Does Professional Development Reduce the Influence of Teacher Stress on Teacher-Child Interactions in Preschool?

• In Event: Teachers’ Mental Health and Psychological Well-Being Across Contexts

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine whether participation in a high quality professional development intervention targeting teachers’ interactions with students moderated the relation between teachers’ self-reported job stress and change in their observed teacher–child interactions.
Theoretical Framework
Teachers’ interactions and relationships with their students can foster academic and social-emotional readiness skills (Burchinal, Zaslow, & Tarullo, 2016; Yoshikawa et al., 2013). However, literature on teacher well-being indicates that teachers are highly stressed (e.g., Whitaker, Becker, Herman, & Gooze, 2013), and their stress levels can have a detrimental influence on their interactions with students (e.g., Li-Grining et al., 2010; Yoon, 2002). Within the prosocial classroom model, Jennings and Greenberg (2009) suggest that high quality professional development (PD) may be one way to reduce feelings of job stress and enhance teachers’ relationships with students. The current study bridges these two lines of research, teacher well-being and professional development, in an effort to examine the potential moderating effect of PD on the relation between stress and teacher–child interactions.
Methods
Participating preschool teachers were from large community preschools and Head Start programs across the US. Of the 427 participating teachers, 218 were randomly assigned to the intervention; a 14-week course designed to increase teachers’ knowledge about the vital role that teacher–child interactions play in learning and skill acquisition. The remaining teachers (n = 209) were assigned to the control condition.
Data Sources/Materials
Teachers completed a baseline survey measuring three sources of job stress: work-related stress (e.g., too much paper work, large class size), discipline and motivation stress (e.g., problems with student behavior), and professional investment stress (e.g., limited opportunity for career growth, lack of control over job; Fimian & Fastenau, 1990).
Observed teacher-child interactions were coded at baseline and post-intervention using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System, Pre-K (Pianta, LaParo, & Hamre, 2008), which measures three primary domains: emotional support, instructional support, and classroom organization.
Results
Results indicated that participation in the PD course significantly moderated the relation between one source of job stress, professional investment stress, and change in teacher-child interactions over the course of the year. Greater professional investment stress was related to a decrease in teacher’s observed emotional support (β = -0.30, p < .01) for the control condition. This association was not present in the intervention condition (β = 0.07, p > .05; Figure 1).
Similarly, control teachers who reported more professional investment stress showed fewer gains in instructional support in their classrooms (β = -0.24, p < .05). In contrast, intervention teachers who reported more professional investment stress at baseline made greater gains in instructional support across the year (β = 0.11, p < .01; Figure 2).
Scholarly Significance
Present findings reveal that professional investment stress may be particularly detrimental to teacher-child interaction quality, and that participation in a professional development course may buffer this negative association. Furthermore, teachers’ heightened awareness and anxiety over their need to develop professionally may have made them more responsive to an intervention designed to improve practice.

Authors

• Lia Elaine Sandilos, Temple University

• Priscilla Goble, Texas State University

• Sara E. Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia

• Robert Pianta, University of Virginia