From Student to Teacher: Longitudinal Links Between Personality, Academic Motivation, and Emotion Regulation During Teacher Education and Later Job Outcomes

Teaching is an emotionally demanding profession with alarmingly high early-career attrition rates. Understanding which individual differences predict successful adaptation during the critical transition from teacher education to professional practice is essential for supporting teacher retention and well-being. This longitudinal study examined how personality traits, academic motivation, and emotion regulation strategies measured at the beginning of teacher education (T1) predicted professional outcomes approximately four years later during early-career teaching (T2). Participants were 311 Belgian preservice teachers (79.4% women; Mage = 19.9 years) who completed assessments at program entry and follow-up surveys (n = 93) after entering the workforce. Results revealed that personality traits demonstrated the strongest predictive validity. Extraversion predicted multiple positive outcomes, including better classroom management, student engagement, emotional self-regulation, stress resilience, and lower turnover intentions. Conscientiousness predicted professional commitment, while Open-Mindedness was associated with creative and culturally responsive teaching but paradoxically also with higher burnout symptoms. Neuroticism predicted greater burnout. Contrary to expectations, initial academic motivation did not significantly predict study completion or job satisfaction. Emotion regulation strategies showed domain-specific effects: cognitive reappraisal predicted higher job satisfaction, while expressive suppression predicted lower satisfaction, though only when controlling for personality. These findings highlight personality traits—particularly Extraversion—as robust early indicators of teacher adjustment and suggest that teacher education programs should consider incorporating personality-informed support strategies to facilitate successful transitions into the profession.