustion and indirectly reduce it by decreasing family-work conflict

Originality/value

The results highlight the importance of family interference on emotional exhaustion; however, both the direct and indirect effects of school online teaching resources were more significant in affecting teachers̓ emotional exhaustion than school online teaching demands. Our findings differ from previous studies, potentially because Taiwanese teachers generally grow up under stringent rules and high pressure, carrying heavy social responsibilities that enable better adaptation to pandemic stress. However, when teachers perceived a high level of autonomy in online teaching and support from school principals, it facilitated their competence in fulfilling family roles harmoniously, thereby reducing emotional exhaustion.

Implications for policy/practice

We thus recommend that when making online teaching demands, schools or principals should provide flexibility to teachers to avoid family-work conflict. Principals should also provide teachers with hardware and software to facilitate online teaching, and hold empowerment workshops to help teachers feel more confident and comfortable completing related tasks. Moreover, increased attention to teachers' family lives with individualized support, such as family consultations or establishing professional communities, could provide psychological and social assistance. Adequate resources promoting family life quality would enable teachers to fulfil family roles appropriately without interference to online teaching responsibilities.