School principals’ well-being and health promotion during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on schools. However, a limited amount of research has explored its effects on school principals. The literature showed that school leaders report high levels of job stress and they play a key role in activating health promotion strategies for teachers and students. The international COVID-HL School Principals Survey aimed to investigate the stresses and strains that school principals experience and the health promotion measures implemented in schools during the pandemic. A self-report questionnaire was administered to 767 Italian school principals. The questionnaire has been disseminated by school principals’ associations (ANP and ANDIS) and by the Lombardian Regional School Office. The par- ticipants reported low levels of satisfaction (only 42.7% were satisfied) and high levels of stress (mean=3.35; ds=.77; the 69.6% felt fairly or very often nervous and stressed at work). On the contrary, they reported high self-efficacy levels in managing their work (mean=3.28; ds=.61). The relationship between work stress and health promotion strategies implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic will be presented. Results showed the importance of considering school principals’ wellbeing and stress and the effects on the whole school organization.