Investigating the Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in Relation to Mentalization and Resilience Among Primary School Teachers in Khomeinishahr

The current study aimed to investigate the mediatory role played by self-efficacy in the relationship between mentalization and psychological resilience among the primary school teachers of Khomeini Shahr, Iran. The descriptive-correlation methodology was implemented in the study. The population included all the 780 primary school teachers of Khomeini Shahr, Iran, during the 2021-22 academic year. Based on Morgan’s table, 256 teachers (N=256) were selected using the simple random sampling technique. Instruments used in the study included the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (Fonagy et al., 2016), the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (2003), and the General Self-efficacy Scale (Sherer, 1982). The analysis of the data was conducted using the Pearson correlation coefficient, structural equation modeling, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (to determine the use of parametric tests). All the fit indices of the proposed were convenient and above the acceptable level (p<0.01), which indicated the remarkable fitness of the model. The χ2 value and the degree of freedom were obtained as 3.12 and 18 (p<0.05), respectively. This indicated that no difference exists between the fit model and the ideal model. Thus, it was shown that the proposed model is fitted with the ideal model, and self-efficacy plays a mediatory role in the relationship between mentalization and psychological resilience.