Term

Summer 2026

Capstone

Dissertation

Degree Name

EdD

Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair

Trish Harvey

Abstract

Educational leaders work in environments characterized by sustained responsibility, complex decision-making, emotional demands, and persistent stress. While these demands are well documented in the current literature, the question of how educational leadership might remain healthy, effective, and sustainable still remains. Mindfulness has emerged as a potential resource for managing and navigating stress across multiple professional fields. Despite a growing interest in mindfulness, little research has directly examined the connection between dispositional mindfulness and perceived stress among practicing educational leaders. The purpose of this study is the examination of that connection among educational leaders in the state of Minnesota. This research was a quantitative, cross-sectional, correlational study. With an N=145, mindfulness was measured using the MAAS-15 and perceived stress was measured using the PSS-10. The primary relationship was examined using Pearson/Spearman correlations and regression analyses. There were also secondary, exploratory analyses of participant characteristics involving mindfulness training, mindfulness practice frequency, and other demographic variables. Higher dispositional mindfulness was found to be significantly associated with lower perceived stress. After adjustment for demographic and professional variables, this relationship remained significant. Although dispositional mindfulness demonstrated a clear inverse relationship with stress, there was no demonstrated dose-response pattern in relation to mindfulness practice frequency. Findings suggest that dispositional mindfulness may be one meaningful component of sustainable educational leadership. However, as a correlational study, causation cannot be inferred and mindfulness cannot be interpreted as a panacea for the problem of educational leader stress. Sustainable educational leadership may hinge on added attention to a leader’s individual capacities as well as attention to the organizational conditions within which these leaders work.

Research Methodology

Descriptive Statistics, Survey (attitude scale, opinion, questionnaire)

Keywords

Leadership, Educational/Organizational Mindfulness

dc_type

text

dc_publisher

DigitalCommons@Hamline

dc_format

application/pdf

dc_source

School of Education Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

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