Well-being in childhood is a much-debated topic, although it remains relatively unexplored. Teachers increasingly play a role in promoting well-being, but studies on their conceptions of this are still limited. The aim of this study was to explore the indicators that pre-service and in-service teachers observe to assess the level of well-being of their students. Qualitative information was collected using a questionnaire with open-ended questions administered to a sample of 49 pre-service and 18 in-service teachers. A deductive qualitative analysis (DQA) was conducted through a two-phase process, involving an initial deductive phase guided by the EPOCH well-being model, followed by a second inductive phase aimed at identifying data-driven themes. The findings showed that teachers’ reported indicators of children’s well-being partially aligned with the EPOCH framework, particularly with the dimensions of Connectedness, Engagement, and Happiness. Perseverance and Optimism did not emerge as distinct categories in teachers’ spontaneous descriptions. In addition, several indicators not explicitly included in the EPOCH model emerged from the qualitative analysis (e.g. Communication and Emotional skills), highlighting the multifaceted ways in which teachers perceive and recognize children’s well-being in educational settings. The findings expand our knowledge on the subject and may inform the future development of tools for measuring children’s well-being in and outside of school.
Distal and proximal stressors cause sexual minority groups to experience excess stress, which can lead to poor mental health outcomes. Internalised heterosexism and meaning in life can act as mediators and moderators in some of these pathways. However, typically all sexual minority people are examined together. The present study aimed to conceptually replicate previous findings, but in a sample of only lesbians, to explore their unique experiences independent of other sexual minority groups. In this cross-sectional self-report study 363 UK lesbians completed an online questionnaire measuring experiences of heterosexist discrimination, internalised heterosexism, search for meaning in life and presence of meaning in life, and psychological distress. Correlations, mediations, and moderated mediations were conducted to explore the relationships between variables. In line with original research, internalised heterosexism significantly partially mediated the heterosexist discrimination and psychological distress relationship (p < 0.001). However, no moderating roles of search for meaning in life, nor presence of meaning in life were found, contrary to previous findings This difference could be due to specific sample characteristics. These results highlight the need for sexual minority women to be centralised in research to ensure interventions aiming to reduce psychological distress are tailored to the specific sexual minority group.
Workplace stress has long been linked to counterproductive work behavior (CWB), yet the challenge-hindrance stressor model (CHM) has rarely been examined as a direct explanation for harmful, norm-violating employee behavior across cultural contexts. Drawing on the CHM, we conducted a meta-analysis, reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020, to examine whether challenge and hindrance stressors are differentially associated with CWB and whether these relationships vary by national culture and method. We searched PsycINFO, Web of Science, EBSCO, Scopus, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar (January 1976–December 2025), supplemented by hand searches; two trained coders extracted 70 effect sizes from 60 independent samples (25,319 employees, 17 countries). Using random-effects psychometric meta-analytic procedures, we corrected correlations for sampling and measurement error and tested Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions, study design, and CWB rating source as moderators. Results showed that hindrance stressors were positively associated with CWB, whereas challenge stressors showed no significant overall relationship with CWB. The hindrance stressor-CWB relationship was more pronounced in cultures lower in power distance, higher in individualism, higher in masculinity, and lower in uncertainty avoidance, but did not vary meaningfully by long-term orientation. Methodological analyses indicated a larger corrected estimate in self-rated than other-rated CWB samples, whereas study design did not meaningfully alter the association. Findings clarify that hindrance stressors are the work demands most consistently associated with harmful employee behavior. These findings also extend the CHM by showing that the stressor-CWB relationship is culturally bounded and methodologically sensitive, highlighting the need for culturally informed stress-management and CWB-prevention practices.
While callousness is typically measured in relation to psychopathic personality traits and disorders, it can also be viewed as more common forms of the two processes of disengagement from taking compassionate action and degree of compassion sensitivity. These processes have been suggested to explain how vast numbers of people become complicit in harmful behaviours like Holocausts. We therefore developed a self-report scale to assess callousness as disengagement from taking action in the face of potential harmful behaviour, and to assess sensitivity to others’ distress. Study 1 (n = 197) applied an exploratory factor analysis while study 2 (n = 208) used confirmatory factor analysis to verify the proposed factor structures. A correlational analysis was conducted using the combined sample (N = 405) which revealed our Callousness as Disengagement from Compassionate Action Scale was significantly linked to dominance and anti-egalitarianism, fears of compassion, striving to avoid inferiority and ruthless self-advancement. It was weakly correlated with uncaring and unemotional traits and sadism. Given the increasing social, economic and political pressures of modern life, future research on these forms of callousness and how to address them is required.
This study examined whether the Big Five Personality Inventory–15p (BFI-15p) elicits socially desirable responding (SD), a potential source of response distortion. Participants were 296 scholarship-holding undergraduates (18–25 years) from a private Mexican university who completed the BFI-15p and the Socially Desirable Response Set–5 (SDRS-5) online. Winsorized Spearman correlations estimated monotonic associations between SD and BFI-15p dimension scores and item responses, and partial rank correlations examined BFI-15p inter-dimension correlations controlling for SD. All BFI-15p dimensions were significantly associated with SD, but magnitudes varied across traits. Agreeableness showed the strongest association (rho: 0.40), followed by Neuroticism (rho: −0.29). Openness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion showed small correlations (rho ≈ 0.15–0.18). At the item level, SD-related responding was not uniform within dimensions with small SD correlations; instead, only specific items (e.g. trustworthiness, perseverance, aesthetic appreciation) showed detectable associations, suggesting greater susceptibility for evaluative content. Controlling for SD reduced correlations among Big Five dimensions, although standardized differences were trivial (q < 0.06), indicating limited SD-related inflation in trait interrelations. Overall, findings provide initial discriminant validity evidence for the BFI-15p and suggest that SD may differentially affect trait scores, particularly Agreeableness, although this pattern may be especially salient in scholarship recipients responding under evaluative conditions.
