Relational trust and principal well-being: Extending the job demands–resources framework in school leadership

This study conceptualises principal well-being as an organisational and relational phenomenon by integrating relational trust into the job demands–resources (JD–R) framework. Responding to calls in educational leadership research to move beyond individualised resilience perspectives, the study explores how relational conditions shape the experience and sustainability of leadership work. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed, combining structural equation modelling of survey data from 232 primary school principals in Cyprus with qualitative case studies involving interviews, reflective journals, and document analysis. Quantitative findings indicate that job demands are negatively associated with principal well-being, while job resources and relational trust exert significant positive effects. Relational trust moderates the relationship between job demands and well-being, attenuating the negative association under conditions of high trust. In addition, principal well-being functions as a mediating mechanism linking organisational conditions to perceived school climate and teacher trust. Qualitative findings illuminate how trust-based relational practices enable shared responsibility, emotional containment, and collective sense-making, thereby shaping how leadership demands are interpreted and managed in practice. Situated within a highly centralised education system, the study offers a contextually grounded extension of the JD–R framework by positioning relational trust as a meta-resource and conceptualising principal well-being as a relational ecology embedded in organisational routines.