Poster #35 - Workplace Wellbeing: The Relationship Between Early Childhood Administrators’ Perceptions of Their Role and Job Satisfaction

• In Event: Poster Session 03

Abstract

Introduction:
Early childhood administrators play a critical role in supporting and maintaining quality in early childhood settings (Douglass, 2019) and yet little research attends to their psychological well-being. Instead, scholars focus primarily on early childhood teachers’ well-being (Cumming, 2017; Kwon et al., 2020) and ties to their classroom efficacy (Carson et al., 2017). A near-exclusive focus on teachers as the “producers” of quality and child outcomes has led the field to overlook the well-being of early childhood administrators. To sustain high-quality programs, the field must expand their narrow focus to examine the well-being of early childhood administrators. Job satisfaction is a critical component of work-related psychological well-being (Hall-Kenyon et al., 2014). The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine how early childhood administrators’ perceptions of their current role relate to their job satisfaction.

Methods:
Participants were part of a larger evaluation of a novel alternative residency program designed to assist para-professionals to obtain state licensure and secure lead-teacher positions. Administrators who supervised the para-professionals consented to participate in this study. Administrators (N=35) had an average of 20 years experience in early childhood education (ECE) and primarily identified as women (94%) of color (63% African American, 28% Latinx, 6% White, 3% Asian). Participants completed an online survey in the Summer of 2022. They used a five-point-likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) to report their job satisfaction (8 items; i.e., I like my job). They also used a five-point-likert scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) to report their perceptions of their current role (7 items; i.e., I always feel respected by my staff). We combined the job satisfaction items to create one composite score for job satisfaction. Given the restricted sample size, we used Spearman correlations to examine the relationship between job satisfaction and perception of current role.

Results:
Spearman correlations indicate that administrators’ job satisfaction is associated with their perception of their role . We found significant correlations between administrator job satisfaction and 5 of the 7 items about administrators’ perceptions of their current role. See Table 1.

Discussion:
The findings suggest that there is a relationship between the perceptions that administrators have about their role and their job satisfaction. Particularly, there was a strong correlation between the administrator’s perception of respect from their staff and their job satisfaction. There were also moderate correlations between the administrator’s job satisfaction and their perceptions of their authority, the ongoing support they receive and their job expectations. The day-to-day factors such as task management and types of tasks did not significantly relate to administrator’s job satisfaction. This suggests that an administrator's perception about their overall role relates more strongly to their job satisfaction than perceptions about their day-to-day tasks. This study helps to address the critical gap in understanding the workplace well-being of early childhood administrators. Further research is needed to uncover what other factors relate to administrator job satisfaction.

Authors

• Joanna Skourletos, University of Illinois at Chicago
  Presenting Author

• Kate Zinsser, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Timothy W Curby, George Mason University

• Catherine Main, University of Illinois at Chicago

• Natalie Vesga, University of Illinois at Chicago