Workforce well-being: Personal and workplace contributions to early educators\u27 depression across settings

Abstract

Building on research demonstrating the importance of teachers\u27 well-being, this study examined personal and contextual factors related to early childhood educators\u27 (n =1640) depressive symptoms across licensed child care homes, centers, and schools. Aspects of teachers\u27 beliefs, economic status, and work-related stress were explored, and components of each emerged as significant in an OLS regression. After controlling for demographics and setting, teachers with more adult-centered beliefs, lower wages, multiple jobs, no health insurance, more workplace demands, and fewer work-related resources, had more depressive symptoms. Adult-centered beliefs were more closely associated with depression for teachers working in home-based settings compared to center-based settings. These findings provide preliminary evidence about what relates to depression in the early childhood workforce, which has implications for supporting well-being across settings

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