According to research done in South Africa, there is an increasing worry about the wellness of academic staff members, with many of them reporting high levels of stress and burnout. Heavy workloads, a lack of resources, and an unsatisfactory work-life balance are just a few factors that studies have identified as leading to poor well-being. Low…

Purpose: Doctoral students' ill-being in terms of stress, exhaustion and high levels of mental health problems has been well documented. Yet, the well-being of doctoral students is more than the absence of these negative symptoms. The number of studies exploring the combination of positive and negative attributes of doctoral students' well-being…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper was to explore the development of the professional identity of South African intern psychologists during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper -- that presents a historical reflection borne from a significant moment in time -- aimed to capture what the authors can learn from this specific cohort of intern…

The purpose of this study was to examine variation in doctoral students' experiences of ethics in doctoral supervision and how these experiences are related to research engagement, burnout, satisfaction, and intending to discontinue PhD studies. Data were collected from 860 doctoral students in Finland, Estonia, and South Africa. Four distinct…

The transition in learning trajectories, academic pressures and stressors associated with financial and societal pressure that South African postgraduate university students experience places them at risk of mental health difficulties. For these students, their mental well-being has been further threatened due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the…

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to explore the interplay of psychological conditions that influenced personal engagement among university students. As a theoretical lens through which to investigate this, the study used the job demands-resources model, the study demands-resources model, and the leader-member exchange theory.…

This phenomenological exploratory multiple-case study design was conducted at an open distance e-learning university and a traditional contact residential university, and it was found that the participants viewed video conferencing under the COVID-19 lockdown period as an exhausting experience. A second major finding revealed that the participants…

The transition to online learning at a time of intensive efforts to ensure that the academic project continued under the trying conditions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic placed intense pressure on both staff and students, increasing their workload. The increased workload placed students at a risk of burnout. While most burnout research…

This qualitative study was motivated by a sizeable number of school principals retiring early in South African schools. They either leave teaching for other careers or retire before the retirement age of sixty. It was then necessary to explore what factors, if any, made them leave school management and the teaching career. Sixteen school…

Students often drop out of university because they were not yet ready for higher education studies. This article reports on research done on the perceptions of a group of students of the role that their gap year had played in preparing them for higher education studies. The research approach was qualitative. Data was gathered by means of 34…

This research explored the perceptions of students at a university campus in Gauteng South Africa on external factors that may contribute to their emotional (psychological) and academic functioning. During a preliminary investigation, three students at a residential university voluntary came for psychological counseling sessions because of stress…

The aim of this study was to evaluate secondary trauma and job burnout and associated factors in a sample of 71 HIV lay counsellors in South Africa. Results indicate that 49.5% were not satisfied with their work environment and 51.4% were potentially secondary traumatic stress cases. In univariate analysis, seeing more HIV counselling and testing…

This article reports on the development of a short questionnaire to measure work engagement--a positive work-related state of fulfillment that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Data were collected in 10 different countries (N = 14,521), and results indicated that the original 17-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) can be…