The study was conducted in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Research questions are: i. which professional activities do school leaders like, which are a strain on them and which do they actually do? ii. What individual as well as institutional or system factors predict the health of school leaders in terms of job satisfaction, general strain and emotional exhaustion? For operationalization purposes, Huber’s (2009) model of school leadership practices was used and Böhm-Kasper’s (2004) model of school-related stress was adapted to the contextual specificities of school leadership. The study was conducted as: 1. An exploratory study comprising of 20 interviews with school leaders to identify factors of strain; 2. A quantitative, standardized online-survey distributed to school leaders (N=5394, RR=49%) focused preferences and strains in leadership practices and individual and institutional factors, predicting job satisfaction, general job strain and emotional exhaustion; 3. an end-of-day-log covering three work-weeks distributed in Baden-Wurttemberg across one school year (4998 log-entries) and 4. Interviews conducted with school leaders focusing on areas of pressure and tension in school leadership practice and on the interrelations of stress patterns of highly strained school leaders. Generally speaking, school leaders who experience an activity as stressful do not like to perform this activity as much as activities perceived as not stressful. However, there are also some exceptions as even activities that are liked can lead to stress. Tasks that belong to the traditional range of tasks of teachers like teaching or counseling or other aspects of quality development are more popular among school leaders and are experienced as less stressful than tasks that have been added to school leadership responsibilities only recently through changes in the school system as a consequence of decentralization (new public management) as controlling or reporting or other aspects of quality assessment and evaluation. The analysis of the conditioning factors for job satisfaction, occupational stress and emotional exhaustion showed the strongest effects for the individual stress resilience and social support by colleagues: Methods of data analysis such as SEM and HLM show differences between different regions. Organizational context also matters; the development stage of the school, the SES of the parents, size, status of school building, but most of all social factors, particularly the social support by colleagues.

Böhm-Kasper, O. (2004). Schulische Belastung und Beanspruchung. eine Untersuchung von Schülern und Lehrern am Gymnasium. Münster: Waxmann. (Pädagogische Psychologie und Entwicklungspsychologie Bd. 43). Huber, S.G. (2009). Schulleitung. In: S. Blömeke, T. Bohl, L. Haag, G. Lang-Wojtasik & W. Sacher, Werner (Ed.). Handbuch Schule Theorie – Organisation – Entwicklung. (S. 502 – 511). Bad Heilbrunn: Verlag Julius Klinkhardt