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The 2016 Australian Principal Health and Wellbeing Survey

Opens for existing participants on July 27th, 2016

Opens for NEW PARTICIPANTS August 1st, 2016

YOUR PARTICIPATION IS VITALLY IMPORTANT

High Response Rates mean Governments Listen

Research Impact

• Approximately 40% of Australian principals have participated, demonstrating strong support for the research from within the industry.
• The impact of the research is also reflected in the funding. The recent success with the Australian Research Council Linkage Grant (LP 160101056) funding that secures the running of the survey in Australia until 2019 demonstrates strong support from the academy as well as the industry partners.
• Every state department of education has been briefed on the research outcomes and implementing new policies to address issues uncovered by the research, at their request.
• Since the release of the 2014 report TV, Radio, Print and on-line outlets have reached ~10,000,000 Australians (~50% of the population). The ACU media office reported no other research project has attracted this amount of media coverage.
• The findings have had wide ranging political impact and departments of education around the country are now routinely briefed on the findings.
• Immediate benefit to the education workforce came through two changes in policy by the Teachers Health Fund: a) reducing waiting periods for psychological services from 12 months to 8 weeks; and b) rebating telepsychology for their members in remote locations.
• The project is building a significant database that grows annually and increasing scholarship in the field. As the database grows so has the interest from the academy.

Survey Changes 2016

The Australian Catholic University is continuing the longitudinal study into the occupational health, safety and wellbeing of school leaders. This year we welcome the financial support from The Australian Research Council through the Linkage Grant Scheme, and the continued support from Teachers Health Fund, APPA and AHISA. We also welcome Catholic Church Insurance (CCI) and the New South Wales Secondary Principals Council (SPC) as new partners. Together they are funding the Australian Principal Health and Wellbeing Survey 2016-2019.

The research team has been greatly expanded in 2016-2019, made possible by the Australian Research Council grant. We aim to help policy makers better understand school leaders’ occupational context and work-related health and wellbeing issues. The team also plans to identify what helps principals to thrive and build on this to develop professional learning opportunities in conjunction with the principals’ associations.

The survey involves all principals, assistants and deputies in every sector of every Australian state and territory. It is being conducted in response to concerns that the increasing complexity and workload demands of school leadership roles are impacting on the health and wellbeing of Australian school leaders.

Survey data is providing evidence to policy makers about the real but often hidden costs and benefits of initiatives such as the introduction of a national curriculum and changes to national testing and accountability requirements.

The survey is being conducted by members of The Institute for Positive Psychology and Education at ACU. It is independent of all employer groups, professional associations and unions. All individual survey data is kept strictly confidential and no individual or school will be identifiable in any reporting of the results.

All participants receive an instant, individualised report on their personal health and wellbeing status and can compare this to others in similar school situations.

We hope you will take the time to participate, here is the direct link:

http://www.principalhealth.org/surveys/92538

For more information, visit http://www.principalhealth.org

The Research Team

Professor Herbert W. Marsh

IPPE (ACU) and Oxford University, Director International SELF Research Centre

Professor Richard M. Ryan

IPPE (ACU) and Rochester University NY, Co-developer (with Edward L. Deci) of Self Determination Theory

Professor Robert J. Vallerand

IPPE (ACU) and Université du Québec à Montréal. Past President International Positive Psychology Association. Developer of the Dualistic Model of Passion

Dr. Philip D. Parker

IPPE (ACU). ARC DECRA Fellow

Dr. Theresa Dicke

IPPE (ACU) Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Paul W. B. Aikins

IPPE (ACU). Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Simon Beausaert

Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium and Maastricht University, The Netherlands

Dr. Christelle Devos

Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Dr. Dominik Froehlich

Maastricht University, The Netherlands and FHWien, University of Applied Sciences