The influence of in-school social relationships on school professionals’ and pupils’ wellbeing: perspectives of school staff in Portugal and the UK

Mental health (MH) and wellbeing in schools remain a contemporary international concern. The Multi-Tiered System of Supports model (MTSS) is a leading model of school-based MH and wellbeing interventions, which is based on universal screening power for early identification of MH needs and wellbeing promotion. School-based universal screening should be quick and effective during the data collection and analysis process. Therefore, it is pertinent to choose the most important wellbeing indicators to be collected. The following study aimed to understand the perspective of key school agents about what the key MH and wellbeing priorities for pupils’ (12 to 15 years old) are and for school professionals to inform wellbeing screening processes. Qualitative data were collected in two secondary state schools: one in Portugal, and another in the UK. A total of 14 individual interviews were collected, nine in Portugal and five in the UK, from different professionals. This focus talk will present the initial results of a thematic analysis of these individual interviews, particularly focusing on data highlighting the relevance of social relatedness to wellbeing of school staff and pupils, both positive or negative: pupil-pupil relationships (e.g., lack of integration in the classroom, bullying), pupil-teacher/non-teaching staff relationships (e.g., positive relationships of trust influence teachers’ wellbeing and job satisfaction, as well as pupils’ willingness to search for help in ill-mental health situations), and school professional-school professional relationships (e.g., experiences of support from colleagues and leadership have positive for staff’s wellbeing at work; experiences of conflict with hierarchy has negative factor).