The Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS) at the TU Dortmund University organizes the sixth IFS Virtual Keynote Series. Two keynotes will be held per date. A five-minute introduction is followed by the 45-minute keynotes. After each keynote will be 15 minutes time for moderated questions and answers.
Well-Being in the Educational Context: Understanding and Enhancing Student Well-Being
Insights into student well-being: From demands and resources to balance
Katja Upadyaya (University of Helsinki, Finland)
Student well-being is often described in terms of two related constructs: engagement and burnout in studies. Engagement is characterized by three key dimensions: energy, dedication, and absorption. These dimensions collectively capture students’ psychological investment in their learning processes. In contrast, student burnout manifests as emotional exhaustion, cynicism or detachment from studies, and feelings of inadequacy or reduced efficacy. It arises from prolonged academic stress that overwhelms students’ resources, leading to diminished motivation, well-being, and academic performance. Burnout is considered the erosion or negative counterpart of engagement and poses significant risks to students’ mental health and educational success. The Study Demands-Resources (SD-R) model provides a comprehensive framework for understanding how study demands (workload, stress) interact with available resources (social support, self-esteem) to influence engagement, burnout, and overall well-being. It distinguishes a motivational process, where personal and contextual resources enhance engagement, leading to positive outcomes, from an energy-depleting process, where excessive demands cause burnout and decreased well-being. Resources, such as teacher and parent support, socio-emotional skills, and self-esteem are vital for helping students manage challenges and maintain engagement throughout different educational stages. In addition, the integradted perspective of the study demands-resources model provides possibilities for future interventions.
School-based preventative intervention to foster students’ subjective well-being
Shannon Suldo (University of South Florida, USA)
This presentation will address how to integrate positive psychology assessment and interventions into school mental health services. In particular, this session will describe how to promote students’ subjective well-being through a preventative intervention—the Well-Being Promotion Program (WBPP; Suldo, 2016)—for students who report low life satisfaction during universal screening of mental health. The Well-Being Promotion Program is a manualized, multitarget school-based positive psychology intervention with empirical support for increasing middle school students’ life satisfaction and positive affect (Roth et al., 2017; Suldo et al., 2014). The 10 core WBPP sessions cultivate positive emotions about the past, present, and future; increase engagement through signature strengths use; and build relationships. The presenter will illustrate implementation and evaluation of the WBPP as a preventative intervention through a case study whereby school counselors in six U.S. middle schools (in Florida and Massachusetts) provide the WBPP to students with low SWB. Students served in small groups (6–12 students per group) meet weekly for ten weeks in the fall term (core WBPP), then monthly in the spring term for follow-up sessions to rehearse positive activities from core sessions. Session participants will learn (1) how to identify students for targeted intervention (secondary preventative intervention) through universal screening of subjective well-being, (2) how to implement the Well-Being Promotion Program (WBPP), which fosters gratitude, hope, optimism, character strengths use, and relationships, and (3) how to evaluate outcomes in a clinically and educationally meaningful manner from multiple informants and using multiple methods (Suldo, Fefer, & Shum, 2024).
The conference is free of charge and you may register here.
