Life satisfaction, psychological stress, and present-moment attention: a generalizability study.

During the last decade, many teachers have retired early, leading to increased discussions about how to improve and maintain their mental health. To address this concern early, we designed an online seminar covering the field of positive psychology by emphasizing on mindfulness, positive emotions about one's future, and resources for pre-service teachers. The seminar was designed to increase their wellbeing, as well as to decrease psychological stress. To explore the sensitivity of our measures to change, we investigate the following research questions: To what extent do we assess trait or state variability in students' outcomes and what are the levels of reliability achieved? Fifty-four students in their second year at a German university (median age 22 years) participated and they were asked to fill in questionnaires assessing their life satisfaction, psychological stress, and present-moment attention during each of nine sessions over the course of a semester. We performed Generalizability and Decision Studies to estimate variability between-students and within-students, error of measurement, as well as reliability. Our results show that life satisfaction and psychological stress reached high reliability, suggesting that students' trait and state variability were both assessed with high accuracy. On the other hand, the assessment of present-moment attention would benefit from adding more items to the questionnaires or collecting data from more sessions. We discuss how our findings impact research and practice.

Burnout among high school students is linked to their telomere length and relatedness with peers.

School burnout is a serious concern, as it impairs students' health and academic success. According to the Conservation of Resources Theory, burnout results from the depletion of personal coping resources and can be counteracted by supportive social relationships. However, it is not yet clear how students' relatedness with their peers is linked to their burnout. Next to students' self-reported fatigue, biomarkers such as telomere length (TL), which presents an indicator of aging, complement stress research. To identify school-related factors that may prevent students from experiencing burnout and to link TL to students' self-reported burnout, the current study investigated how relatedness with peers as well as TL at the beginning of the school year explained students' burnout at the end of the school year. The sample included 78 students (Mage = 13.7 ± 0.7 years; 48% girls). Results of multilevel analysis in Mplus indicate that, over the school year, students with higher TL and those who experienced relatedness with their peers reported lower levels of burnout. Moreover, students who felt related to their peers exhibited a longer TL. The study implies that students' relatedness with their peers may be a promising setscrew to prevent students' burnout and support their physical health. This is one of the first studies to link TL with school-related variables such as burnout and relatedness to peers in a non-clinical student sample, providing a baseline for interventions and future interdisciplinary studies in the field of education and stress.

The relation between sensory processing sensitivity and telomere length in adolescents.

BACKGROUND: In the present study, we investigated the association between sensory processing sensitivity (SPS) and telomere length (TL), which is considered a biomarker of cellular aging. SPS is an individual characteristic describing increased perception and procession of inner or outer stimuli, and is positively related to self-perceived stress. METHODS: We recruited 82 healthy adolescents aged 13-16 from secondary schools in Germany. SPS was measured with the Highly Sensitive Person Scale, and TL was determined by a multiplex quantitative PCR method. RESULTS: Our results show that students with higher values of SPS are likely to have shorter telomeres (ß = 0.337, p = .001), when adjusting for sex, socioeconomic status, age, and body mass index. These findings are also independent of the negative impact of stress students might have perceived shortly before data collection. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis suggests that students who struggle with low sensory threshold are likely to have shorter telomeres.