Psychological safety and well-being in Kazakh upper-secondary classrooms: a mixed-methods pilot study

Psychological safety—the shared belief that one can speak up, ask questions, or make mistakes without social repercussions—remains under-explored in Central-Asian secondary schools. This cross-sectional mixed-methods pilot examined psychological safety and classroom well-being among 111 Kazakh students (Grades 10–11) in four schools. Students completed a seven-item preliminarily adapted Psychological Safety Scale ( α = 0.84) and a four-item Well-Being Index ( α = 0.81); focus groups and six teacher interviews were then conducted to contextualise and interpret the survey patterns. Mean safety (M = 3.02/5) and well-being (M = 3.18/5) were moderate, and Grade 11 reported lower safety than Grade 10 ( d = 0.42). In hierarchical regression, psychological safety was positively associated with well-being, accounting for 29% of its variance ( β = 0.55, p < 0.001), while grade and gender were not significant in the full model. Thematic analysis pointed to teacher approachability, peer-respect norms, public-evaluation anxiety, and time pressure as salient classroom drivers. Overall, the findings provide preliminary evidence supporting the adapted measures’ internal consistency, establish baseline benchmarks, and highlight interaction style and assessment practices as promising targets for strengthening classroom well-being.