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Panel information
Panel 16. Prevention and Interventions

Abstract

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Educator burnout is a significant concern in early care and education (ECE) settings, particularly where stress levels are high (Buettner et al., 2016; Jeon et al., 2019). Identifying factors that can reduce burnout is essential for enhancing educator well-being and improving the quality of ECE. A recent study (Authors, under review) found that communication issues are pervasive within Head Start settings and are one of the most common root causes of stress among Head Start educators.
Communication satisfaction, referring to individuals’ satisfaction with various aspects of communication within their workplace, has been identified as a factor associated with individuals’ job satisfaction, well-being, productivity, and job commitment (Allen et al., 1993; Brunetto et al., 2012). However, this construct is rarely examined in the ECE literature. Inspired by the Job Demands-Resources Model (Demerouti et al., 2001), we explore the extent to which Head Start educators’ communication satisfaction, as a key job resource, is associated with their perceived stress and burnout. In addition, we examine whether communication satisfaction is indirectly associated with burnout through perceived stress. By examining these direct and indirect associations, the study aims to offer insights that could inform strategies to promote healthier work environments for ECE educators.
We analyzed survey responses of 72 educators collected from a larger professional development project focusing on educators’ well-being. Communication satisfaction was measured by a nine-item scale (α = 0.94) adapted from Downs & Hazen (1977). Educators’ perceived stress was measured using the 10-item version (α = 0.86) of the Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen & Williamson, 1988). Burnout was measured by an eight-item scale (α = 0.93) adapted from Maslach & Jackson (1981).
We conducted a mediation analysis using R (version 4.4.1). We used Full Information Maximum Likelihood to account for missing data and applied bootstrapping to compute standard errors for indirect associations. We controlled for participants’ race/ethnicity, job title, levels of educational attainment, and years of experience in ECE. Multiple model fit indices were used to develop the best-fitting model (Kline, 2023).
As shown in Figure 1, there was a significant association between communication satisfaction and burnout both directly and indirectly through perceived stress. Communication satisfaction was also significantly associated with reduced perceived stress, and perceived stress was positively associated with burnout. The model adequately fitted the data, and the model explained a total of 38% of the variance in burnout.
The findings from this analysis suggest that improving communication satisfaction in organizational settings would have benefits in reducing burnout and stress among Head Start educators. Head Start programs may consider improving internal communication by constructing clear, open, and effective communication channels, which has the potential to reduce workplace stress and, subsequently, burnout.

Author information

Author	Role
Shuai Li, University of Virginia	Presenting author
Sarah Chapman, University of Virginia	Non-presenting author
Lieny Jeon, University of Virginia	Non-presenting author

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