3-187 - Early Childhood Educators’ Social-Emotional Capacity and Classroom Quality

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Early childhood educators’ personal social-emotional capacity, such as stress, depression, beliefs, motivation and commitment, has recently been recognized as an important indicator of teachers’ abilities to create positive social and emotional learning environments and to promote children’s development (Author et al., 2016, Whitaker et al., 2015). However, there is still a lack of studies devoted to how early childhood educators’ social-emotional capacity impacts classroom quality and child outcomes. The four papers presented in this symposium explore the associations between teachers’ social-emotional capacity, classroom quality, and children’s social-emotional functioning within early care and education settings as a way to understand the role of teachers’ social-emotional capacity in preschool classrooms and to explore paths for improving both teachers’ and children’s social-emotional wellbeing.
The first paper examines the direct and indirect associations between teachers’ professional engagement, measured by job satisfaction and commitment, and children’s social-emotional outcomes via teacher-child relationships. The second paper focuses on teachers’ depression and examines whether it strengthens or weakens the associations between children’s special needs/disabilities status and social-behavioral competence. The third paper seeks to identify predictors of preschool teachers’ job commitment and reveals that teachers’ working conditions and psychological wellbeing are related to their career intentions and commitment. The fourth paper addresses the importance of teachers’ professional characteristics, such as previous training and current professional development, and examines how those professional characteristics are associated with teachers’ beliefs and motivation and their responsiveness towards children’s emotions and behaviors in the classroom.

Sub Unit

• School Readiness/Childcare

Chair

• Cynthia K. Buettner, The Ohio State University

Individual Presentations

• Preschool Teachers’ Professional Engagement & Children’s Social-Emotional Development: Mediation by Teacher-Child Relationships - Presenting Author: Cynthia K. Buettner, The Ohio State University; Lieny Jeon, Johns Hopkins University; Jessica Pierce, The Ohio State University

• The Moderating Role of Preschool Teachers’ Depression on Associations between Children’s Disabilities Status & Social Competence - Presenting Author: Lieny Jeon, Johns Hopkins University; Cynthia K. Buettner, The Ohio State University; Jessica Pierce, The Ohio State University; Ashley Grant, Johns Hopkins University

• 3. Relating Teachers’ Working Conditions and Well-Being to Career Intentions and Job Commitment - Presenting Author: Ashley Grant, Johns Hopkins University; Lieny Jeon, Johns Hopkins University; Cynthia K. Buettner, The Ohio State University

• Preschool Teachers’ Professional Training, Feedback, Beliefs and Motivation: Associations with Social and Emotional Responsiveness - Presenting Author: Sarah Naomi Lang, The Ohio State University; Chryso Mouzourou, The Ohio State University; Lieny Jeon, Johns Hopkins University; Cynthia K. Buettner, The Ohio State University; Rachel Eunhye Hur, Oregon State University - Cascades