Abstract
Early childhood educators’ (ECEs) well-being has attracted worldwide attention given its importance to many individual, organizational, and child outcomes. ECEs’ well-being is a multidimensional construct that encompasses a number of elements. These elements are interrelated and represent a complex psychological network. Scant research has examined the features of this network and whether the network would be upheld for ECEs across career stages. This study uses a network analysis to identify pervasive and robust features of well-being in ECEs from diverse career developmental phases. Participants were 1,188 ECEs (1,008 females, Mage = 32.19 years) recruited from four cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. They reported mental (i.e., subjective well-being and psychological well-being), occupational (i.e., job stress, job satisfaction, job burnout, and work engagement), and physical (i.e., physical health and role functioning of health) well-being. The results showed that emotional exhaustion was the most central element in the network whilst some other eudaimonic elements from the occupational aspect (e.g., vigor, dedication, and depersonalization) also occupied relatively important places. Further invariance analyses suggested that the above network was largely equivalent across ECEs at the novice, advanced beginner, and competent career stages. Theoretically, this study informs which elements are playing the fundamental role in the holistic well-being network among Chinese ECEs. Practically, the findings also provide implications for prevention and intervention strategies and career counselling to enhance Chinese ECEs’ different aspects of well-being.
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Notes
Since the minimum sample size for a network analysis with 20 node or less requires at least 250 participants (Constantin, 2018), we excluded Hong Kong from the city comparison test because the number of Hong Kong participants was lower than the required minimum sample size.
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This study is supported by the Research Impact Cluster Fund from the Department of Early Childhood Education and the Internal Research Grant from Committee on Research and Development (RG 20/2021-2022R), the Education University of Hong Kong.
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Li, JB., Deng, J., Xu, Y. et al. Which Well-Being Elements Are Fundamental for Early Childhood Educators in the Chinese Context? A Network Analysis. Applied Research Quality Life 19, 103–134 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10233-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-023-10233-5