Abstract: The present study conducted a survey on 612 rural teachers using Career Development Expectation Questionnaire（CEQ）,
Mental Health Continuum Short in Adults（MHC-SF）, Job Engagement Scale（JES）and Perceived Social Support Scale（PSSS）. The
result shows job engagement played a full mediating role in the relation between occupational expectations and positive mental health,
and social support has a significant regulatory role in the whole path of "occupational expectation→work input→positive mental
health", which means that high social support level and occupational expectations can effectively improve the work input of rural
teachers, and further promote positive mental health, whereas low social supports hinder rural teachers from making remarkable
progress in positive mental health with high job engagement.

Key words: career development expectation, job engagement, positive mental health, social support, rural teachers