Education Commons^™

Put On Your Own Oxygen Mask First: Exploring School Principals’ Stress And Workplace Well-Being, Dl Alex Alexander

Education Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to highlight the importance of studying and promoting well-being to help manage stress and prevent burnout among school principals, examine potential gender disparities, and to consider implications for future practice. Grounded in a positive psychology framework, this study examined the correlations among school principals’ workplace well-being, perceived stress, self-compassion, and intent to remain in their roles using a non-experimental, descriptive survey method. In Washington State, 124 school principals responded to an online survey over a span of 11 weeks. Descriptive, correlation, moderation, independent t-test analyses were performed on quantitative data, and qualitative data was …

Implementation Of A Novel Social-Emotional Learning Program To Advance Integration Of Wellness In Education Practice, Kit Knier, Gauri Sood, Will Ruffin Ii, Jennifer Arroyo, Ankit Sabharwal, Michael Bostwick, Chris Pierret

The Journal of Advancing Education Practice

Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs aim to enhance emotional intelligence by teaching problem solving, self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship building skills. SEL interventions have been shown to improve quality of life and wellbeing, increasingly important outcomes in the wake of the staggering effects of the COVID-19 crisis on mental health. HappiGenius is a novel SEL program with the addition of mindful attention and self-compassion. We hypothesized HappiGenius would improve positive emotions, self-compassion, attention, mindful self-awareness, and social skills in a group of students. This observational cohort study took place at a diverse elementary school in a midsize midwestern city and …

Examining Teachers’ Experiences With Mindfulness Practices To Promote Positive Relationships And Student Engagement In The Classroom, Hiram Ortega

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years mindfulness practices in the classroom have become increasingly relevant to bring awareness to the present moment, the here-and-now. The literature indicates that mindfulness reduces stress/anxiety in the classroom, and promotes self-regulation, cognitive flexibility, self-compassion, and empathy that contributes to positive classroom behavior, communication, and effective instructional practices. The purpose of this qualitative research is to analyze teachers’ experiences with mindfulness practices in promoting positive relationships and student engagement in the classroom. A group of teachers from an at-risk school district in the southwestern region of the United States were interviewed. The teachers answered 10 open-ended questions about …

An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Physical Therapists’ Pyschological Characteristics And Feedback Methods, Dustin Cox

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Providing treatment interventions to clients with chronic pain is a complex task for any professional. Research suggests that clients with chronic pain experience declines in physical, emotional, and psychological quality of life. Client’s that have chronic pain have complex effects from dealing with this condition in their lives. Hashmi and colleagues found that clients with chronic pain (i.e., pain lasting > three months) process pain through the emotional and reward circuitry in the brain. The literature base provides evidence that clients with chronic pain who receive psychologically based interventions along with physical rehabilitation have better outcomes than individuals with chronic pain …

Self-Care With Self-Compassion (Sc2): A Program To Foster Well-Being In Graduate Speech-Language Pathology Students, Laura R. Chapman, Karalee Cole

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

This article describes elements of Self-Care with Self-Compassion (SC²), a novel program designed to foster well-being in graduate speech-language-pathology (SLP) students. Graduate SLP students experience elevated levels of perceived stress, which can ultimately impact their professional competence. University programs, faculty, and staff are uniquely positioned to help students learn to cope with stress. Self-care and self-compassion may buffer some of the effects of stress, and at the same time foster qualities in students that facilitate learning and promote healthy clinical practice. Twenty-five incoming SLP graduate students participated in SC², a required, two-part workshop. Levels of perceived …

Editorial: Finding Shalom, Hayoung Lim

Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for Christians in Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Practical Strategies For Managing Emotions And Stress In The Elusive Search For Work-Life Balance, Jennifer C. Veilleux

TFSC Publications and Presentations

In this talk, Dr. Veilleux discussed the rationale for thinking about work-life integration rather than work-life balance, while validating the importance of recognizing the emotional repercussions of feeling a conflict between the work and non-work portions of life. She provided a three-step strategy for recognizing the “message” of an emotion, with the goal of helping people recognize that emotions do not occur about things that do not matter, and thus identifying and processing emotions about stressful experiences (including conflicts between work and life) can be crucial steps toward psychological well-being.

Single Case Evaluation Of A Mindfulness-Based Mobile Application With A Substance Abuse Counselor, Karisse A. Callender, Caroline E. Trustey, Leslie Alton, Yuan Hao

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

We implemented an exploratory A-B single case research design with a phenomenological lens to analyze journal entries to assess the effectiveness of a 12-week mindfulness-based mobile intervention to reduce burnout and increase mindfulness and self-compassion. Our participant was one 55-year-old White woman employed as a substance abuse counselor at a medium sized treatment facility in a midwestern state. We collected three weeks of baseline data followed by a 12-week intervention using the Calm © app and collected self-reported scores on the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory, and the Self-Compassion Scale across baseline and intervention phases. Data analyses using the …

Origins Of Self-Compassion: The Impact Of The Early Caregiving Environment, Nicoleta Dragan

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the impact of early attachment on self-compassion in early adulthood utilizing a causal model to assess the mediating effects of emotional regulation and shame (Figure 1). Participants were 133 undergraduate students (143 females and 90 males) between 18 and 28 years old (M = 22.7 yrs.) from a Southern California university. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using EQS (version 6.1) was used to analyze the data. Results showed an indirect effect of early attachment on self-compassion through emotional regulation and shame; a direct, moderate effect of early attachment on emotional regulation and …

An Examination Of Relational Health, Belonging, And Self-Compassion In Chinese International Students, Elizabeth A. Harris Shaffner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chinese international students (CISs), the largest segment of international students coming to the US to study at institutions of higher education (IIE, 2016), are reported to experience more acculturative stress than other international students because of the vast differences in social and cultural norms between the United States and China (Li & Glasser, 2005; Yeh & Inose, 2003). The present study used Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) as the framework to explore the ways undergraduate CISs struggle and thrive in the face of acculturative stress and to understand how positive and negative outcomes are associated with their relational health, sense of campus …

The Protective Influence Of Self-Compassion Against Internalized Racism Among African Americans, Alexandra Emery

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Racist experiences and internalized racism may lead to poorer mental health outcomes for African Americans born and socialized in the United States (Graham, West, Martinez & Roemer, 2016; Mouzon & McLean, 2017). Self-compassion has been shown to protect against poor mental health outcomes, but limited research exists with respect to African Americans specifically (Lockard, Hayes, Neff and Locke, 2014). The present study explored whether self-compassion could serve as a protective factor between the relations of internalized racism and racist experiences, and the negative mental health outcomes of anxiety, depression, and stress among (N = 230) African American adults. To …

The Role Of Psychological Inflexibility And Self-Compassion In Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Clinical Perfectionism, Clarissa W. Ong, Jennifer L. Barney, Tyson S. Barrett, Eric B. Lee, Michael E. Levin, Michael P. Twohig

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study examined psychological inflexibility and self-compassion as theoretically relevant mediators and moderators of outcomes following acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for clinical perfectionism. Fifty-three participants with clinical perfectionism were randomized to either a 10-session ACT condition or a 14-week waitlist control condition (only 39 completed the post treatment assessment). Outcomes tested include concern over mistakes, doubting of actions, personal standards, quality of life, symptom distress and functional impairment, and valued action. Multilevel modeling analyses showed reduced psychological inflexibility mediated the relationship between condition and higher quality of life and increased self-compassion mediated the relationship between condition and decreased …

Personal And Educational Differences In College Students’ Attitudes Toward Social Justice, Michael Di Bianca B.A., Perrin Robinson M.S., Mary Jo Coiro Ph.D

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

Many colleges and universities encourage students to engage with social justice issues in their education and career discernment. However, a variety of individual attributes and life experiences may predict how college students develop an awareness of and attitudes toward social justice, perhaps including ways in which students relate to their own challenging life experiences and encounter others’ experiences of injustice. This study explored the relationship between individual attributes, educational experiences and social justice attitudes among a sample of 347 college students who completed self-report surveys. Specifically, this study examined a) help-seeking attitudes, b) self-compassion, c) prior experience receiving mental health …

Does A Brief Mindfulness Training Enhance Heartfulness In Students? Results Of A Pilot Study, Myriam Rudaz, Thomas Ledermann, Michael P. Twohig, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

(1) Background: There is robust evidence that mindfulness trainings enhance mindfulness as operationalized in Western psychology, but evidence about their effect on aspects of heartfulness is sparse. This study seeks to test whether a brief mindfulness training enhances heart qualities, including self-compassion, gratitude, and the generation of feelings of happiness.

(2) Methods: Eighteen students enrolled in a mindfulness training that was offered as part of an interdisciplinary class. The training consisted of five training sessions and four booster sessions of 45 minutes each over the course of nine weeks. Mindfulness was measured with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire-Short Form (FFMQ-SF) …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Of Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Clinical Perfectionism, Clarissa W. Ong, Eric B. Lee, Jennifer Krafft, Carina L. Terry, Tyson S. Barrett, Michael E. Levin, Michael P. Twohig

Psychology Faculty Publications

Clinical perfectionism is characterized by imposing excessively high standards on oneself and experiencing severe distress when standards are not met. It has been found to contribute to the development and maintenance of various clinical presentations including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and eating disorders. The present study tested the efficacy of ten weekly individual sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) relative to a waitlist control on clinical perfectionism and global outcomes among 53 individuals with clinical perfectionism. ACT is a process-based therapy that targets maladaptive underlying processes (e.g., rigid adherence to unrealistic high standards) rather than symptom topography (e.g., anxiety, depression). Participants …

Mindfulness And Acceptance-Based Trainings For Fostering Self-Care And Reducing Stress In Mental Health Professionals: A Systematic Review, Myriam Rudaz, Michael P. Twohig, Clarissa W. Ong, Michael E. Levin

Psychology Faculty Publications

This review summarizes the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), Mindful Self-Compassion (MSC), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to foster self-care and reduce stress in mental health professionals. Twenty-four quantitative articles from PsycInfo and PubMed were identified that focused on mindfulness, self-compassion, psychological flexibility, stress, burnout, or psychological well-being. All MBSR and MBCT studies lacked active control conditions, but some of the ACT studies and one MSC study included an active control. Most studies support evidence that all training programs tend to improve mindfulness and some also self-compassion. In addition, psychological flexibility was measured in …

Perceived Stress, Self-Compassion, And Emotional Variance In Parents Of Children With Communication Disorders: A Family Approach To Service Delivery In Speech-Language Pathology, Olivia Marie Arnos

Theses and Dissertations

The amount of children born with developmental disorders in the United States is on the rise, increasing from 12.8% in 1998 to 15.04% in 2008 (Huang, Chang, Chi & Lai, 2013). Children with developmental disabilities often have chronic conditions that require additional support across their lifetime, ranging in deficits of attention, physical abilities, visual impairments, hearing impairments, learning disabilities, and communication disorders. Research has shown as dependency of a child on caretakers increases, there is an increase in parental stress and a decrease in perceived well-being. Hall and Graff (2011) found parents of children with developmental disorders are less likely …

Emotions In Teaching: Self-Compassion, Stacey Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

It has been hypothesized that negative emotions, left unresolved, contribute to feelings of burnout experienced by teachers. Self-compassion offers a kind, mindful way of approaching difficult emotions. The purpose of this study is to explore how teachers experience self-compassion by qualitative means. In semi-structured interviews, four elementary school teachers shared critical incidents of self-doubt or disappointment in their teaching. They also completed Neff's (2003a) Self Compassion Survey. Through intra-case and cross case analysis the findings revealed how teachers' lived experiences include episodes of conflict, reflection, resolution, and self-compassion, but in differing orders. Also, participants experienced self-compassion in ways that align …

The Mediating Effect Of Self-Awareness In The Relations Of Self-Compassion And Training Variables To Therapist Self-Efficacy, I-Ching Grace Hung

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Therapist self-awareness is widely regarded by educators and clinicians as an essential factor that allows psychotherapists to treat clients effectively (Ridley, Mollen, & Kelly, 2011b). Accordingly, a central goal of therapist training is to increase self-awareness, which is believed to lead to important training outcomes, such as stronger trainee self-efficacy in clinical abilities (e.g., Barnes, 2004; Daniel, Roysircar, Abeles, & Boyd, 2004). Despite this common belief, there is a scarcity of theory and research on the role of self-awareness in affecting therapist training outcomes (Pieterse, Lee, Ritmeester, & Collins, 2013). Using a Social Cognitive Model of Counselor Training (SCMCT; Larson, …

An Alternate Way To “Feel Good”: Interventions To Promote Self-Compassionate Students And Classrooms, Jessica Lloyd-Hazlett, Megan Maestri

The William & Mary Educational Review

While well intentioned, conflation of self-esteem and wellbeing within the classroom has contributed to inflated grades, overreliance on accolades, and frustrated efforts to promote “feeling good” over building competence. The current paper suggests self-compassion is a viable alternative to the construct of self-esteem that shares significant overlap, but also transcends inherent shortcomings a focus on self-esteem creates. Classroom interventions to promote self-compassion, such as the blessings exercise, relaxation techniques, gratitude visits, and savoring, are outlined, as well as important cultural and developmental considerations.