BACKGROUND: While student and teacher health enjoy a high level of interest in empirical health research, research on the health of school leaders has barely been on the research agenda. The few studies available indicate, among other things, that school principals are frequently affected by psychological stress, which is more pronounced compared to other occupational groups (Dewa et al., 2009; Philips et al., 2008). Findings in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 indicate that school principals feel stressed primarily due to workload, interpersonal conflict, a lack of resources, and personal pressure (Hansen et al., 2020). Looking at physical and psychological exhaustion, 45% of school principals and school board members surveyed in a German study reported that they find it difficult to recover at the end of a workday, and one-third often/always feel psychologically exhausted (Dadaczynski et al., 2021). In a Swiss study, 29% of school leaders reported reduced well-being, a quarter find it difficult to recover after a workday, and one in five school leaders often feel psychologically exhausted at work (Sandmeier et al., 2021). How school leaders cope with work-related stress and the extent to which work-related coping behaviors are associated with mental health has not been studied to date.

RESEARCH QUESTION: Based on the job demands-resources model (Demerouti et al., 2001) and transactional stress theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), the relationship between work-related stress and mental health of school administrators during the COVID-19 pandemic will be examined. In addition, we will analyze how school principals cope with work-related stress and the extent to which coping behaviors may explain the relationship between stress and mental health.

METHODS: Data from the COVID-HL school leadership study are used, which was conducted in the first half of 2021 with N=2186 school leaders from Germany and N=385 school leaders from Switzerland. For the assessment of mental health, exhaustion as a leading symptom of burnout is used, which was recorded via three items and a five-point likert scale (Schaufeli et al., 2020). Work-related stress was measured using a short version of the Perceived Stress Scale, linguistically adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic and school context (Schneider et al., 2020). To gain initial insights into work-related coping behaviors, three subscales (intensification, extensification, quality reduction) of the Self-endangering Work Behavior Instrument were used (Krause et al., 2015). In addition to gender and age, school type is also included as control variables. Structural equation modeling in R (R Team, 2020) using the integrated development environment and the software RStudio with the package lavaan (Rosseel, 2012) is used to model the interaction of stress, coping behavior, and exhaustion.

RESULTS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE: The data are currently being analyzed, and it is assumed that work-related stress is positively associated with levels of exhaustion. Similarly, it is assumed that all dimensions of coping strategies (intensification, extensification, and quality reduction) are associated with higher levels of exhaustion, and that the association of work-related stress and exhaustion is at least partially explained by coping. Taking into account gender, age and type of school, the results should contribute to target group-specific health promotion of a hitherto neglected occupational group.

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