Leaders’ Self-Disclosure and Teachers’ Psychological Well-Being in an Islamic Boarding School

Abstract

Teachers in Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) carry multiple educational, supervisory, and institutional duties that may affect their psychological well-being, yet how far leaders’ self-disclosure contributes to it in this hierarchical-religious setting remains unclear. This study examined the relationship between a kiai’s self-disclosure in interpersonal communication and teachers’ psychological well-being at the Salafiyah Al-Jawahir Islamic Boarding School, Soreang, Bandung Regency. Using a quantitative correlational design, data were collected from 56 of the pesantren’s 65 teachers through simple random sampling (Slovin formula, 5% margin of error) and analyzed with Spearman Rank correlation after the instruments were confirmed valid and reliable. Overall, the kiai’s self-disclosure was positively but not significantly related to teachers’ psychological well-being (rho = 0.258, p = 0.055). Among its five dimensions, only intentionality of disclosure was significantly related to well-being (rho = 0.266, p = 0.048); amount, depth, valence, and honesty of disclosure were not statistically significant, though valence and honesty approached the threshold. These findings suggest that in a hierarchical-religious leadership context, the deliberateness behind a leader’s self-disclosure matters more for teachers’ well-being than how much, how deep, how positive, or how honest that disclosure is.