Assessing Employee Wellbeing in Schools Using a Multifaceted Approach: Associations with Physical Health, Life Satisfaction, and Professional Thriving

By Margaret L. Kern, L. Waters, A. Adler, M. White. 2014

217 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Purpose: Drawing on recent advances in the field of positive psychology, we conducted a pilot evaluation of employee wellbeing using Seligman's (2011) multidimensional PERMA (positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment) model of flourishing. We analyzed associations between multiple aspects of employee wellbeing and three outcomes: phys- ical health, life satisfaction, and professional thriving. Method: Employees (N = 153) from a large private school in Australia completed a survey with items theoretically relevant to the PERMA theory. Factor analyses recovered the expected five PERMA components and a negative emotion factor. Regression analyses estimated cross-sectional associations between the wellbeing factors and self-reported physical health, life satisfaction, and professional thriving (job satisfaction and organizational commitment). Results: Differential associations support the multidimensional ap- proach to defining and measuring wellbeing. For example, staff with higher engagement and bet- ter relationships reported greater job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Conclusions: Multidimensional wellbeing assessments can help school administrators understand and improve staff wellbeing, supporting policy and practice designs that ultimately will promote wellness for all stakeholders in the education system.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a86688636ca03647f0208a8195ddbc06357ab088

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

1. M. Thielking
2. K. Turner
3. Margaret L. Kern

In Clinical Psychology

1. D. Khaw
2. M. Thielking
3. K. Turner
4. A. Morrison
5. Margaret L. Kern
6. Anne Graham
7. D. Price
8. Faye McCallum

In Social Psychology

1. D. Khaw
2. M. Thielking
3. K. Turner
4. Margaret L. Kern
5. Martin E. P. Seligman
6. Sarah Mercer
7. Benjamin Dreer

Citations in the corpus

• A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the PERMA Model of Well-Being (2015, background): “For example, Ryff and Keyes (1995) distinguish six core dimensions of well-being: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth.”
• Teacher wellbeing: Its effects on teaching practice and student learning (2019, methodology): “Whilst research is scarce in this area, Kern, Waters, Adler, and White (2014) evaluated the wellbeing levels of 153 Australian education staff in a single school, of which 60% were teachers.”
• Teacher wellbeing: a review of the literature (2017, methodology): “Kern et al. (2014) drew on this work and conducted a pilot evaluation of employee wellbeing using Seligman’s (2011) multidimensional PERMA (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment) model of flourishing.”