Browsing by Subject "Wellbeing at work"

Finnish school principals’ extreme stress and burnout reached worrying proportions in the past years that raised research interest. Job demands rose excessively, undermining their wellbeing. Lately, the primary research focus shifted from school principals’ stress to identifying factors that support wellbeing in their challenging work. This study examines school principals’ personal resources (psychological flexibility, grit, buoyancy) regarding combating stress and enhancing wellbeing. The theoretical framework is based on wellbeing studies, focusing especially on the eudaimonic and subjective nature of it, job demands-resources model, and personal resources. The data of the study consists of questionnaire data and physiological measurements. The levels of personal resources and self-reported stress were measured by using the extended Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire-II. The physiological measurements were obtained with the mobile heart rate monitoring device Firstbeat BodyGuard 2. Altogether 456 principals answered the questionnaire and 29 participated in the physiological data collection. The data analysis was conducted with Jamovi statistical program, using Pearson correlation and linear regression. The results showed that Finnish principals’ wellbeing was vitally influenced by the use of personal resources, which were associated with lower levels of stress: 29% of stress variance explained by them. Nevertheless, the sensitivity analysis highlighted that buoyancy itself significantly explained 27 % of self-reported stress. The correlation model between personal resources and physiological stress indicated that 15% of the measured stress variance could be explained when controlled for age and gender. However, none of the variables in the results showed statistical significance. Even though both self-reported and measured data suggested elevated stress levels, based on the analysis direct association between them could not be assumed due to the small sample size (N=29). This study contributes to a deeper understanding of personal resources and stress of Finnish school principals. These findings can support principals’ wellbeing and possible buoyancy-based intervention studies.