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7
Psychological Well-Being as
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A school that sets itself the task of promot- ing psychological wellbeing is a school that has, as its guiding principle, the objective of agreeing with the students’ individual perceptions to un- derstand their needs and potentials, being aware of the crucial role that phenomenology plays in the life of each pupil and in the process of social development (Gray, Galton, McLaughlin, Clarke,
& Symonds, 2011). Thus, it is necessary for edu- cational projects to be conceived and carried out starting from the pupils’ mental representation of their individual and social wellbeing (Doll and Cummings 2008). It is a question of helping the school to reach a deeper understanding of what is happening with its students and to be more conscious of their daily problems and dynamics which characterize the educational and formative work (Currie et al., 2004; Morrison, 2008).
Why discuss wellbeing in the school? To an- swer this question, we ought to analyse the scien- tific insights of the pupils’ interest in their quality of life and then offer suggestions that can facili- tate interventions aimed at promoting wellbeing at school (Deci & Ryan, 2008; Hoyle, Samek, &
Valois, 2008; Konu & Lintonen, 2006).
Some scientific evidence shows that wellbe- ing is linked to the capacity of individuals to fully realize themselves, expressing a rich and balanced personality, and being able to accept themselves and others. These parameters justify a multidimensional model of individual wellbe- ing in which the individual dimensions meet the social ones (DeSantis et al., 2006).
In the literature, the multidimensional defi- nitions of health and wellbeing are consistent on three principal issues (Ben-Aryeh & Gorge, 2006; Devine & Cohen, 2007; Talbot & Verrind- er, 2010):
1. Personal satisfaction about one’s own life.
This dimension is defined in terms of ability to reach one’s own goals and to be properly recognized.
2. Growth and personal development. This con- cept is defined by the ability to participate in activities associated with goal attainment but also based on autonomy, expression of one’s own potential, and on a general ability to give meaning to one’s life.
3. Social wellbeing. This issue is defined as the sense of belonging to a community, positive attitudes toward the others, the ability to con- tribute to the improvement of one’s society, and engagement in prosocial behaviours.
Thus, if a society agrees to advocate for its citi- zens’ happiness, satisfaction, and ability to give meaning to their lives, then it should recognize that personal development is a fundamental pas- sage toward producing social wellbeing (Searle, 2008).
From this point of view, shaping the will of each individual becomes a primary aim, so that each individual comes to an internalized and stable readiness to make conscious choices aimed at wellbeing. This aim may be realized only with time. First to come into play are the different visions of the world, the peculiarities of problem perception and problem solving, and the different lifestyles adopted in adult life but shaped by the diverse experiences encountered during one’s youth (Sixsmith, Gabhainn, Flem- ing, & O’Higgins, 2007). Among these experi- ences, those encountered during adolescence have a major role. In this phase of change and growth, each individual puts to test attitudes and behaviours acquired in the family context before reorganizing and internalizing them into his/her personality (Elliott & Mihalic, 2004). Family, school, and peers are the life environments which are considered the most significant contexts for the education of the young. Thus, individual wellbeing cannot be considered as limited only to the corporal field; it also requires recognition (mainly by the responsible adults) of its mutual relations with the psychological and relational fields (Friedman, 2003).
When involved with wellbeing promotion in childhood and adolescence, it is necessary to place the development task within a framework that considers all the various forms of satisfac- tion—physical, social, emotional, and intellec- tual—as essential components for the develop- ment of human life and social progress (Collins, Murphy, & Bierman, 2004). With their entrance into primary school, children come into a world of expectations. They must learn and must show that they are learning; they must read, write, and
count; and they must work hard and not disap- point. They are expected to learn a plethora of subjects, including languages, social studies, sound and music, mathematics, physical educa- tion, visual arts, and religion. And over the years, these subjects and their demands become increas- ingly complex and time consuming.
Many parents often underestimate, or even deny, maladjusted or symptomatic behaviours in their children, until they interfere with aca- demic performance (Ghuman, 2002). Frequently, behaviours of hyperactivity, emotional lability, anxious, phobic, and depressive or aggressive actions, already in existence but ignored, are not recognized for their actual maladaptive potential (Durlak, 1995; Steelea, Steelea, & Croftb, 2008).
The primary school is the first structured oppor- tunity to assess children’s behavioural and so- cial–emotional functioning (Fredrickson, 2000;
Robyn, 2006; St. Leger, 2006).
From 6 years of age, behaviours, conduct, re- lationships, and emotions largely depend on pre- vious experiences during infancy and early child- hood. Between the ages of 11 and 14 (typically at age 12), children transition to secondary level school. In Italy, this decrees the end of childhood and entrance into adolescence. Expectations and demands change. The complexity of academic studies increases, primary school teachers are succeeded by tutors, the rules are more defined, and the atmosphere of the school environment re- quires a more mature level of behaviour. Also for the teachers, this passage represents an important and difficult challenge: In addition to the trans- ference of knowledge, they must mediate the student’s transition from childhood to early ado- lescence, with all the difficulties, responsibilities, and uncertainties this entails (Stewart-Brown &
Edmunds, 2003).
The impact of greater autonomy, increasing expectations, and gradual identification with the peer group characterizes the adolescent period and is significant for the evolution of the indi- vidual. The cognitive, relational, and emotional skills acquired during childhood become crucial during this significant step into adolescence. The teacher should therefore enhance those skills, channel and reinforce them, or recover failures
and difficulties so that they do not develop into deviant behaviours and maladjustment (Cohen, 2006).
Adolescent behaviours can persist even in later life, creating the phenomenon of “prolonged adolescence” (Furlong & Cartmel, 2007). That is, although the beginning of adolescence is easily identified because it coincides with the advent of puberty, establishing its end is difficult because it does not depend solely on psychological and cultural factors but also on economical and jobs market conditions. The sharp contraction of the labour market, along with the contemporaneous rise of quality-of-life levels, forces young people to carry on being economically dependent on their families. For Italian young people, this phe- nomenon has considerably weakened the will to be autonomous, creating an unprecedented gen- eration of late teenagers (“bamboccioni”) rather advanced in years.
Boys and girls, even if at different times and with specific modalities, gradually acquire more and more introspective ability and depth in per- ceiving emotions and love. They feel a press- ing push toward autonomy that manifests itself through the search for more exclusive and per- sonal satisfactions as well as for new reference models different from those of the family. Anxi- ety, competitiveness, and implementation of in- appropriate or contradictory behaviours are other typical signs of adolescence, likely caused by the increased pressure and expectations from family, peers, and the school (Schwarz & Kay, 2006).
The principal conflict during adolescence is due to the contemporaneous presence of two contradictory conditions: On the one hand, the marked subordination to the family; and on the other, the considerable and increasingly strong desire to be independent and self-fulfilled. Os- cillating between a sense of omnipotence and deep inadequacy, adolescents often put engage in incomprehensible behaviours, rapid changes in mood, and conflicting demands which often shock parents who, in turn, also experience a deep sense of inadequacy (Stewart-Brown & Ed- munds, 2003). Sometimes in these young people emerge intense dependency needs, communi- cative impulses, but also pretensions, anxiety,
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reticence, and closures. These are all signs of the difficulties generated by the simultaneous pres- ence of fear about the future and of an unquench- able will of independence.
In conclusion, every phenomenon can be un- derstood only within its phenomenal sphere (e.g.
psychological wellbeing), considering that the different components which constitute its whole cannot be separated. When dealing with interde- pendent and interactive relations among psycho- logical wellbeing components, it is impossible to understand this process if it is not observed in all its complexity (Rowe, Stewart, & Patterson, 2007). Furthermore, psychological wellbeing of children and youth must be supported at every stage of development in schools, through a prac- tice focused on communication, relationship, and community development (Schertz, 2006).
Current Study
Consistent with the need to understand youths’
mental representations of psychological wellbeing, this chapter represents an attempt to understand Italian students’ perspectives about the factors that contribute to their psychological wellbeing and the aspects of a psychologically healthy school en- vironment. Specifically, it focuses on youth phe- nomenology about cultural expectations, stressors, supports, coping, and reactions to stress. Findings are presented separately for primary and second- ary pupils. This research is part of Nastasi and the International Psychological Well-Being Team’s (2012) Promoting Psychological Well-Being Glob- ally (PPWBG) project, described in Chap. 2. No changes were made to the prescribed protocol.
In this chapter, we present our findings from focus groups and ecomaps to investigate the con- cepts related to children’s and adolescents’ well- being in school. The decision to focus on qualita- tive methods is of primary importance because it allowed us to focus on analysis within the con- text of the school environment and allowed us to reflect the language and terminology pertaining to each stakeholder group. The overall research plan reflects a frame of ecological development in the conceptualization of wellbeing (Nastasi,
Varjas, Sarkar, & Jayasena, 1998). Proceeding through an ecological model assumes the exis- tence of a dynamic relational structure between the individual and the school system, ultimately affecting the individual’s wellbeing in terms of self-perception, skills, and personal resource.
This way of conceiving psychological wellbeing involves, for the researcher, a conscious analysis of the possible modalities of accessing the mean- ings that children and adolescents attribute to their own dimension of wellbeing.
The decision to focus on qualitative methods at this stage of the research reflected an under- standing that research disconnected from prac- tice or real-life experience proves inadequate to returning a fair image of the educative prac- tices. In this sense, qualitative research seems particularly useful for the study of educational interactions in specific contexts, as it does not in- troduce intentional and controlled manipulations of the environment, but it analyses the structure of interactions and the change of meaning. The access to the world of meanings utilized by indi- viduals then becomes a necessary condition for developing an efficient research. This study of the context is global because one assumes that an intimate understanding of human experience can emerge only by exploring its complexity.
Qualitative research, even if initiated within a theoretical framework that explicitly guides the researcher in the field, helps to limit the object of the research and define concepts, cat- egories and subcategories that accompany the collection and analysis of data, with the aim of bringing forth theoretical formulations at in- creasing levels of ability to explain effectively the phenomena being investigated (Nastasi &
Schensul, 2005). This requires interacting with the participants and context to ensure under- standing of the complexity of the context in ways that are similar to those who live and work there (Nastasi et al., 2004).
In many cases, qualitative research has the dual purpose of interpreting and transforming data into interventions for emancipation. Re- search in the field of psychology and education is currently very focused on studying the point of view of the educational institution users, and the
trend is to conduct research with the objective of listening to children’s and young people’s voices (Omran & Al-Hafez, 2006; Pyhältö, 2009).
Method
For the great desire I had to see fair Padua, nursery of arts, I am arrived…and am to Padua come, as he that leaves a shallow plash to plunge in the deep, and with satiety seeks to quench his thirst.
(William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 1)
Context
Student data were collected in Padua, a city lo- cated in the northeast of Italy, with a population of about 214,000 (Foresta, Castellan, Donà, &
Nalon, 2011). Padua is a vibrant and youthful city that supports its cultural development through fostering community participation and provid- ing high-profile conferences and art exhibitions.
Padua continues to hold a leading position in the field of higher education, honouring the tradi- tion that began in 1222 with the foundation of one of the oldest universities in the world (Italy’s second oldest), the University of Padua. Padua is also a city that cares about the promotion of psy- chological wellbeing among its population, with a series of studies, projects, and policies aimed at contributing to more effective cooperation between the health/social and education sectors, resulting in better management of preventive and promotive care (Rampazzo, 2013).
Procedures
Data were collected during school years 2010–2011 from pupils of primary and secondary schools. Pu- pils were divided into eight groups, four primary school groups and four lower secondary and sec- ondary school groups. These pupils participated in two sessions of data collection. The first involved the implementation of focus groups and the second included the creation and discussion of ecomaps.
Focus groups and ecomaps faithfully reproduce the
participants’ point of view and are very useful in planning because they provide a common language for stakeholders in different systems (school, fam- ily, health) to evaluate resources for interventions.
These tools allowed us to examine the factors of support and strength, conflict and tension, and the feelings associated with these factors and the po- tential for change. They also allowed us to sum- marize the information of all the parties involved in the development of a multidimensional project.
After contacting the educational agencies we wanted to work with, and after explaining the project in detail, we obtained a formal agree- ment of cooperation with the several schools in Padua, identified here as follows: First Com- prehensive School, Second Comprehensive School, Fifth Comprehensive School, Second- ary School (Sciences), European Language Institute, Secondary School (Sciences), and Grammar School (Humanities). Thanks to the collaboration of these institutions, it was pos- sible to involve pupils between the primary and secondary school. The groups of partici- pants were chosen to ensure homogeneity in the socio-demographic provenance of the par- ticipants (see Table 7.1). The study involved 64 pupils in total, 32 aged 6–11 years (16 females and 16 males) and 32 aged 12–17 years (16 fe- males and 16 males).
Data were collected over the course of two sessions with small groups of six or eight stu- dents, matched for age and socio-demographic characteristics. The sessions were designed to meet the agreement with the host school and not to interfere with the normal teaching activities.
In many cases, we were given a separate room where we could accompany the participants on a journey of discovery and sharing of meanings related to wellbeing and life quality. We always tried to conduct our focus groups and ecomap interviews in a place that could ensure the pri- vacy of the participants, far away from noise and day-to-day school activities. We were committed to following and supporting the participants’ dis- cussions and activities after a brief introduction, to facilitate the work of the group and individual involvement. We did our best to encourage each participant to express his/her ideas, to support the
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expression of different points of view, and usual- ly concluded by asking which topics they would want to explore in more detail.
Findings
Ecomap and focus group findings were triangu- lated and aggregated to identify themes about cultural expectations, stressors, coping, and reac- tions to stress. Triangulated findings are present- ed separately for primary and secondary pupils.
Primary School
Analysis of focus group and ecomap data from primary school pupils delineated a rather com- plex frame about the dimensions associated with psychological wellbeing at this stage of life. It also revealed the features that can support effec- tive planning of educational interventions geared
toward health and wellbeing promotion at school.
Figure 7.1, an ecomap prepared by an 8-year-old student, exemplifies which aspects of the social network are associated with the formulation of psychological wellbeing. Specifically, supportive relationships are associated with friends, stress- ful relationships with teachers, and ambivalent (both stress and support) relationships with par- ents and friends. To further illustrate, during one of the focus group sessions, a 7-year-old girl shared with her friend:
The other day I…I did not understand what the teacher said we had to do at home and she (my friend) explained me everything again and then came to my house and we did homework together.
We studied, had a snack and then we played at being teachers with school notebooks. She under- stands me, she likes to dress like I dress myself, she likes to play the games I like most and she doesn’t like the girls I don’t like either: we get along famously forever and everer!
Similar to other 6–11-year-old participants, this girl acknowledged the importance of compliance
Table 7.1 Pupils’ socio-demographic characteristics ( n = 64)
Demographic characteristic Demographic category Number (n) Percentage (%)
Age (in years) 6–8 16 25
9–11 16 25
12–14 16 25
15–17 16 25
Gender Female 32 50
Male 32 50
Grade level Primary 32 50
Secondary I 16 25
Secondary II 16 25
Fathers’ education Compulsory 17 25
Secondary 34 54
University degree 13 21
Mother’s education Compulsory 10 15
Secondary 40 63
University degree 14 12
Father’s occupation level Low (worker/craftsman) 14 22
Average (clerk/teacher) 35 54
High (professional/managerial) 15 24
Mother’s occupation level Low (worker/craftsman) 19 30
Average (clerk/teacher) 36 57
High (professional/managerial) 9 13
Family context Married 46 72
Divorced 13 20
Single parent 5 8
and communication among friends. A 7-year-old male shared the following about his interactions with a classmate that typify the mix of stress and support within a relationship:
Today in the canteen we played at riddles and he stopped playing because he didn’t want to stick to the rule that when one guessed correctly, it was someone else’s turn to play. And he went away, and he got angry. Then I do not like that when he tells you he will do something, he never does it. But, except when he acts foolishly or says a lot of swear words things, and he almost always does that.
Anyway, when he is not offensive, he is even nice.
In the garden he invents new games and makes all the children play. Then he is good at football and when it does not insult me, he makes me laugh.
There you are!
From such brief excerpts of interviews, it is pos- sible to observe how students, ages 6–11 years, emphasize the importance of implementing ac- tions aimed at increasing the sensation of feeling good together, of being able to provide mutual support, and to quell conflicts. These consider- ations become even stronger if we analyse data related to difficulties of adaptation.
According to the participants, difficulties of adaptation in this age group are due primarily to personal issues that emerge and are negatively reinforced as a consequence of bad relations with others. A 9-year-old boy, during the individual interview, stated:
Yes, I do not get along with…. He steals the pens and felt-tips off the box. Once he stole the comics that we brought in for the Italian language lesson.
The biggest problem is that he is always hitting all of us. Today we were in the garden, he dug a hole in the ground and threw the earth to all the chil- dren who passed by, we got angry with him and we jumped on him, we struck him to the ground but he would not stop and he punched at random and he hurt all of us.
With regard to the difficulties encountered in re- lationships, participants complained about situa- tions in which they are systematically ridiculed and belittled in the group of peers. During an interview, a 7-year-old girl, talking about a class- mate, said:
This mate here, I do not like him very much. I told you he was taking the mickey out of me also today…he makes me feel…mmm…he makes me angry because he always beats up everybody and he excludes me. Today he did not let me play…he says I’m clumsy because the two second-classes, A and B, are playing at war. Each class has its own paper balls and they must catch those of the other class…who, who is caught is out of the game…my class, the II A always wins, but…doesn’t let me to play because he says I’m a girl and I’m clumsy.
During focus groups, pupils also produced state- ments such as:
Sometimes I feel hurt when they tease me…maybe because I say what I think and I say with whom I’m in love…. (Female, 6 years old)
Fig. 7.1 My best friend is my other half. Ecomap designed by an 8-year-old female student