The Development and Application of The Flourishing Scale for Junior High School Teachers

• Main Authors: Chao-Yi Wu, 吳昭儀
• Other Authors: Chia-Nan Tai
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/17783503511510249330

博士 === 國立高雄師範大學 === 諮商心理與復健諮商研究所 === 103 === This study applies the conception of "flourishing" of positive psychology to explain the circumstances of junior high school teachers’ positive mental health. The purpose of this study is to develop "The Flourishing Scale for Junior High School Teachers", and to research the junior high school teachers’ flourishing issues which can provide practical application. Furthermore, application of the scale is also helpful for practitioners to clarify the demographic variables for the flourish of junior high school teachers in Taiwan as a forceful demonstration. The study was divided into three phases based on the principle of "Quality prior to quantity”. The first phrase constructed the structure of Junior High School Teacher's Flourishing Scale by researching the bibliography and relative documents, and carrying out the semi-standardized interview to eight junior high school teachers to discover categories and dimensions through qualitative analysis and integrating the factors and database of junior high school teacher's flourishing. The pretest scale was adjusted by nine professors. The second phase was pretesting, making "The Flourishing Scale for Junior High School Teachers" by taking the junior high school teachers of 102nd academic year for the population and selecting 381 junior high school teachers from north, middle, south and east areas in Taiwan. Norm sample was made by choosing the junior high school teachers of 103rd academic year for the population and making stratified cluster sampling with 918 teachers from north, middle, south and east of Taiwan for valid samples. The third phrase analyzed the connection between demographic variables and the junior high school teachers’ flourishing issues. The data collected was analyzed through item analysis, factor analysis, ANOVA, MANOVA and confirmatory factor analysis by the SPSS20.0 and AMOS22. The results are summarized as below: 1. The meaning of flourish of the junior high school teachers is having good experiences for individuals and groups, and effective self-realization and development of a good functional groups , including the positive feelings and positive function two dimensions, individual and group two dimensions. The scale is also consisted of four levels, including personal positive feelings, group positive feelings, personal positive functions, and group positive functions. The features of flourish include vitality, emotional stability, happiness, satisfaction, positive relations, social progress, self-acceptance, optimism, purpose in life, personal growth, autonomy, self-regulated, environmental mastery, interpersonal competency, social contribution fifteen categories, among interpersonal competency including acceptance of human complexity, and the ability of intimacy, empathy of relationship. 2. There are 103 questions in "The Flourishing Scale for Junior High School Teachers". " The Flourishing Scale for Junior High School Teachers" can offer good reliability and validity, SPSS, internal consistency α from.817 to .944, retest reliability of every subscale having an interval of two weeks to over one month is from .579 to .823, and the retest reliability of the scale is .848. Taking the mental health scale, Taiwanese depression scale, Taiwanese subjective well-being scale, and the checklist for primary and middle school teachers' chronic fatigue status for criterion gets the correlation coefficients for .875, -.513, .728, -.511 with good criterion-related validity. All 9 indexes accord with the model fit standard on diagnosis index of the overall model fit, but some indexes are still on the edge of critical value. The flourishing theory and scale should be researched further. 3. Most of the teachers are in the middle level of the flourishing. There are differences in the score of each subscale. The junior high school teachers are better at the acceptance of human complexity, positive relationship, and individual growth with the fewest feelings of social progress. Flourishing has association with teachers' physical status and acquired support. The better teachers' self-conscious health condition is, the higher teachers' flourishing is. If the teachers obtain more family support, school support, parents support and social support, then they will have higher flourishing. In conclusion, based on the results of study and discussions, the suggestions in accordance with the practical application of the flourishing scale are provided for the references for the educational authorities, junior high schools, junior high school teachers and further research.