This paper aims to investigate the relationship between Italian teachers’ well-being, socio-demographic characteristics and professional background. Using data from the 2015 wave of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) we considered information collected by the questionnaire completed by a total of 6,491 teachers in the sampled schools. Moving from existing literature on teachers’ well-being, we investigate several aspects related to the teachers’ working environment, career motivation and investment, and job satisfaction. We assess the variability in (...) the observed outcomes attributable to school factors and heterogeneity between disciplines. Measurement models are combined in a multilevel setting in order to define teachers’ well-being on a broad perspective while accounting for the multiple sources of heterogeneity due to several factors (e.g., discipline, teacher professional background, and individual differences) occurring at different levels of the data structure. In general, results show that the teachers’ positive perception of the working environment in terms of availability of adequate human and physical resources, and professional development opportunities, provide a substantial state of well-being at work, and are related to teachers’ job satisfaction. Moreover, results highlight the key role of transformational leadership in defining a teacher’s well-being. Findings and implications are discussed. (shrink)

Previous findings indicate that the goals of teachers and their experienced emotions when interacting with students play an important role for their well-being. However, studies on the psychological impact of events have shown that the impact of bad events is stronger than the impact of good events. Thus, it may be that teachers’ goals and emotions for students showing undesirable behaviors contribute more to their well-being than teachers’ goals and emotions for students showing desirable behaviors, a (...) distinction that has not been made in previous research. To examine this question, we measured teachers’ goals and emotions for students showing desirable and undesirable behaviors, and their affective, evaluative, occupational, and psychological well-being. The results showed that teachers’ well-being was relatively strongly related to their goals and emotions for students showing undesirable behaviors: The higher the goals and the more positive the emotions, the higher the reported well-being. By contrast, the goals and emotions for students showing desirable behaviors were unrelated to teachers’ well-being. These results demonstrate that the principle of “bad is stronger than good” holds also for the influence of teachers’ goals and emotions on their well-being. (shrink)

This study explores the effects of the shift to emergency remote teaching on teachers’ levels of well-being, emotions, and motivation. A total of 936 Spanish teachers participated in this nationwide survey from all educational levels, thus allowing comparison among levels, which is a novelty and strength of our study. Four aspects were explored: instructional adaptation to ERT; well-being changes and the main challenges in this regard; changes in emotions; and changes in motivation and the main factors. (...) Importantly, we explored a number of teacher characteristics for the three last aspects. Our results show that teachers felt the impact of ERT on their well-being, emotions, and motivation. Additionally, female teachers, teachers with students of low socioeconomic status, in public schools, and primary and secondary teachers were the most affected groups. This indicates that the impact of ERT differed and some populations of teachers are more at risk of suffering burnout because of ERT. (shrink)

Around the world, newly qualified teachers are leaving the profession after only a short time working at school. This not only has a negative effect on the capacities of the respective education systems, but also for the teachers themselves, as it often due to factors such as stress and burnout that leads to this decision. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this situation by adding to the teachers’ workload, uncertainty, and stress. Previous research has investigated strategies that may help teachers improve (...) their well-being and, among other factors, found social support to be an important condition. In this mixed methods design-based research study, we developed a design to enhance social support among newly qualified teachers in their first months working at school. Our quantitative and qualitative results show that the design has positive effects on many aspects of teachers’ well-being in the intervention group both longitudinally and when compared to a comparison group. The findings are being discussed considering the recent changes in the working conditions of teachers as imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

This study investigated the associations between university teachers’ emotional job demands, teaching support, and well-being, and examined the mediating effect of emotional regulation strategies (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) in the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. The results of a survey of 643 university teachers in mainland China indicated that emotional job demands and teaching support, which facilitated teachers’ use of reappraisal strategies, had desirable effects on their well-being. Reappraisal was beneficial to teachers’ well-being, and suppression (...) was harmful. These findings support the mediation role of emotional regulation, and evidence the applicability of the JD-R model to a higher education context. (shrink)

In order to explore the relationship of social support, self-efficacy, and subjective well-being of special education teachers in China, 496 teachers from 67 special education schools were surveyed by questionnaire. We found that (1) the subjective well-being of special education teachers in China was in the medial level. (2) There were significant differences in subjective well-being level among teachers of different genders, teacher position, education background, and teaching age. Male teachers were of higher (...) subjective well-being; subjective well-being of head teachers was lower than those were not head teachers; teachers with the educational background of postgraduate were of higher relaxation and tension than those with junior college educational background; the control scores of emotion and behavior of teachers with teaching age of 3 years and below were significantly lower than those of teachers with teaching age of more than 10 years. (3) Self-efficacy played a partially mediating role in the relationship between social support and subjective well-being of special education teachers. Suggestions to improve the subjective well-being of special education teachers were discussed in the article. (shrink)

Enhancement of the teacher well-being level has grown into a general, pressing problem to be solved in the domain of education worldwide. Based on the theoretical perspective of the multi-level dynamically formed mechanical model of occupational well-being, this study initially constructed a mechanism model with the occupational well-being role of organizational support, job crafting, and the occupational well-being of new math teachers at primary and junior high schools, and conducted empirical research (...) using structural equation modeling. The study found out that organizational support, job crafting and basic psychological needs have prominent and positive effects on the occupational well-being of the new math teachers in primary up to junior high schools. It also argues that basic psychological needs may mediate the correlation between organizational support, job crafting, and the occupational well-being of the new math teachers. To sum up, the study findings reveal the mechanisms of the role in organizational support and job crafting on the occupational well-being of new primary up to junior high school math teachers. Also, the findings may be conducive to extending the research on the factors that influence the teacher well-being, notably fostering the study on that in the math teachers in the primary up to junior high schools of China. (shrink)

Digital technology in its various forms is a significant component of our working environment and lifestyles. However, there is a broad difference between using digital technologies in everyday life and employing them in formal education. Digital technologies have largely untapped potential for improving education and fostering students’ well-being and inclusion at school. To bring this to fruition, systemic and coordinated actions involving the whole school community are called for. To help schools exploit the full range of opportunities digital (...) technologies offer for learning, the European Commission has designed and implemented a self-reflection tool called SELFIE (Self-reflection on Effective Learning by Fostering Innovation through Educational Technology). Based on the DigCompOrg conceptual framework, SELFIE encompasses key aspects for effectively integrating digital technologies in school policies and practices. The present study investigates how SELFIE can also support the school community to self-reflect about students’ well-being and inclusion. In Italy, the SELFIE online questionnaire has been completed by 24,715 students, 5,690 teachers and 1,507 school leaders, for a total of 31,912 users from 201 schools (at primary, lower secondary and upper secondary levels) located in ten different regions. The complementary data we have collected regarding student well-being and inclusion highlight significant differences in the perceptions on this issue reported by students, teachers and school leaders. These findings have important implications for facilitating successful practices within the whole school community in order to promote students’ well-being and inclusion using educational technologies, as well as for planning future actions following a systemic approach. (shrink)

Studies have shown that teachers’ wellbeing has a positive effect on teachers’ learning quality and learners’ performance. Nevertheless, teaching is a stressful and exhausting profession at all academic level with special difficulties about the nature of language education. Tension and fear are still classic challenges in learning, though the concepts such as hope and optimism are core issues in assisting teachers to feel happy during instruction and work longer. The present review makes efforts to provide the most current confirmation on (...) the interface of hope and optimism with educational issues since they are progressively documented as significant emotional capitals for educational success, job growth, and presentation. It is worth mentioning that the current review of research can benefit educational administrations, and other stakeholders and officials in the educational community to contemplate the functions of constructive emotions in the process of learning to decrease and even diminish stress and apprehension that consequently lead to flourishing. (shrink)

During sudden school closures in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers had to move to distance teaching. This unprecedented situation could be expected to influence teacher well-being and schools as organizations. This article reports a qualitative study that aims at understanding how changes in teachers’ professional lives that were related to school closure affected Swiss primary teachers’ professional well-being. In semi-structured online-interviews, 21 teachers from 15 schools sampled by snowball method reported their experiences (...) during school closure and distance teaching and how this situation influenced their professional well-being. Results showed that medium to high levels of teacher well-being could accompany a general negative evaluation of the move to distance teaching. Factors such as high work-load, social distancing and feelings of lack of competence and self-efficacy were among the most aversive aspects of distance teaching and associated with deteriorating professional well-being. Among a plethora of factors that supported teachers in maintaining their well-being, contextual work-related aspects such as school resources, collegial support or leadership support along with individual aspects such as resilience, coping strategies, and clear work structures were important. Additionally, it was found that teacher well-being was nourished by positive experiences with the new forms of distance teaching and feelings of professional mastery. Despite methodological limitations (snowball sampling, retrospective interviews), the findings of this study could inform schools and authorities about what is needed to support teacher well-being and might help to develop organizational strategies that aim at preventing harmful declines in teacher well-being during challenging and difficult times such as a pandemic. (shrink)

Although prior research has demonstrated that switching schools poses a risk for academic and behavioral functioning among adolescents, relatively little is known about their emotional adjustment, or how it affects emotional well-being. Moreover, the cumulative effects of multiple risk and protective factors on their emotional well-being are even less covered in the existing literature. Guided by a risk and resilience ecological framework, the current study compared emotional well-being, operationalized as positive affect and negative affect, (...) between Chinese adolescents who had switched schools and their non-switch counterparts, and examined the direct and interactive effects of teacher autonomy support and two facets of grit (i.e., perseverance and consistency) on emotional well-being in both groups. A propensity score matching analysis was used to balance the two groups in terms of sociodemographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, and socioeconomic status). A total of 371 adolescents who had switched schools and 742 non-switch counterparts aged from 13 to 18 years were involved in this study. Results indicated that adolescents who had switched schools reported higher levels of negative affect than their non-switch counterparts. Moreover, for adolescents who had switched schools, those who possessed higher levels of perseverance had a significantly negative association between teacher autonomy support and negative affect; however, the corresponding association was independent of perseverance for their non-switch counterparts. The current findings indicate that switching schools is a disadvantage for adolescents’ emotional states. However, teacher autonomy support and perseverance can protect adolescents who switch schools as critical stress-buffering factors against these negative feelings. (shrink)

In previous decades, the well-being of teachers has been at the center of the attention of researchers in several practical investigations on various subjects such as language learning. The objective of this review is to clarify this construct and add new information on the predominance of the well-being of teachers and organize factors impacting it. Nevertheless, among factors influencing the levels of well-being, the focus of this review is on two constructs, namely, optimism “as (...) a new concept in positive psychology,” societal theory, and collective school assets in education, and efficacy of teachers as an individual source in teachers. This review tries to focus on the eminent role of teacher efficacy and optimism in the process of education and also clarify their consequences on the well-being of teachers. In a nutshell, this review can provide implications for language teaching participants in the academic context. (shrink)

The global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant uncertainty for students and teachers. During this time, teacher and student creative beliefs and affect play a supportive role in adaptively managing stress, finding joy, and bouncing back from inevitable setbacks with resilience. Developing an adaptive orientation to creativity is a critically important step in helping teachers deal with the challenges and stress of reaching their students through distance learning, especially the most marginalized. This study aims to understand how (...) teacher creativity linked to well-being in the face of COVID-19-related school shutdowns and how teachers planned to adapt creatively to distance learning through the guidance of a summer creative teaching training institute. Results from this sequential mixed method study demonstrated important relationships. Creative self-efficacy in teaching related to teacher buoyancy in the face of setbacks. Creative growth mindset related to teachers’ general positive affect in teaching. Lowered creative anxiety related to reduced effects of secondary traumatic stress and general negative affect in teaching. Environmental support and encouragement for creativity in schools may be foundational for teacher well-being by enhancing teachers’ dispositional joy, general positive affect, and reducing general negative affect. Results suggested additional stress and loss of creativity for most teachers due to the COVID-19 pandemic alongside substantial capacity for creative adaptations with the support of training for creativity in teaching and learning. (shrink)

Well-being has become extensively viewed as apprehension for administrations in the last decades and schools have been progressively realized as locations for encouraging well-being which is a considerable development in inquiries on mediations connected to learner well-being. In this way, the function of teachers has got specific consideration regarding students’ well-being, given the merits of teacher-student interactions. High-quality educator-learner relationships offer a support base for long-term learners’ education. Educator interpersonal behavior that (...) makes learners feel supported and cared for is known as emotional support. These behaviors can help learners’ emotional and social needs; meet learners’ families, and being available when learners need additional help. This review attempts to consider the eminence of teacher interpersonal behavior and learner-teacher relations in the classroom and indeed illustrate their relationship and influence on students’ well-being. As a final point, this review can provide suggestions and recommendations for teaching participants in the scholastic context. (shrink)

Over the last decades, changes within higher education have created increased pressure and uncertainty for academics, increasing their risk for cognitive, behavioral, physical, as well as psychological issues due to high job demands. Specifically, for new academics in teaching roles, their lack of knowledge and skills can contribute to a negative effect of these job demands on their well-being. This study therefore explored how teaching-related professional development programs can enhance new university teachers’ well-being, through semi-structured (...) interviews with 10 university teachers participating in such a program at a mid-sized Dutch university. We pay special attention to the relationship between specific learning activities integrated in the program and various dimensions of the psychological model of well-being by Ryff and Keyes. Using co-occurrence analysis and content analysis, we found that different learning activities had distinct relationships with different well-being facets. For example, formal workshops were mainly related to environmental mastery, a purpose in life and personal growth, while reflecting seemed to be especially connected to teachers’ self-acceptance, and participating in a learning community was mainly related to positive relations with others and personal growth. Our findings have implications for research on teacher well-being as well as for the design of professional development programs for higher education teaching staff. (shrink)

"Despite a dramatic rise in average income in the last 40 years, people are no happier. Since the millennium personal well-being has recently shot up the political and educational agendas, with schools in the UK even including "Personal Well-being" as a curriculum topic in its own right.This book takes teachers, student teachers and parents step by step through the many facets of well-being, pausing at each step to look at the educational implications for teachers (...) and parents trying to make our children's lives more meaningful. With his renowned talent for distilling the most complex of philosophical arguments into accessible laymen's terms, John White addresses the moral maze of well-being through three distinct parts:Part 1 describes the remarkable growth of interest in children's well-being in the UK since 2000, and suggests that a philosophical look at the concept of well-being is essential, so that teachers and parents can avoid confusion and misunderstanding.Part 2 takes the reader step by step through the intricacies of the concept in a deliberately accessible way with each chapter containing a substantial section showing how the new ideas just introduced can be taken up in education, especially in schools.Part 3 is about the future of education for well-being, pulling together, expanding on home as well as school, discussing the main aims and emphases of an education focussed on personal well-being. The author also looks at how school's traditional practices will have to change, given the new focus on well-beingAs well as looking at educational implications of all these questions step by step, the book concludes with an extensive practical guide for families and schools wanting to realise the new well-being agenda.This short, engaging book takes the reader with little or no background in philosophy into these issues. It is of special interest to teachers and parents, since they are now at the sharp end of the culture change we are now experiencing"-- Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Job satisfaction, resilience, and teacher well-being, as the three major psychological variables emotioncy- based education, have received special attention among English as a foreign language researchers. To pursue the line of this inquiry, this particular study aimed to investigate the relationship between Chinese EFL teachers’ job satisfaction, resilience, and their well-being. To conduct the study, 343 Chinese EFL teachers with different academic qualifications, various academic degrees, and different majors voluntarily participated in this study. The results (...) of the study showed that job satisfaction and resilience could jointly predict 56.4 of the variance in psychological well-being. Both variables were the significant predictors of well-being, while job satisfaction was a better predictor, uniquely explaining 29.6 of well-being’s variance. Based on the findings, some pedagogical implication for administrators, educational institutions, and EFL teachers were discussed in the article. (shrink)

The COVID-19 epidemic in the early 2020s is making a big difference for educators around the world. For the past 2 years, the curriculum and working patterns have been overturned in response to this epidemic, which has brought unprecedented challenges and physical and mental stress to preschool teachers. This situation can have a drastic impact on the acquisition of job well-being for preschool teachers. During this special time, the leader’s management style will also influence the psychological feelings of (...) the organization’s staff. For example, empowering leadership is an important management function that empowers subordinates, emphasizes the meaning of work, promotes participation in decision-making, and expresses confidence. Therefore, in the current COVID-19 pandemic context, it is worthwhile to explore the topic of empowering leadership to ensure preschool teachers’ well-being, by balancing work demands and work resources in a way that facilitates a sense of organizational support and reduces job stress, while relatively fewer studies have been conducted on the relationship between preschool teachers’ job well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on this, this study proposed a research model from the theoretical perspective of the Job Demands-Resources Model to explore the influence of empowering leadership, sense of organizational support, and job stress on preschool teachers’ job well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To achieve the purpose of this study, a convenience sampling method was used to invite 500 preschool teachers in China to complete a questionnaire survey, and after removing invalid samples and data with incomplete answers, reliability and validity analyses and model fit tests were conducted, followed by a structural equation modeling method for path analysis. The results of the study showed that in the kindergarten work context, empowering leadership showed a significant negative effect on job stress, but a significant positive effect on job well-being and a significant positive effect on sense of organizational support. Sense of organizational support had a significant negative effect on job stress but a significant positive effect on preschool teachers’ job well-being. Preschool teachers’ job stress and job well-being showed a significant negative effect. The contribution of this study was to explore the relationship between understanding leadership empowerment and preschool teachers’ job well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic based on the Job Demands-Resources Model, which will facilitate educational organizational contexts to empower preschool teachers to work harder to reduce their job stress as well as enhance their sense of organizational support and promote the acquisition of job well-being. (shrink)

Kindergarten teachers’ professional commitment affects their emotional input and turnover intention, and it is affected by the spiritual and material factors of teachers’ families, kindergartens, and society. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of the dimensions of subjective well-being in the relationship between social support and professional commitment. The study is grounded in human ecology theory and social exchange theory. We surveyed 778 kindergarten teachers from different educational systems in Guangdong Province in China. We used (...) the “Appreciative Social Support” and “Subjective Well-being” Scales and the “Professional Commitment Questionnaire.” The results showed that the four variables of social support, positive affect, life satisfaction, and professional commitment of kindergarten teachers were significantly and positively correlated with each other: social support positively predicted positive affect and life satisfaction, positive affect and life satisfaction positively predicted professional commitment, and social support indirectly influenced professional commitment through the parallel and chain path of positive affect and life satisfaction. This represents a compound multiple mediating effects on professional commitment. (shrink)

Recent studies on the effects of mandatory online teaching, resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, have widely reported low levels of satisfaction, unwillingness to continue online teaching, and negative impacts on the psychological well-being of teachers. Emerging research has highlighted the potential role of psychological need thwarting, in terms of autonomy, competence, and relatedness thwarting, resulting from online teaching. The aim of this study was to evaluate the immediate and delayed effects of PNT of online teaching on teachers’ (...) class='Hi'>well-being, intention to continue online teaching, and job satisfaction. Moreover, data collected from both cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys allowed for a systematic validation of an important instrument in the field of teacher psychology, the Psychological Need Thwarting Scale of Online Teaching, in terms of longitudinal reliability and validity. The data reveal the usefulness of the construct of PNT in terms predicting and explaining teachers’ willingness to continue using online teaching as well as the degree of burnout after a period of 2 months, such that PNT is positively associated with burnout and negatively associated with willingness to continue online teaching. As such, the PNTSOT is recommended for future research evaluating the long-term psychological, affective, and intentional outcomes stemming from teachers’ PNT. Moreover, based on our findings that the impact from PNT of online teaching is persistent and long-term, we suggest that school leaders provide flexible and sustained professional development, model respectful and adaptive leadership, and create opportunities for mastery for the development of community of practice that can mitigate the thwarting of teachers’ autonomy, competence, and relatedness during times of uncertainty. Additionally, in terms of the psychometric properties of the PNTSOT instrument, our empirical findings demonstrate internal reliability, test–retest reliability, measurement invariance, and criterion validity based on cross-sectional and longitudinal data. (shrink)

Given the centrality of English as a Foreign Language students’ wellbeing in their academic success, identifying factors that may be influential in fostering students’ well-being is of high importance. As such, several studies have delved into the role of various personal and interpersonal factors in increasing EFL students’ well-being. However, little attention has been devoted to the function of teacher-student rapport. Besides, no systematic or theoretical review has been conducted in this regard. To address these (...) gaps, the present study intends to illustrate different definitions of student well-being and teacher-student rapport, their sub-components, and their theoretical relations. Building upon the theoretical and empirical bases, the facilitative function of teacher-student rapport in increasing EFL students’ well-being was proved. Some beneficial implications are also discussed. (shrink)

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between work passion and work engagement among university music teachers in flow experience and teaching well-being.MethodsThree hundred forty-three university music teachers were tested by using the Flow State Scale, Teacher Well-Being Scale, Work Passion Scale, and Work Engagement Scale.ResultsUniversity music teachers’ flow experience can predict teaching well-being. University music teachers’ flow experience has an indirect impact on teaching well-being through work passion, (...) and university music teachers’ flow experience has an indirect impact on teaching well-being through work engagement. In addition, work passion and work engagement play a chain-mediating role between university music teachers’ flow experience and teaching well-being.ConclusionWork passion and work engagement play a sequential mediating role between university music teachers’ flow experience and teaching well-being. (shrink)

This study examined teachers’ occupational well-being by identifying profiles based on teachers’ self-ratings of work engagement as well as work-related effort and reward. It also did so by examining whether the identified subgroups differed with respect to teachers’ self-reported occupational stress and emotional exhaustion as well as with respect to work-related resources such as the individual resource of work meaningfulness and the leader-level resource of the leader–follower relationship. The participants in the study were 321 Finnish elementary (...) school teachers. The data were collected in spring 2021, that is, at the time when the COVID-19 pandemic was present, yet there were no national school closures. Three groups of teachers were identified with latent profile analysis: (1) teachers recognized as being poorly engaged with the highest effort and lowest reward (4.7%); (2) teachers recognized as being averagely engaged with higher effort than reward (32.1%); and (3) teachers recognized as being highly engaged with higher reward than effort (63.2%). The subsequent analyses examining the differences among the profile groups revealed, for example, that each profile group differed with respect to the individual resource of work meaningfulness and profile groups 2 and 3 differed with respect to the leader-level resource of the leader–follower relationship. Thus, the findings indicate that there are differences in the ways in which teachers are able to benefit from the work-related resources and how they cope with job-related demands during the COVID-19 pandemic. (shrink)

In the former 20 years, professional identity has arisen as a different study domain in the area of language instruction and education. Educators’ professional identity frames educators’ explanation of their functions, academic changes, and alterations in syllabi, class exercises, utilization of approaches and strategies, and their connection to other problems in the academic setting. Also, well-being is one of the elements in which its influence and connection with identity are noted in various studies. However, their roles in professional (...) development have not been examined; hence, this review of literature aimed to investigate the role of these constructs in professional development which is regarded as a noteworthy aspect of teacher quality. In a nutshell, some implications are proposed for the scholastic stakeholders. (shrink)

Given the significance of teachers’ professional success in the adequacy of education, exploring the determinants of this variable appears crucial. To address this need, this inquiry inspected the role of well-being and emotion regulation in Chinese EFL teachers’ professional success. For this purpose, 357 Chinese EFL teachers were selected to answer three pre-designed questionnaires. Structural equation modeling using Smart-PLS was implemented to analyze teacher participants’ responses. The structural model revealed a strong, favorable connection between well-being, (...) emotion regulation, and professional success. The model also demonstrated that both well-being and emotion regulation were highly influential in Chinese EFL teachers’ professional success. The potential implications for EFL teachers, teacher educators, and educational authorities are further discussed. (shrink)

Teachers face significant stressors in relation to their work, placing them at increased risk for burnout and attrition. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about additional challenges, resulting in an even greater burden. Thus, strategies for reducing stress that can be delivered virtually are likely to benefit this population. Mental and Physical (MAP) Training combines meditation with aerobic exercise and has resulted in positive mental and physical health outcomes in both clinical and subclinical populations. The aim of this pilot study was (...) to evaluate the feasibility and potential effectiveness of virtual MAP Training on reducing stress and improving mood and well-being in teachers. Participants (n= 104) were from recruited online from kindergarten to grade twelve (K-12) schools in the Northeastern region of the United States and randomly assigned to a 6-week program of virtual MAP Training (n= 58) or no training (n= 13). Primary outcomes included pre-intervention and post-intervention ratings on self-report measures of social and emotional health. Changes in cognitive functioning and physical health were also examined in secondary analyses. By intervention end, participants in the MAP Training group reported less anxiety and work-related stress compared to those who received no training (ds = −0.75 to −0.78). Additionally, MAP Training participants reported improvements in depressive symptoms, rumination, work-related quality of life, perceived stress, and self-compassion (ds = 0.38 to −0.82), whereas no changes were observed in the no training group. Participants also reported increased subjective ratings of executive functioning, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and fewer sleep disturbances (ds = −0.41 to −0.74). Together, these results suggest that the combination of meditation and aerobic exercise is an effective virtual intervention for improving mental health and well-being among K-12 teachers and may enhance resilience to stressful life events such as occurred during the coronavirus pandemic. (shrink)

The preschool education profession often faces many challenges and preschool teachers, as important members of the preschool education profession must respond to a variety of emergencies with young children, which also leads to high levels of job stress and can have a negative impact on their ongoing well-being. Past research has pointed out that a healthy lifestyle is one of the key factors in enhancing sustainable well-being in high-stress work situations and many studies have found that (...) good leisure activity engagement as a healthy lifestyle is associated with higher levels of well-being. However, the relationship between preschool teachers’ leisure engagement and sustainable well-being has been less explored. Therefore, this study proposed seven research hypotheses based on the engagement theory proposed by Fredricks et al. and developed a research model to explore the relationship between three types of leisure engagement, including behavioral, affective and cognitive, and preschool teachers’ job stress and sustainable well-being, using age as a control variable. This study used a cross-sectional web-based questionnaire with a convenience sample of 500 preschool teachers in China. The collected data were analyzed for reliability and validity, model fit testing and structural equation modeling for model validation after removing invalid data and incomplete responses. The results of the study showed that behavioral engagement was not related with either the job stress or sustainable well-being of preschool teachers; Emotional and cognitive engagement were negatively related to job stress but positively related to the sustainable well-being of preschool teachers; and Job stress was negatively related to the sustainable well-being of preschool teachers; Age is an effective control variable. From the above results, it is clear that not all three types of leisure engagement are effective in terms of reducing the work stress of preschool teachers. As well as being related to the sustainable well-being of preschool teachers emotional and cognitive engagement contributed more to sustainable well-being acquisition. (shrink)

This study aimed to explore the mediating role of emotional regulation strategies in the relationship between emotional intelligence and subjective well-being among Chinese university teachers, and evaluate whether effort-reward imbalance moderated the mediating effect of emotional regulation strategies. A total of 308 Chinese university teachers were recruited for this study. The results showed that emotional regulation strategies played a partial mediating role in the relationship between EI and SWB. Moreover, an effort-reward imbalance moderated the relationship between emotional regulation (...) strategies and SWB. For individuals with more balanced perceptions, EI had a significant effect on SWB via cognitive reappraisal, while for individuals with more imbalanced perceptions, EI did not have a significant effect on SWB via cognitive reappraisal. These findings provide a better understanding of the effects of EI and emotional regulation strategies on SWB, which could provide interventions for promoting SWB among teachers. (shrink)

This study aimed to explore the relationship between job-related stress and township teachers’ professional well-being. Based on Job Demand-Resource Model, this study examined the mediating role of teachers’ professional identity and the moderating role of perceived organizational support in this relationship. A total of 24,276 township teachers in China responded to the Teacher Stress Scale, the Teachers’ Professional Identity Scale, the Teachers’ Professional Well-Being Structure Questionnaire, and the Perceived Organizational Support Scale. Results showed that: the (...) professional well-being of township teachers differed significantly in terms of school type and demographic characteristics like age and gender; job-related stress negatively predicted township teachers’ professional well-being, with teachers’ professional identity playing a mediating role; the relation between job-related stress and teachers’ professional identity was moderated by perceived organizational support; and in the moderated mediation analysis, job-related stress positively predicted township teachers’ professional well-being. These findings indicated that township teachers’ professional well-being was influenced by both organizational and individual factors, which provided a theoretical basis and intervention pathways for improving township teachers’ professional well-being. (shrink)

Parents, peers, and teachers provide a powerful context for school students’ well-being. However, a detailed and systematic analysis of how parental, peer, and teacher support relate to students’ well-being, measured by the dimensions self-worth, psychological and physical well-being, is still missing. To address this research gap, the following study investigates 733 adolescent German students from grades 7 and 8 with respect to their perceived supportive relationships at home and within the school context. The (...) study considers gender, socioeconomic status, and school form as potential confounders. The results of the structural equation model, analyzed with the statistical software R, indicate that perceived teacher support was positively related to students’ self-worth and physical well-being, while peer support was related to psychological well-being. Students who perceived their parents as supportive reported higher well-being with respect to all three dimensions investigated. (shrink)

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics, relationships and mechanisms underlying the psychological capital, career commitment, gratitude and career well-being of teachers in ethnic areas. In total, 573 primary school and secondary school teachers in Sichuan Province were investigated. Following questionnaires were used to investigate these questions: “Psychological Capital Questionnaire for Primary and Secondary School Teachers,” “Gratitude Questionnaire,” “Teacher Career Well-being Questionnaire” and “Career Commitment Questionnaire for Primary and Secondary School Teachers.” The (...) results show that the psychological capital of teachers in ethnic areas is higher than that of teachers in non-ethnic areas. Teachers in ethnic areas have lower levels of career well-being and lower levels of gratitude than teachers in non-ethnic areas. There was no significant difference in career commitment between teachers in ethnic areas and teachers in non-ethnic areas. There were significant positive correlations among psychological capital, gratitude, career well-being and career commitment. Psychological capital can predict career commitment significantly and positively. The mediating effect of career well-being between teachers’ psychological capital and career commitment was significant in both ethnic areas and non-ethnic areas. The chain of mediating effects between gratitude and career well-being was significant in non-ethnic areas. In conclusion, psychological capital can predict teacher career commitment effectively, and the prediction mechanism in ethnic areas is different from that in non-ethnic areas. (shrink)

The well-being of children and young people has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift to online education disrupted daily rhythms, transformed learning opportunities, and redefined social connections with peers and teachers. We here present a qualitative content analysis of responses to open-ended questions in a large-scale survey of teachers and students in Romania. We explore how their well-being has been impacted by online education through overflow effects of the sudden move to online classes; identity (...) work at the individual and group levels; and Students’ and teachers’ presentations of self in the online environment, with a focus on problematic aspects of webcam use. The results indicate that both students and teachers experienced ambivalence and diverse changes in well-being, generated by the flexibility, burdens, and disruptions of school-from-home. The identities associated with the roles of teacher and student have been challenged and opened for re-negotiation. Novel patterns have emerged in teachers’ and Students’ identity work. Failure or success at the presentation of self in online situations is relevant for the emotional valence of learning encounters, impacting well-being. Online classes have brought about new ways to control one’s presentation of self while also eliminating previous tactics and resources. The controversy regarding webcams has captured this duality: for some, the home remained a backstage that could not be safely exposed; for others, the home became a convenient front stage for school. Well-being was affected by the success of individual and collective performances, and by student-teacher asymmetries. Overall, our study of online learning indicates powerful yet variable influences on subjective well-being, which are related to overflow effects, identity work, and presentation of self. (shrink)

We demonstrate the relationships between occupational demands in German vocational education and training (VET) teacher training, stress symptoms, and different behavioral resilience competencies. Taking into account interindividual differences in resilience competencies, we use a typological approach to identify different types of (trainee) teachers classified by their degrees and configurations of resilience competencies. Our empirical analysis is based on questionnaire data from 131 German vocational trainees and qualified teachers. The results reveal, among other things, that all three resilience competencies—resistance, flexibility, (...) and dynamism—are significantly negatively correlated with the demands of working conditions and workload. Via a latent class analysis, we were able to identify three groups of (trainee) teachers who differed in their resilience competencies to adapt appropriately to different situations and their requirements (“behavioral flexibility”), to recover rapidly from setbacks and to defy the expectations of others (“behavioral resistance”), and to initiate changes as soon as they are necessary or desirable (“behavioral dynamics”). More resilient (trainee) teachers show, among other things, lower values for anxiety as an emotional stress symptom and higher values for job engagement. The findings are discussed with regard to implications for VET teacher training and we stress the need for equilibration on a systemic perspective. (shrink)

More and more studies and research have found a positive relationship between the participation of young people in altruistic activities and helping others, but it is interesting to discover a relationship of that personal and vocational satisfaction in the preparation and training in a profession as important to society as teaching. For students who begin university studies related to teaching, their psychological well-being and motivation towards this activity are very relevant aspects to consider. The access to and attainment (...) of a University Degree with a great vocational character, such as that of Pre-School Teacher or Primary Education Teacher, can benefit the students who will be in charge. These future educational professionals will have adequate motivation and maintain a psychological well-being that, in short, will favour their personal balance and will impact their future students. This research aims to analyse the degree of psychological well-being and its relationship with the motivation towards starting the teaching career. A sample of 233 students and students aged between 17 or 19 years of age who are beginning university studies at the School of Education of Ciudad Real was selected. All participants are enrolled in the first year of the Degree in Pre-school and Primary Education. The relationship between the psychological well-being of the students and their motivation towards attaining a professional teaching career was analysed. Other variables such as age or sex were also taken into account. A quantitative study was carried out and the Ryff Psychological Welfare Scale and the Intrinsic Motivation Questionnaire (IMI) were used. Once the results were analysed, it was observed that there is a positive correlation between the perception of psychological well-being that the participants have and their motivation towards the beginning of university studies, whose professional focus is mainly direct teaching with the students of the early stages of Pre-school and Primary Education. There are also some significant differences, considering the age and sex of the participants. The vocational character of university preparation for the teaching profession may determine that students who begin their Degree studies have an important motivation towards the performance of their professional future. (shrink)

While a large body of research has provided quantitative data on children’s levels of happiness, positive emotions and life satisfaction, the literature reflects a dearth of studies that analyze these dimensions from a narrative and qualitative point of view. Folk and fairy tales may serve as ideal tools for this purpose, since they are concerned with several concepts scientifically investigated by research in the field of positive psychology, such as resilience, self-realization, personal growth and meaning in life. The aim of (...) the present study was to explore children’s well-being and positive emotions using an innovative narrative approach, which involved interviews and group discussions, as well as the analysis of fairy tales written and discussed in a group context. The sample included 95 school children who were asked to report and discuss in a group setting situations or experiences which triggered positive emotions and happiness in them. Guided by their teachers and a school psychologist, they were then asked to write their own original fairy tale drawing on the positive emotions that had previously emerged. Positive emotions were found to be triggered mainly by interpersonal relationships with peers as well as with family members. Hobbies and leisure time were also strongly associated with happiness and hedonic well-being, while personal fulfilment, self-esteem and goal achievement emerged as highly significant for children. In sum, the findings suggest that this school psycho-educative intervention based on narrative strategies provided useful information on children’s well-being and yielded positive feedback, the implications and possible further applications of which are discussed. (shrink)

This research set out to measure the impact of the lockdown condition and social distancing imposed on higher education by the Israeli government during the COVID-19 period and the shift to online learning, on students’ emotional well-being, the way they perceived their teachers’ just behavior, and faculty incivility, compared to pre-pandemic conditions. An additional aim was to explore the set of connections among these factors. The total sample included 396 undergraduate students from three academic colleges. Data were gathered (...) via three questionnaires: Positive/negative affect, Faculty Incivility, and Teacher Justice. Data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling. The main finding showed that students’ negative emotions were informed by the lockdown condition. This perceived negative affect had an impact on how the participants experienced social interactions with their faculty. Those who exhibited higher levels of negative affect perceived themselves as targets of faculty incivility. The same trajectory was detected with the way students experienced their teachers’ just behavior. Students who held negative emotions, partly because of the COVID-19 restrictions, also viewed their teachers’ behavior toward them as unjust. This study stresses the role of one’s emotional condition in instigating negative interpretations of social interactions. Directions for subsequent research and practical implications for promoting students’ well-being and civil and just communications in the learning environment are discussed. (shrink)