Holding it together: an explanatory framework for maintaining subjective well-being (SWB) in principals

Principals’ health and well-being has been recognised as a concern at National and State levels in Australia (Riley, 2012) and internationally (Pont, Nusche, & Moorman, 2008). Whilst this concern is well documented within the literature there is little research into how principals are actually maintaining their Subjective Well-Being (SWB). This study sought to investigate and explore the strategies that experienced principals utilised in order to maintain their SWB. Diener’s (2006, 2009) work on SWB formed the basis for the concept of SWB used in this study. This study used an interpretive case study methodology. The focus of the case was principals’ SWB and within the case there were multiple participants. The model used in the design of this study was ‘An Interactive Model of Research Design’ (Maxwell, 2009). Data were gathered from a purposive geographical sample of school principals in one Australian state (N = 11) using two semi-structured interviews each approximately 60 to 90 minutes in duration. Four specific steps (referred to by Cohen et al., 2007) were used to analyse the data in order to: generate units of meaning; classify, categorise and order these units of meaning; structure narratives to describe the interview contents; and interpret the interview and survey data. Data revealed that the participants in this study were constantly evaluating their own performance (action) against what they perceived a competent principal would do, given the circumstances. Each principal had a unique perspective as to what constituted competency. When the participants evaluated the moments alongside their perceived standard of what a competent principal should do and the evaluation was positive, it had a positive impact on their SWB. The impact was positive because the participants experienced positive affect, and/or experienced low level negative moods, and/or felt satisfied with life. Therefore principals saw themselves as doing a good job because of their actions (i.e., making a positive difference in the lives of students and others) and this contributed to their positive SWB. Analysis of the data revealed that participants were utilising previous experience (i.e., tacit knowledge), and then surfacing this knowledge to inform particular ways of working (i.e., tacit knowing) to maintain their SWB. Analysis of the data illuminated that this way of working involved three processes: 1) Fuel It (FIT) Process; 2) Awakening, Thinking, Enacting, Reflecting (ATER) Process; and 3) MegaPositioning. Processes were selected based upon the principal’s evaluation of the moment, and their preferred way of working. The findings show that tacit knowing is strongly linked to the maintenance of SWB. The study is significant as it highlights the process and strategy selection that experienced principals make in order to maintain their SWB and continue to effectively work in their role as principal. The process of maintaining SWB appears to be learnt and underpinned by experiential knowledge and the surfacing of this knowledge in the self (i.e., tacit knowing). The study makes three new contributions to the field; one is methodological (i.e., the use of methodology for investigating SWB) and the other two are theoretical (i.e., a process for maintaining SWB, captured in the explanatory framework; and tacit knowing informs evaluations linked to SWB). Three recommendations are made as a result of this research: (a) principals need to engage in professional learning throughout their career around improving their own SWB: (b) principals should be provided with safe and supportive opportunities to improve their competency; and (c) principals need an appropriate reporting system for principals with low SWB and the signs of not coping. The findings from this study allow the reader to explore how some Australian principals maintain their SWB. It is suggested that the research could be used in three ways: firstly to provide school principals with current research regarding ways of working that are being utilised in the field to maintain and enhance SWB; secondly to inform principals’ supervisors regarding these ways of working; and thirdly to share these practices with policy makers

Developing an Intervention Toolbox for the Common Health Problems in the Workplace

Development of the Health ↔ Work Toolbox is described. The toolbox aims to reduce the workplace impact of common health problems (musculoskeletal, mental health, and stress complaints) by focusing on tackling work-relevant symptoms. Based on biopsychosocial principles this toolbox supplements current approaches by occupying the zone between primary prevention and healthcare. It provides a set of evidence-informed principles and processes (knowledge + tools) for tackling work-relevant common health problems. The toolbox comprises a proactive element aimed at empowering line managers to create good jobs, and a ‘just in time’ responsive element for supporting individuals struggling with a work-relevant health problem. The key intention is helping people with common health problems to maintain work participation. The extensive conceptual and practical development process, including a comprehensive evidence review, produced a functional prototype toolbox that is evidence based and flexible in its use. End-user feedback was mostly positive. Moving the prototype to a fully-fledged internet resource requires specialist design expertise. The Health ↔ Work Toolbox appears to have potential to contribute to the goal of augmenting existing primary prevention strategies and healthcare delivery by providing a more comprehensive workplace approach to constraining sickness absence

Two sides of the same coin: Opinions and choices of users and non-users related to mobile music listening

Mobile music listening has been explored from several perspectives, however, not much is known about the choices mobile music listeners have to make. Moreover, feedback from non-listeners on music listening has only been given anecdotally and not in the context of research. The aim of this thesis is therefore to investigate what motivates listeners to engage with mobile music and to discover more about the social and personal aspects that influence this engagement, as well as to explore views of non-listeners on mobile music listening. Employing a mixed-methods approach, interviews and participant observation were carried out with eleven mobile music listeners to investigate their thoughts and motivations regarding mobile music listening, and to verify these in practice. Eleven people who do not use portable listening devices were also interviewed about their opinions on mobile music listening. The most striking finding of this thesis is that listeners are not always listeners since they sometimes turn off their devices. The interviews with non-users of portable listening devices confirm that mobile music listening is not always seen as positive but has negative aspects as well, which add an important perspective to understanding this behaviour. Results reveal that mobile music listening is a complex cultural practice that connects to many parts of everyday life. Thus, mobile music listening, and similar practices, need to be studied in context to fully grasp everything that is happening. The new method applied in the first study proved to be beneficial in studying everyday behaviour as it occurs. It helps to gain valuable in-depth information in a short amount of time which is useful for future studies of everyday practices. Finally, results show that mobile music listening is simultaneously more sociable than previously assumed but also perceived as unsociable, which contributes a new perspective to studies of urban behaviour

Contextualising emotion regulation: A mixed-methods approach to understanding the mechanisms through which emotion controllability beliefs influence adolescent anxiety

Given the developmental challenges and opportunities encountered during adolescence and the current COVID-19 context, it seems particularly important to consider protective factors for adolescent mental health, especially anxiety. One such factor relates to the beliefs adolescents hold about whether they can control their emotions. One mechanism for explaining the link between emotion controllability beliefs and anxiety may be emotion regulation. Believing that emotions can be controlled may encourage the use of ‘healthy’ (over ‘unhealthy’) emotion regulation strategies, which can, in turn, lead to better mental health outcomes. Recent revisions to the most widely used process model of emotion regulation (Gross, 2015) suggest that emotion controllability beliefs influence not only emotion regulation choice but the whole emotion-generative-and-regulation process. Research has, however, rarely examined what happens in the different stages of the emotion regulation process (other than the stage of strategy selection), or why certain strategies are preferred over others. Further, theory and research have mainly focused on intra-personal emotion regulation processes, despite emotion regulation often occurring in a social context and likely being influenced by it. The present study aimed to examine the relationships between adolescent emotion controllability beliefs, emotion regulation, and anxiety; explore the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of emotion regulation processes, and investigate aspects of the interpersonal context perceived as helpful/hindering in the regulation of anxiety. Year 9 - 11 students recruited from 10 English secondary schools completed questionnaires (n=81) examining the relationships between emotion controllability beliefs, emotion regulation, and anxiety, and semi-structured interviews (n=10) exploring intra- and inter-personal emotion regulation processes. Quantitative findings demonstrated an indirect effect of emotion controllability beliefs on anxiety via ‘healthy’ emotion regulation. Thematic analysis elicited six themes: manifestations of anxiety; negative views around anxiety; individual, contextual, and interpersonal factors (affecting emotion regulation choices); and emotionally-containing environments. Implications for emotion regulation theory, Educational Psychology (EP) practice, mental health assessment and intervention, and educational practices are presented and discussed

Preventing Homelessness: Exploring the Role of Clinical Psychology in Adult Mental Health Services

Aims: With homelessness rates continuing to rise, the government have attempted to address this issue over recent years by turning to public authority employees to take preventative action to those faced with threat of homelessness. How clinical psychology can contribute to the reduction of homelessness in adult mental health services is yet to be explored. This study aimed to better understand the role of clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services to prevent homelessness. Secondly, this study aimed to understand the facilitators and barriers that may get in the way of the profession contributing to the prevention of homelessness. Method: Twelve clinical psychologists working within adult mental health services in the UK participated in individual semi-structured interviews. Thematic analysis was used to identify the participants’ ideas on the role of clinical psychology in the prevention of homelessness within adult mental health services. Results: Three themes were identified through thematic analysis; (1) ‘Understanding Homelessness’ describing how clinical psychologists define and understand homelessness in addition to what influences their understanding. (2) ‘System Structures’ describing NHS structures which may create barriers to prevention, how clinical psychologists have learnt from other organisations and professions and the role of professional bodies, and (3) ‘Clinical Psychologists’ Skills and Relevance’ describing the skills clinical psychologists have to prevent homelessness in the profession before considering reasons why it may not be appropriate for clinical psychologists to intervene in this social issue. Conclusion: This study reviewed the role of clinical psychology in the prevention of homelessness from the perspective of clinical psychologists working in adult mental health services. Clinical psychologists can intervene at an individual, service and political level to prevent homelessness. The profession is encouraged to work at all levels to address the distress caused by social issues that perpetuate homelessness

Evidence-based stragegies to inform urban design decision-making: the case of pedestrian movement behaviour.

Walking is an essential mode of transportation, and pedestrian movement is a major influencing parameter in city design. Due to the complexity of pedestrian behaviour, new insights concerning the significance of factors affecting walking are challenging to obtain without the use of technology. Furthermore, despite the impact of decision-making in the design of buildings and places, there is currently a limited understanding concerning how urban design decisions are best made. This research aims to “assess the adoption of, and opportunities deriving from, data-driven innovation techniques in the design of urban spaces, by the analysis of pedestrian movement patterns in urban environments, and to evaluate how the integration of evidence-based strategies can be established in supporting decision-making in relation to future urban designs”. The research focuses on two groups of stakeholders: Decision-makers in designing buildings and places and End-users undertaking walking activities within urban space. In addressing the aim, a range of research methodologies has been developed and trialled. The work centres on an extended case study concerning a retail high-street locale in London, UK. This study makes several contributions to the immediate field of urban design research. Firstly, the findings advance the research methods applied to study pedestrian movement in urban environments. Secondly, the results offer real impact in practice by demonstrating the value and importance of adopting data-driven innovation techniques in decision-making processes in urban design via the adoption of a quantitative data- driven, evidence-based methodological framework. Thirdly, the findings support decision-making by presenting a novel methodological framework to assess pedestrian routing in urban environments utilising the classification of pedestrian behaviours and spatial visibility interactions. Finally, this study raises awareness of the critical challenges and opportunities, priorities, and potential development areas for applying evidence- based strategies in informing building and urban design decisions. The research presents a series of recommendations for enhancing data-driven innovation techniques in urban design decision-making processes.Natural Environmental Research (NERC)PhD in Environment and Agrifoo

Experiences and strategies influencing older adults to continue playing walking football

Adults aged 55+ are most likely to be inactive, despite research suggesting older adults experience multiple benefits when participating in physical activity and sport. Limited research focuses on long-term continuation of sport participation in this population, especially in 'adapted sports' like walking football. This study explored experiences of walking football maintenance in 55- to 75- year-old players. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 older adults maintaining walking football play over six months. Inductive analysis revealed five higher-order themes representing maintenance influences, and two higher-order themes relating to maintenance mechanisms (i.e., the conscious process by which players maintain). Influences when maintaining walking football included individual-level and culture-level influences (e.g. perceived benefits of maintenance and ability acceptance). Maintenance mechanisms included cognitions and behaviours (e.g., scheduling sessions and redefining physical activity expectations). Findings highlight novel implications for policy and practice, which are important to consider when delivering walking football to older adults. Keywords: older adults, football, soccer, behaviour change, maintenance, qualitative methods, interview