Poster #29 - A Holistic View of Factors for Early Care and Education (ECE) Teacher Turnover Intent

• In Event: Poster Session 02

Abstract

A plethora of research documented the importance of high-quality early care and education (ECE) programs for children’s development and learning and emphasized the role of highly qualified, healthy, and stable teacher workforce as a hallmark of high-quality program (Authors, 2020; Simons et al., 2022). Still ECE teachers have been known as a marginalized profession as they often work in poor working conditions, lack resources, and experience suboptimal well-being (Authors, 2021a). These conditions would lead to high teacher turnover, which is a major threat to a high-quality ECE program and disruption on relationships they develop with children and families. Thus, it is important to understand complex interplay among various personal (e.g., demographic characteristics, health and well-being) and work-related factors (e.g., child challenging behaviors, negative work climate) and its associations with ECE teacher turnover intent (Authors, 2021b; Bassok et al., 2021; McMullen et al., 2020; Schaack et al., 2020). From the Job Resources and Demands (JD-R) framework (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017), the present study advances the current bourgeoning body of literature on various factors for ECE teacher turnover in two important ways: (a) inclusion of multifaceted dimensions of working conditions and well-being variables as predictors factor and (b) use of machine learning as methodological advancement.

Method

Two hundred sixty-two teachers from 38 ECE centers in a metropolitan city in a Midwestern state in the U.S. consented and participated in this study, named the Happy Teacher Project. Teachers’ ages ranged from 18 to 66 years (M = 36.59, SD = 12.17). Participating teachers were mostly female (98.5%) and from a diverse set of racial and ethnic (e.g., 56% Caucasian, 22% African American, 10% Native American, 7% Hispanic) and educational backgrounds (e.g., 16% high school or less, 44% associate degree or some college, 40% bachelor’s degree or higher). Participating ECE teachers recruited from various early childhood settings (e.g., Head Start program, child care center, public pre-K) completed a paper and pencil questionnaire on their background, working conditions, well-being including physical, psychological, and professional well-being, and turnover intention (see a list of variables in Table 1). Logistic regression and LASSO were performed to ascertain the effects of working conditions and well-being on turnover intention and identify potential higher order terms to explore in future studies.

Results/Discussion

Teachers with paid vacation days (exp[B] = 0.19), daily break (exp[B] = 0.07), and obesity (exp[B] = 0.19) were less likely to intend to leave. A reduction in the likelihood of turnover intention was also associated with increasing work commitment (exp[B] = <0.01), income (exp[B] = 0.48), depression (exp[B] = 0.89), and cardio health (exp[B] = 0.68). However, teachers with work-related injuries (exp[B] = 4.05) were more likely to intend to leave. An increased likelihood of turnover intention was also associated with increasing conflicts with children (exp[B] = 1.13) and educational level (exp[B] = 1.64). We will discuss the findings on the calls for attention to various aspects of working conditions and well-being for the workforce stability and the implications for policy and practice.

Authors

• Kyong-Ah Kwon, University of Oklahoma
  Presenting Author

• Wonkyung Jang, The University of Oklahoma

• Sun Geun Kim, University of Oklahoma

• Francisca Martinez Jensen, The University of Oklahoma

• Hong Li, University of Oklahoma

• Amirah Zulkifli, University of Oklahoma