Social-emotional and intercultural (SEI) competencies have documented positive effects on individual-level and school-level outcomes (e.g. Taylor et al., 2017) but there are still considerable variations across countries in the availability of policies and programmes aimed at enhancing these competencies  (OECD, 2015). At the same time, neither social-emotional nor intercultural competencies of school staff cannot be assumed and must be promoted at the systemic level (Downes & Cefai, 2017) to create an inclusive environment and develop students' and staff’s competencies. One of the five main social-emotional competencies is self-awareness (CASEL, 2015), which can be reached by mindfulness training. Mindfulness is defined as a process of regulating attention with the aim of bringing awareness to the present experience and relating to one’s experience within the orientation of curiosity, experiential openness, and acceptance. It also gives us an insight into the nature of one’s mind and the adoption of a balanced perspective (on thoughts and feelings so that they can be experienced in terms of their subjectivity) (Bishop et al., 2016). As a self-regulatory capacity, a meta-cognitive and an acceptance skill, mindfulness is (by directing attention to the cognitive, emotional and physical experiences) a prerequisite for healthy self-regulation (Kadziolka et al., 2016). As many teachers face different daily challenges (i.e. overcrowded classrooms, high numbers of students with behavioural and emotional problems, changing their practice to online teaching), a mindfulness-based intervention has a potential of reducing theirs’ stress and enhancing their ability to handle their job effectively and satisfactory (Ancona & Mendelson, 2014).

Research shows that (both dispositional and stat) mindfulness is associated with a variety of wellbeing constructs: better regulation (enhanced self-awareness), positive emotional states, lower stress and less mood disturbance (Brown & Ryan, 2003). Mindfulness, including present-centred attention and acceptance of experience, enables us to clarify our experiences, meaning that it improves our ability to manage negative emotions that might arise (Coffey et al., 2010). It begins by bringing awareness to our current experience, where we observe and attend to the shifting of our thoughts, feelings and sensations, from one moment to another, while maintaining and regulating our focus of attention (Bishop et al., 2016). It can be developed by practising moment-to-moment awareness of objects, sensations and emotions, by accepting them as they are, without attempting to change, evaluate or control them (Maloney et al., 2016). Tackling teacher’s mindfulness skills can influence, apart from their well-being, their teaching and relationships with students. Furthermore, mindful teachers have a higher quality of teacher-student relationships, which is one of the key predictors of children’s later social and emotional competencies and academic achievement (Becker et al., 2017). The aim of the present study was to analyse the associations between mindfulness (the capacity for observing, describing, acting with awareness, and accepting without judgement) and experienced emotional problems in primary school teachers, principals, counsellors and other school staff from three EU countries (Slovenia, Croatia, and Sweden). We will present the analysis of the responses from 355 participants which were included in the Hand in Hand project, which aims to increase the social-emotional and intercultural competencies of students and school staff.

Participants The randomized sample consisted of school staff from 36 primary schools from three countries (N = 355; 64,2% of teachers) who participated in the European Erasmus KA3+ Hand in Hand project, which aimed to increase the social, emotional (e.g. self-awareness, self-management) and intercultural competencies of students and school staff. The sample consists of school staff from Slovenia (N = 151; 74,8% of teachers), Croatia (N = 97; 52,6% of teachers) and Sweden (N = 107; 59,8% of teachers). Instruments The Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) is a multidimensional self-report inventory that assesses four mindfulness skills: observing, describing, acting with awareness and accepting without judgement (Baer et al., 2004). Teachers assessed to what extent the statements describe their behaviour on a 5-point Likert scale (1 – “Never or rarely ever true”, 5 – “Very often or always true”). Internal consistency of the four scales has been reported as good with Cronbach’s’ alpha ranging between .83 and .91 (Baer et al., 2004). After the pilot study, the scales used in the field trials were shortened for two dimensions, describe (from 8 to 7) and observe (from 12 to 7). Our Cronbach´s alpha ranged from .66 to .90. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman et al., 1998), measures adolescents of 11 years and above self-reported problems with conduct, emotions, peer relations, prosocial behaviours and hyperactivity. Of the questionnaires 25 attributes, 10 are classified as strengths, 14 as difficulties and one statement is deemed neutral. Of the overall five subscales, we used emotional problems scale (e.g. “I am often unhappy, depressed or tearful.”), which consist of 7 items. Teachers assessed to what extent they agree with the statements on a 5-point Likert (1 – “Strongly disagree”, 5 – “Strongly agree”). The Cronbach´s alpha´s ranged from .84 to .90. Procedure This study is a part of the Erasmus + project: HAND in HAND: Social and Emotional Skills for Tolerant and Non-discriminative Societies (A Whole School Approach). In September 2018 teachers, principals and other school staff completed an online version of questionnaires tapping SEI competencies, classroom climate, and demographic variables. We only present data for the selected measures. Reliability tests, descriptive statistics, correlations and multiple regression analysis (method: Enter) were calculated with IBM SPSS Statistics 21.

All four mindfulness dimensions are negatively correlated with experiencing emotional problems in teachers in all three countries. So, the more they report possessing the skills attributed to being mindful, the less emotional problems they state to be experiencing, and vice-versa. We also analysed the predictive power of four mindfulness dimensions (KIMS; Baer et al., 2004) for the experienced emotional problems (SDQ; Goodman et al., 1998) in primary school teachers and other school staff. All mindfulness dimensions account for 51,2% of the variance in experiencing emotional problems of teachers in Slovenia, 39,2% in Croatia and 36,3% in Sweden. Results show that there are two components of mindfulness (Accepting without judgement and Acting with awareness) that are important negative predictors for the experienced emotional problems in all participating countries. They alone explain 49,1% of the variance in Slovenia, 38,0 % in Croatia and 32,6% in Sweden. The capacity to describe is a component that is also an important predictor in Slovenia, and just above the p-value border in Sweden. These results suggest that increasing mindfulness skills could lead to lesser emotional problems experienced by teachers and other school staff. Furthermore, people who have more emotional problems could have less capacity to be mindful because they are overwhelmed by their problems. These are some of the results from the first measurement from the HAND in HAND field trials, which consisted of a randomized quasi-experimental trial in the selected countries, using mindfulness practice as one of the core ingredients in a whole-school approach programmes. In the next study, we will try to elaborate, whether a mindfulness-based programme could increase mindfulness skills and as a result also reduce experiencing emotional problems of participating school staff members and students.

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