Loreta Gustainienė

Loreta Gustainienė is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. Since earning her Doctor of Sciences degree in 1995 and her Docentė (Associate Professor) rank in 2003, she has remained an active faculty member and researcher.

Education & Training:

• Doctor of Sciences (Mokslų daktarė), 1995
• Docentė (Associate Professor), 2003

Research Focus:
Loreta’s scholarship lies at the intersection of positive psychology, psychosocial risk factors, and organizational well-being. She investigates how psychological resources—such as mindfulness, optimism, professional identity, and social support—buffer stress, enhance resilience, and promote psychological well-being among employees in education, health, and law-enforcement organizations.

Recent Publication Trends:
Over the past decade her work has concentrated on three major streams: (1) organizational change & anxiety among university staff, (2) mindfulness-based stress-reduction programs for police officers, and (3) cross-sector comparisons of psychological well-being predictors. Her studies consistently combine rigorous quantitative methods (large-scale surveys, cluster analysis, mediation modelling) with applied intervention designs, generating both theoretical insight and practical guidelines for human-resource and public-health professionals.

Scientific Awards & Recognition:
Although no specific awards are listed in the provided material, her sustained publication record (123 outputs, 8+ Scopus-indexed articles, 11 Web-of-Science citations) and invitations to national congresses underscore her scholarly impact.

Doctoral Advising & Research Teams:
She collaborates extensively with junior scholars—Kristina Kovalčikienė, Gabija Jarašiūnaitė-Fedosejeva, Aurelija Stelmokienė, Greta Širinskaitė—who appear repeatedly as co-authors, suggesting an active mentorship and supervisory role. She is also a core member of the VMU research cluster “Psychosocial Functioning of an Individual and Psychological Possibilities of its Improvement in Organisations and Institutions of Education and Health”.

Labs & Infrastructure:
Her research is embedded within the Department of Psychology’s psychometrics and intervention laboratories, with access to VMU’s digital survey platform, Microsoft Teams delivery systems for online mindfulness training, and collaboration channels with Lithuanian police and university administrations.