# The occurrence and co-occurrence of conflicts and negative acts and their associations with self-rated health, workability, and life-satisfaction: a cross-sectional study of Swedish school principals

## TL;DR

This study explores how conflicts and negative acts affect the health and satisfaction of Swedish school principals.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the prevalence and impact of conflicts and negative acts on school principals' well-being.

## Key findings

- Most school principals experienced conflicts or negative acts in the past year.
- Harassment, threats, and bullying were consistently linked to lower health and life satisfaction.
- Sexual harassment specifically reduced workability and life satisfaction.

## Abstract

As part of our research on Swedish school principals, we examined the occurrence and co-occurrence of conflicts and five negative acts (i.e. harassment, sexual harassment, threats of violence or physical harm, physical violence, bullying), their attributed sources, and their associations with self-rated health, workability, and general life satisfaction among 2670 principals.

During the past 12 months, approximately 75% of the school principals had experienced conflicts, 27.1% harassment, 22.4% threats of violence or physical harm, 7.2% physical violence, 5.9% bullying, and 2.7% sexual harassment. Some 18.9% reported neither involvement in conflicts nor being subjected to negative acts. Parents and teachers were common counterparts in conflicts and harassment. Parents and students made frequent threats of violence and physical harm. Mainly students carried out acts of violence. Logistic regression analyses showed that reports of being harassed, threatened, and bullied were consistently associated with lower self-rated health, workability, and general life satisfaction. School principals who had been subjected to sexual harassment reported lower workability in relation to psychological demands and lower general life satisfaction. School principals’ health, workability, and general life satisfaction may benefit from taking measures that ensure proper social interactions with both internal (e.g. superiors) and external stakeholders (e.g. parents).

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13104-025-07540-5.