TY - JOUR
T1 - Holistic measurement of early childhood educators’ well-being
T2 - A protocol
AU - Wong, Sandie
AU - Cumming, Tamara
AU - MacQuarrie, Alexander
AU - Bull, Rebecca
AU - Robertson, Caroline
AU - Saha, Mari
AU - McFarland, Laura
AU - Logan, Helen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Early childhood educators are key to delivering early childhood education and care (ECEC) for the benefit of children, their families and society alike. For the benefits of ECEC to be realised, however, the educators who deliver these services need to bewell. Despite growing attention to attracting and retaining a high-quality early childhoodworkforce, little is known about the work-related psychological and physiological wellbeingof early childhood educators. This paper contributes an example of an holistic ofstudy of early childhood educators’ well-being. It describes the research protocol of astudy that drew on objective methods for measuring educators’ physiological wellbeing,as well as standardised subjective self-assessments of their psychological wellbeing, and work environment quality. For the 73 Australian early childhood educatorswho participated in this study, there were both positive and troubling findings. The participants had favourable physical functioning and reasonably high levels of selfesteem. However, the study revealed a reasonably low level of physical activity, and a high percentage of participants had diminished health status, putting them at risk ofmetabolic syndrome. Further, a reasonably high number of participants scored high on levels of work-related psychological stress, and emotional exhaustion. Learnings are provided for future studies of educator holistic well-being.
AB - Early childhood educators are key to delivering early childhood education and care (ECEC) for the benefit of children, their families and society alike. For the benefits of ECEC to be realised, however, the educators who deliver these services need to bewell. Despite growing attention to attracting and retaining a high-quality early childhoodworkforce, little is known about the work-related psychological and physiological wellbeingof early childhood educators. This paper contributes an example of an holistic ofstudy of early childhood educators’ well-being. It describes the research protocol of astudy that drew on objective methods for measuring educators’ physiological wellbeing,as well as standardised subjective self-assessments of their psychological wellbeing, and work environment quality. For the 73 Australian early childhood educatorswho participated in this study, there were both positive and troubling findings. The participants had favourable physical functioning and reasonably high levels of selfesteem. However, the study revealed a reasonably low level of physical activity, and a high percentage of participants had diminished health status, putting them at risk ofmetabolic syndrome. Further, a reasonably high number of participants scored high on levels of work-related psychological stress, and emotional exhaustion. Learnings are provided for future studies of educator holistic well-being.
KW - well-being
KW - psychological
KW - physiological
KW - cortisol
KW - health
KW - early childhood education
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U2 - 10.1080/1743727X.2022.2128746
DO - 10.1080/1743727X.2022.2128746
M3 - Article
SN - 1743-727X
VL - 46
SP - 515
EP - 527
JO - International Journal of Research and Method in Education
JF - International Journal of Research and Method in Education
IS - 5
ER -