About this session

Saturday, 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Creating Supportive Workplaces for Early Educators: Exploring Well-Being and Innovative Measures

Early educators' well-being is closely linked to their classroom practices, the quality of their relationships with children, and the socio-emotional development of those in their care (e.g., Jeon et al., 2014; Kwon et al., 2019). However, historically low pay and a demanding work environment, coupled with a lack of support for the early care and education (ECE) sector, undermine well-being and contribute to higher stress and dissatisfaction among educators (e.g., Bassok et al., 2021; McLean et al., 2021; McMullen et al., 2020).

In this session, we bring three studies that illuminate the complex interplay between the well-being of the ECE workforce and their work environment using innovative measures. The first paper focuses on a new holistic measure of early educators’ and leaders’ well-being, exploring how the constructs associate with their working conditions of early educators and turnover intent. The second paper examines the associations between early educators’ well-being and various aspects of their work environment, utilizing a measure that holistically examines the work environment and captures educator voices. The third paper introduces a new measure on ECE program culture and climate, examining how these measures associate with educators’ well-being. Together, the papers not only deepen our understanding of educators' well-being and working conditions, but also highlight previously overlooked aspects in earlier conceptualizations.

After a presentation of the papers, we will engage presenters in a conversation to discuss common patterns and differences across the studies, and explore next steps to contribute to supporting educators’ well-being and work environment.

Paper #1
Title	Working Conditions and Their Relations to Holistic Well-Being and Turnover Intent for Early Childhood Educators
Presenting author	Dr. Kyong-Ah Kwon, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, United States

Paper #2
Title	Early Educator Voices: How Features of their Work Environment Impact Well-Being
Presenting author	Marisa Schlieber, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, United States

Paper #3
Title	Development and Validation of the Well-Being Culture and Climate in Early Childhood Program Scale
Presenting author	Sooyeon Byun, Ph.D., Yonsei University, Korea (the Republic Of)

View all paper details

Session chair
Yoonjeon Kim, Ph.D., UC Berkeley, United States

Discussant
Sara Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia, United States

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