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Stress is an inevitable part of school leadership. However, little is known about the main causes of school leaders' stress in Ireland, and their association with workplace wellbeing and leaders' daily responsibilities. The current paper aimed to address this gap. A cross-sectional, mixed-methods design survey was conducted with 267 school leaders in the Republic of Ireland, the majority of whom were at least 5 years in their role. The qualitative results demonstrated that three main issues causing leaders stress were (1) relational issues, (2) systemic issues relating to the external pressures, and (3) systemic issues relating to their daily responsibilities. A further, multiple regression identified that 29% of the variance in leaders' stress was explained by daily responsibilities with two, in particular, predicting their higher stress levels (1) employee relations (beta = 0.24), and (2) new teacher or substitute teacher appointments (beta = 0.22). Finally, 25% of the variance in leaders' stress was explained by work-related wellbeing, in particular, four factors predicted leaders' stress levels (1) perceiving their work as meaningful, (2) high levels of physical health, (3) high levels of positive affect, and (4) low levels of negative affect. The implications of the study are discussed along with the recommendations for future research.

A substantive body of research demonstrates negative bias toward reporting characteristics of young people associated with bullying and cyberbullying in schools, as both victims and perpetrators. The current study proposes a different approach. A sample of 2,799 postprimary school pupils aged 12 to 19 years (M = 15.5, SD = 1.66), divided equally across males and females, completed the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for Youth questionnaire (VIA-Youth; Park & Peterson, 2005) and Corcoran's (2013) modified version of the net-TEEN questionnaire (Machmutow et al., 2012). A series of stepwise regression analyzes found that the strength of "prudence" was a common denominator predicting nonparticipation in school bullying--as both perpetrators and victims of traditional and cyberbullying. Furthermore, the current study identified a list of other character strengths, such as "fairness" and "love, which predicted noninvolvement of each of the 4 bullying groups (traditional bullies, traditional victims, cyber bullies, cyber victims) differently. Implications of the current research for both practitioners and researchers are discussed, including the potential for the creation of a prosocial, strength-based program to prevent bully/victim problems in schools.

Objective: While a link between strength-based parenting and social-emotional wellbeing has been previously established, little is known about the role that school belonging plays in moderating this relationship. The present study examined the mediating and moderating role of school belonging in the association of strength-based parenting with social-emotional wellbeing among young people. Method: The current study surveyed 343 students in grades 6-8 from Turkey, using the Strength-Based Parenting scale, Social and Emotional Health Survey-Primary, and School Belongingness Scale. Results: Mediation analyses showed that strength-based parenting predicted school belonging, gratitude, zest, optimism, and persistence and that school belonging mediated the effect of strength-based parenting on social-emotional wellbeing. Moderation analysis identified the predictive impact of strength-based parenting on student social-emotional wellbeing, only for those whose belonging was low to moderate. Conclusions: Overall, these results indicate the importance of school belonging on youth social-emotional wellbeing in the context of parental experiences. Discussed are the implications of the current study that can inform the policy and practice.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to disrupt education in unprecedented ways. The first school closures in Ireland took place in March 2020, affecting many students, but especially those who were preparing for their end-of-school Leaving Certificate (LC) examinations. The aim of this study was to assess the extent to which COVID-19 had impacted the health and wellbeing of the 'class of 2020'. Some comparisons were also made with a 2015 health and wellbeing survey undertaken in Ireland. A total of 959 LC students completed an online survey. The findings demonstrated substantial negative impacts of COVID-19 on overall health and wellbeing. The comparison with the 'pre-COVID' (2015) sample of LC students also showed that the current cohort was faring statistically significantly worse across several domains. This is the only study to investigate the health and wellbeing of this cohort in the context of COVID-19. The findings provide important insights into impacts on student mental health and wellbeing; they also raise questions about how those who went on to Third Level, are faring, in light of continuing disruption to their studies and in the context of the already large numbers of Third Level students presenting with mental health problems in Ireland (and elsewhere).

Aim(s): The sense of belonging is considered one of the basic human needs, supporting engagement in education and increasing wellbeing. Yet few studies have attempted to enhance levels of student belonging in school, which is what the current study aimed to do. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of a classroom-based, peer intervention to enhance students' sense of belonging Method/rationale: An experimental study was carried out with 55 fourth and fifth grade students, aged nine to eleven, at an international school in France. Two measures were used: The Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM), which measured students' sense of belonging, and the Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) evaluating their life satisfaction. Data were collected from the experimental and wait/control group before, immediately post intervention and a month later. Findings: Results of the full-scale tests demonstrate statistically significant growth in mean values in both the PSSM school belonging measure and the MSLSS student life satisfaction measure. Statistically significant growth was also found when the peer group questions were separated from the overall scale, but not in the friendships' subsection of the MSLSS. Limitations: Future studies should consider a larger sample and an experiment with students from at least two schools. Conclusions: Results provided evidence for the effectiveness of an intervention to enhance school belonging and student life satisfaction.