The Joint Effects of Teacher Turnover and Residential Instability on Child Behavior in Head Start

• In Event: Poster Session 02
  In Poster Session: PS 02 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

The two most salient developmental contexts for young children are the home and their early education setting (Bronfenbrenner & Ceci, 1994). As a result, instability in these contexts can have profound effects on child wellbeing. For instance, studies find that children who experience multiple moves, known as residential instability, have increased behavior problems and socioemotional dysregulation relative to their peers (Fowler et al., 2014; Murphey et al., 2012; Ziol‐Guest & McKenna, 2014). Similarly, numerous studies find that experiencing sudden, mid-year changes in a teacher predicts worse child behavior (Henry & Redding, 2020; Markowitz, 2019; Tran & Winsler, 2011).
Although studies have linked both types of instability to child wellbeing, none have investigated how instability across these contexts may jointly impact child wellbeing. This study does so by exploring the socioemotional outcomes of children in Head Start during the Great Recession, when we would expect a higher proportion of students to experience residential moves and/or teacher turnover. These analyses were conducted using teacher reports of child behavior, to capture children’s behavior in school, as well as parent reports of child behavior, to capture children’s behavior in the home. By relying on both reporters, this study can illuminate whether children who experience disruption in one setting display the behavioral effects of this disruption in multiple contexts.
OLS regressions were run on children in the 2006 and 2009 cohorts of the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES). Results indicate different patterns across cohorts. In 2006, when the housing market collapsed, a higher proportion of the sample experienced a residential move (21%) than in 2009. These moves predicted significantly higher behavior and social problems in children both at home (d = 0.11 to 0.14; Table 1) and at school (d = 0.10 to 0.15; Table 2). Teacher turnover, however, only negatively predicted child behavior at school, albeit with larger effect sizes (d = 0.40). This pattern of results suggests that the negative effects of teacher turnover may only manifest in the classroom, whereas residential instability may more globally affect children’s behavior. Significant interactions between residential instability and teacher turnover were only found for withdrawn behaviors, suggesting the effects of residential and teacher instability influence children independently. In 2009, by contrast, few significant relationships between either residential or teacher instability were found.
Today, low-income families are once again experiencing economic hardships as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that will displace many families and create an unstable job market for teachers (Frederick & Lake, 2020; Griffith, 2020). The results of this study indicate that economic crises that trigger increases in instability in the home and at school have independent, additive effects on child behavior that materialize in the classroom. Parents appear to be fairly shielded from the effects of instability at school but experience the effects of residential instability on children’s socioemotional wellbeing. This pattern of results signals a need for classroom supports to help teachers manage elevated negative child behaviors in school and a need for economic supports to minimize residential displacement.

Authors

• Samantha Steimle, Georgetown University
  Presenting Author

• Rebecca Ryan, Georgetown University
  Non-Presenting Author