An Adaptive Regulation Account of Instructional Leadership: Linking Collective Teacher Efficacy with Teacher Well‑being among Chinese University Students

Abstract

This study examines how Instructional leadership is associated with Teacher well‑being among Chinese university students, with Collective teacher efficacy proposed as an explanatory mechanism. Drawing on self-determination and self-regulated learning perspectives, a conditional process model was specified and evaluated using a synthetic dataset of 657 cases. The simulated measurement model demonstrated acceptable reliability (composite reliability = 0.89) and fit (CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.052, SRMR = 0.043). Structural estimates suggested that Instructional leadership was positively associated with Collective teacher efficacy (β = 0.44, p < .001) and with Teacher well‑being (β = 0.34, p < .001). The standardized indirect effect through Collective teacher efficacy was 0.19, with a synthetic 95% bootstrap interval excluding zero. Together, the modeled predictors explained 51% of the variance in Teacher well‑being. The paper contributes a concise mechanism-based account of adaptive learning and demonstrates an empirical structure aligned with the Journal of Adaptive Learning and Psychological Growth. Because all results are simulated, the findings are illustrative and require validation with ethically collected data.