Browsing by Author "Tapio, Hanna-Sofia"

The objective of the thesis is to find out how different environmental factors and the quality of school adults' interaction affect the well-being of students and the easing and escalation of challenging situations. The topic of the thesis is important because the mental symptoms and challenging situations of students have been perceived to have increased in the school world. Data was collected through interviews (n = 4). The interviewees were young people who had completed primary school and who had received support from a special rehabilitation class for mental symptoms. The study is phenomenological and its research design is data-driven content analysis. The material has been systematically analyzed by coding and classification. The core of the thesis was the interaction chains observed in the data and the well-being factors. The chains of interaction that ended in a negative outcome included a school adult’s blaming, indifferent, punitive, derogatory, uncertain, or unknown response. Interactions with a positive outcome included seeking a solution, being compassionate, or strengthening positive behavior. In addition to the quality of the interaction, the well-being factors at school also had a particular impact on the prevention of challenging situations and the promotion of pupil well-being. The most significant well-being factors that emerged from the data were the small group, the close-knit group in the class, the best friend in the class, a few friends in the class, differentiated and individualized tasks, and the ability to choose one’s own doing or task. These factors were able to prevent, e.g., challenging social situations as well as challenging school tasks, which often occurred in the triggers of the chains of interaction. In addition, the importance of permanence in the school world was emphasized in the well-being factors.