{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T06:12:33Z","timestamp":1788415953895,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study targets post\u20111995 highly\u2011educated secondary\u2011school teachers in China. Despite accumulating evidence on perceived overqualification (POQ), few longitudinal studies have unpacked its temporally ordered predictive effects on teacher work engagement within educational contexts. Drawing on Relative Deprivation Theory and Self\u2011Determination Theory, this study adopts an 18\u2011month three\u2011wave time\u2011lagged longitudinal design and constructs a moderated\u2011mediation model where harmonious work passion (HWP) serves as the mediator and humble leadership (HL) acts as the boundary condition. Based on valid three\u2011wave data from 498 teachers, hierarchical regression, 5000\u2011time bootstrap tests and supplementary sequential path analysis are conducted to test the hypothesized temporal predictive associations. Statistical results indicate that POQ exerts significant negative predictive effects on both HWP and work engagement, HWP fully mediates the POQ\u2011work engagement linkage, and humble leadership buffers the detrimental POQ\u2011HWP association; when teachers perceive high\u2011level humble leadership, POQ\u2019s negative influence on intrinsic work passion is weakened, which further attenuates POQ\u2019s indirect adverse effect transmitted via HWP, and time\u2011lagged results support unidirectional lagged predictive paths that T1 POQ predicts T2 HWP and T2 HWP predicts T3 work engagement. Theoretically, this research establishes an integrated dual\u2011theoretical framework, validates HWP\u2019s exclusive full\u2011mediating role among teacher samples, and introduces humble leadership as a novel contextual moderator for education. Practically, school administrators can implement job enrichment, build multi\u2011layered career pathways and foster humble leadership among supervisors to mitigate qualification\u2011mismatch\u2011triggered losses and sustain stable teacher work engagement. This study extends the boundary conditions of POQ research and provides operable strategies for K12 institutions to retain high\u2011credential young educators.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1911357","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T05:14:51Z","timestamp":1788412491000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["How perceived overqualification affects work engagement among new-generation teachers: the mediating role of harmonious work passion and moderating role of humble leadership"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Li","family":"Jiang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University","place":["Jinhua, China"]},{"name":"Zhengzhou No. 36 Senior High School","place":["Zhengzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaoli","family":"Xie","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Education, Zhejiang Normal University","place":["Jinhua, China"]},{"name":"Xinzhou Vocational and Technical College","place":["Xinzhou, China"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.1111\/1748-8583.12094","article-title":"Reducing perceptions of overqualification and its impact on job satisfaction: the dual roles of interpersonal relationships at work","volume":"26","author":"Alfes","year":"2016","journal-title":"Hum. 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