Beyond Academics: The Impact of Teacher Emotional Support on the Subjective Well-Being of Chinese Adolescents

Adolescence is a critical period for the formation of subjective well-being (SWB), and its developmental trajectory is profoundly shaped by multiple ecological systems, among which the school environment—especially teacher-student relationships—plays a pivotal role. Teacher emotional support (TES), defined as teachers’ provision of care, trust, and responsive emotional feedback to students, has been increasingly recognized as a nonacademic protective factor for adolescent development beyond academic performance. However, in China’s education system, characterized by high academic pressure and collectivist cultural values, the mechanism underlying TES’s influence on adolescents’ SWB remains underexplored, particularly regarding the sequential mediating roles of school belonging and self-esteem. Based on social support and self-determination theories, this longitudinal study aimed to examine the direct effect of TES on SWB and the indirect effects via school belonging and self-esteem among Chinese adolescents. A total of 1,542 middle school students (Mage = 14.2 years, 52% female) from 12 public middle schools in Eastern China were followed up in three waves (2022–2023). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data, with control variables including age, gender, and family socioeconomic status (SES). The results show that TES had a significant direct positive effect on SWB (β = 0.28, p