Teacher well-being is crucial for keeping teachers thriving and for student success. However, little is known about pre-service teacher well-being, which is likely important for learning outcomes in initial teacher education (ITE) and transitioning into a challenging profession (Dreer, 2021; Price & McCallum, 2015). Harnessing a context-specific approach, we conceptualized pre-service teacher well-being with five dimensions: (1) Positive attitudes towards ITE, (2) enjoyment of ITE, (3) positive academic self-concept, (4) worries about ITE, (5) and physical complaints related to ITE (Haldimann et al., 2024). To account for the complexity of well-being experiences and better understand how these dimensions may co-occur among pre-service teachers, we investigated potential well-being profiles. We were also interested in associations of these profiles with subjective ITE evaluations. Pre-service teachers tend to critique ITE for being overly research-based and neglecting practical relevance. Based on the person-environment fit theory (French et al., 1982), we assumed that pre-service teachers’ orientation towards research-based ITE (e.g., gaining theoretical knowledge and learning basic scientific skills) might be linked with membership in more adaptive well-being profiles. We also assumed that profiles would differ regarding quitting intentions for the ITE program and the teaching career. We explored three research questions: 1. What well-being profiles are evident among pre-service teachers? 2. How is pre-service teachers' orientation towards research-based ITE linked with profile membership? 3. How do well-being profiles differ regarding quitting intentions for the ITE program and the teaching career? Our cross-sectional study included data from 2,867 pre-service teachers who participated in an online survey in spring 2021. Main analyses involved confirmatory factor analysis and latent profile analysis conducted in Mplus. Standardized factor scores were used as profile indicators. We applied the manual BCH three-step approach (Vermunt, 2010) to examine the relationship between pre-service teachers' orientation towards research-based ITE and profiles and how profiles differ regarding quitting intentions. Six well-being profiles were identified. Pre-service teachers who reported higher orientation towards research-based ITE were, for 11 out of 15 profile comparisons, more likely to belong to a more adaptive well-being profile than a less adaptive one (OR: 1.38-3.50). More adaptive well-being profiles also displayed lower quitting intentions for the ITE program and the teaching career. The findings call for well-being interventions tailored to the different profiles. Successful strategies could involve deepening pre-service teachers' understanding of the role of research in ITE. The study also illustrates the importance of pre-service teacher well-being for teacher retention.

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