Exploring Predictors of Depression, Anxiety, Burnout, and Secondary Traumatic Stress Among Early Childhood Educators

• In Event: The Well-Being of Early Childhood Teachers and Practice Implications for Promoting Child Development

Abstract

Well-being influences the relationships teachers develop with students and how they manage the classroom (Jennings and Greenberg, 2009; Whitaker et al., 2015). Teaching is a demanding profession. Without adequate supports, stress can compromise the psychological health of the workforce and undermine overall program quality (Roberts et al., 2016). This is especially true in early childhood settings where professional resources are not always accessible (Zinsser et al., 2016).
More research is needed on the predictors of teacher well-being. Work-related stress is an important factor associated with overall stress, depression, and emotional exhaustion (Jeon et al., 2018; Roberts et al., 2019). Teachers who report greater job demands, lower levels of control in the workplace and lower levels of support from their work colleagues report lower quality relationships with their students (Whitaker et al., 2015). This study explored predictors of teacher wellbeing. We hypothesized that teachers who have higher levels of resilience, positive relationships with families and access to supports will report lower levels of psychological distress. We expected that teachers with increased job supports and control, and lower job demands would report higher wellbeing, as indicated by depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress.
A cross sectional sample of 175 early education providers completed an online survey on workplace characteristics, availability of supports, and physical and psychological wellbeing. Penalized regression via elastic-net methodology was used to identify the most important predictors for each of the outcomes (Zou & Hastie, 2005). Statistical Analysis System software version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA) was used to perform the analysis.
Survey respondents (Table 1) were predominately female (n=167, 95.4%), African American (n=99, 56.6%) and had an Associate’s Degree or less (n=92, 52.6%). Using penalized regression (Table 2), the most important predictors for each outcome were selected. Job demands, age and education were associated with an increase in depression whereas resilience and school level support were associated with a decrease in depression. Job demands, lower education levels, and having four to ten years of experience were associated with an increase in anxiety, whereas resilience, school-level supports, and being black or African American was associated with a decrease in anxiety. Job demands and age were associated with increased levels of burnout among teachers, whereas, resilience, parent-caregiver relationship, and school-level supports were associated with decreased levels of burnout. Job demands and job control were associated with increases in secondary traumatic stress and resilience was associated with a decrease in secondary traumatic stress. Overall, job demands were a consistent negative factor across all wellbeing outcomes, and resilience was a positive factor in reducing levels for all outcomes.
The current study replicates previous research regarding the negative impact of work-related stress on teacher wellbeing and the positive effect that access to social-emotional supports provides. The findings that self-reported resilience and positive relationships with families are associated with lower levels of psychological distress suggests that these may be important new targets for incorporating into teacher-focused interventions.

Authors

• Hillary A. Robertson, Georgetown University Medical Center
  Presenting Author

• Sabrina F. Zuskov, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Aimée Claire Drouin Duncan, University of Maryland - College Park
  Non-Presenting Author

• Eshetu Tefera, MedStar Health Research Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paul Kolm, MedStar Health Research Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Celene Elizabeth Domitrovich, Georgetown University School of Medicine
  Non-Presenting Author