The Mental Health Continuum-Short Form (MHC-SF) is a widely used scale aimed at assessing three components of well-being: emotional, social, and psychological. The factor structure of the MHC-SF has been under debate over the past 10 years. The main goal of the present study was to examine the dimensionality of the MHC-SF. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), bifactor CFA, exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), and bifactor ESEM were used to evaluate competing models of the MHC-SF structure. The total sample consisted of 7,521 participants from four countries: The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Serbia. The results indicated that the three CFA factors were very highly related, and that a bifactor ESEM model provided the best fit to the data in all samples. Our findings provided support for the bifactor structure of well-being with a strong general factor explaining most of the variance in the items.
Objectives
Teachers’ stress can affect their occupational health and negatively impact classroom climate and students’ well-being. This study aims to evaluate the proximal and distal effects of a mindfulness-based program, specially developed to promote teachers’ social-emotional competencies (SEC), across teachers, classroom climates, and students’ outcomes.
Methods
The study followed a randomized trial design with two data collection points (pretest and posttest). Participants in the experimental group (EG) included 123 elementary school teachers, their 1503 students, and these students’ parents (1494), while the control group (CG) comprised 105 elementary school teachers, their 947 students, and these students’ parents (913). A mixed data collection strategy was used that included teachers’ and students’ (self-) report, observational ratings of teachers’ classroom behaviors, and parents’ reports on students.
Results
After the intervention, EG teachers, compared to CG teachers, reported a significant increase in mindfulness and emotional regulation competencies, self-efficacy, and well-being and a decrease in burnout symptoms. Similarly, a significant improvement was found in EG teachers’ classroom behaviors related to students’ engagement. Additionally, significant improvements were also found in EG students’ perceptions of the quality of their teachers’ involvement in classroom relationships, self-reported effect, and social competencies perceived by their parents.
Conclusions
These findings further the knowledge on the role played by mindfulness-based SEC interventions in reducing teachers’ burnout symptoms and cultivating their SEC and well-being, in promoting a nurturing classroom climate and also in promoting the SEC and well-being of students.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-021-01635-3.
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