From Principal to Teacher: The Contagious Relationship Between Stress and Occupational Well-Being

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 7:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Healing the Healers: Leader Wellbeing as Radical Act

Abstract

This study examined the contagious relationship between principals’ stress and teachers’ occupational well-being (job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and social connectedness), as well as the mediating role of distributed leadership. Using TALIS 2018 data from 261,426 teachers nested within 15,672 schools (15,672 principals), the results showed that principals’ stress was negatively associated with teachers’ job satisfaction and social connectedness, though the relationship between principals’ stress and teachers’ self-efficacy was not significant. Distributed leadership significantly mediated these relationships, with principals’ stress negatively predicting distributed leadership, while distributed leadership positively predicting teachers’ occupational well-being.

Authors

• Yi Sun, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

• Hongbiao Yin, The Chinese University of Hong Kong