Implicit professional identity: assessment and relation with explicit professional identity and well-being of pre-service teachers

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of implicit professional identity (IPI) and its relationship with explicit professional identity (EPI) and well-being of pre-service teachers. A total of 81 Chinese female pre-service teacher volunteers participated in the study, in which their IPI, EPI, and well-being were measured using the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT), the professional identification scale for pre-service teachers, and the short depression-happiness scale, respectively. The results indicated that (a) pre-service teachers had positive IPI; (b) the correlation between the measures of pre-service teachers' EPI and IPI was not significant; (c) IPI significantly predicted well-being negatively, while EPI positively predicted well-being; and (d) IPI moderated the relationship between EPI and well-being. In the weak IPI group, EPI did not significantly predict well-being; however, in the strong IPI group, EPI significantly predicted well-being positively.