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Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools
A landmark report exploring what helps adolescents flourish in Christian secondary schools across Australia. Drawing on one of the largest studies of its kind - a longitudinal survey of 22,092 students in Years 7–12 across 57 schools - the research identifies the conditions, practices and priorities that support students to flourish holistically: intellectually, socially, physically and spiritually.
Author: Iselin, D.J. (2026). Student Flourishing in Australian Christian Schools Report. Christian Schools Australia. Canberra, ACT. Summary by PESA
Last updated: 19/08/2026
Overview
This landmark study surveyed 22,092 students across 57 Christian secondary schools in Australia over two waves in 2024, using the Human Flourishing Program's Adolescent Flourishing Measure. Flourishing was assessed across six domains: happiness and life satisfaction, mental and physical health, meaning and purpose, character and virtue, social relationships, and safety and security. Researchers then tracked which practices, both general evidence-based and specifically Christian, were associated with measurable gains in flourishing between the two survey waves. Six themes emerged: family, formation, relationships, learning, spirituality, and service.
Key Findings
Family matters
The strongest family-related finding was the link between feeling loved by parents or guardians and flourishing: students who felt loved “very much” scored 7.65, compared to just 4.32 for those who felt loved “very little”, which was the largest gap identified anywhere in the study.
Flourishing declines through secondary years
Average flourishing fell steadily from Year 7 (7.52) to Year 12 (6.83), with a slight uptick in Year 11. The decline was more pronounced for girls than boys across every year level. Two contributing factors stood out: smartphone use and sleep. Flourishing scores dropped almost linearly as daily phone use increased, from 7.69 among students using a phone for under an hour to 6.10 among those using one for more than eight hours; 28% of students reported five or more hours of daily use, and girls used phones more heavily than boys.
Similarly, flourishing fell from 7.61 among students sleeping eight or more hours a night to 5.36 among those sleeping five hours or less, with girls again more likely to be short on sleep.
Relationships and belonging drive flourishing
Social relationships showed the strongest correlation with flourishing of any measured factor (r = .92), with student-teacher relationships also positively associated (r = .48). Longitudinal analysis found that laughing with peers at least monthly was linked to a 22% increase in flourishing between the two survey waves, which is the single largest gain identified in the entire study. Other relational practices with strong effects included a general sense of playfulness (17%), activities that strengthen peer relationships (11%), teachers using humour in class (9%), and regular social interaction with teachers and staff (9%).
Engaged, active learning
Students who rated their own academic performance more highly reported higher flourishing. Physical activity and active learning were both significantly associated with flourishing, with scores rising from 6.02 for students inactive in the past week to 7.51 for those active every day. Playful pedagogy and physically active learning were among the highest-impact evidence-based practices identified in the study.
Faith formation and spirituality contribute meaningfully
Students who rated spirituality as more important to them reported higher flourishing, as did those who believed in a personal God involved in people's lives (7.30) compared with other conceptions of God or no belief (6.65–6.83). Among specific Christian practices, personal prayer showed the largest longitudinal effect, lifting flourishing by 7% when practised at least monthly, followed by personal devotions (6%), Bible reading and Bible lessons (5%), listening to spiritual music (5%), singing in worship (5%), and Christian character programs (5%). Frequency of church attendance and family religious practice were also positively associated with flourishing, though the gains were more modest than for personal spiritual practices.
Service and civic engagement have a lasting effect
Service-learning and volunteering were linked to a 5% increase in flourishing when undertaken at least monthly, with structured activities that build gratitude showing an even larger effect (8%), and financial giving or fundraising a smaller but still positive effect (4%). Researchers note these effects are strongest when service is woven into the whole school culture rather than treated as an isolated or extracurricular activity.
What Educators Can Do
Drawing on the evidence-based practices identified across the study's six themes, educators can take the following practical steps:
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Build relationships deliberately. Prioritise regular, positive social interaction with students and create space for peer connection — relationships showed the strongest link to flourishing of any factor measured, and shared laughter with peers had the single largest impact in the study.
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Bring humour and playfulness into lessons. Incorporating humour and a playful classroom tone was linked to significant flourishing gains and can also support learning outcomes like engagement and memory.
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Build movement into learning. Active, physically engaged learning approaches, alongside regular opportunities for physical activity, were consistently associated with higher flourishing.
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Frame learning around meaning, not just academic progress. Structured opportunities for students to reflect on what gives their life meaning, their values, character, and life goals were associated with meaningful gains. Intrinsic goal framing (personal growth) tends to support flourishing more than purely extrinsic framing (passing the test).
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Model and teach gratitude. Structured activities that build gratitude had one of the highest effects of any practice studied and can be woven into everyday routines rather than treated as a stand-alone unit.
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Create genuine opportunities for service. Service-learning and volunteering, integrated into the curriculum rather than bolted on as an extracurricular, support both flourishing and academic engagement.
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Support healthy digital habits and sleep. Given the strong association between heavy smartphone use, poor sleep, and lower flourishing, particularly for girls, educators can reinforce clear, well-communicated guidance on device use and sleep as part of school expectations, wellbeing lessons and parent communication, framed around wise discernment rather than blanket restriction.
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Nurture spiritual practice where appropriate to context. For Christian schools, personal practices such as prayer, devotions, Bible engagement, and worship showed some of the largest gains of any practice category and are most effective when “caught” through authentic modelling across the whole school community, not confined to a single subject or chaplaincy role.
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Partner with families. Because feeling loved by parents was the single strongest predictor of flourishing identified in the study, schools and educators benefit from actively building strong, two-way relationships with families rather than treating parent engagement as transactional.
Reflection Questions for Staff and Leadership Teams
These questions could support a staff meeting, professional development sessions, or leadership team discussions on how the report's findings apply to your own context:
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Where in our daily and weekly routines do students currently have a genuine chance to laugh, play, and connect informally with peers and staff, and where has this been squeezed out by pace or pressure?
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How would we know if a particular student or cohort was feeling less loved, known, or supported? What are we currently watching for, and is it enough?
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What would it look like to make gratitude, meaning, and reflection a weekly rhythm woven through every subject?
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Where does service-learning currently sit in our school: genuinely integrated into curriculum and culture, or mostly an add-on around the edges?
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How well do we really know our Year 9 and 10 students, given this is where the report suggests flourishing dips most sharply?
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If someone spent a week observing our staffroom and classrooms, would they see faith, character, and gratitude being modelled by adults?
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Are our relationships with families genuinely two-way, or mostly transactional (newsletters, notes home, parent-teacher interviews)? What would it take to shift that?
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Given girls in the study reported lower flourishing, heavier phone use, and less sleep than boys, are our current wellbeing approaches calibrated to notice and respond to that gap?
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Looking at our own staff culture, is our wellbeing conducive to student flourishing, or are we expecting students to thrive in a context where staff themselves are stretched thin?
Note: Most findings are drawn from cross-sectional descriptive data (associations, not proof of causation) alongside a smaller set of longitudinal, multivariate-controlled analyses that more directly estimate the effect of specific practices on flourishing over time (the percentage-increase figures cited above). Both are indicated in the source report.
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