Before and after COVID-19: An examination of social indicators of mental health in early childhood education teachers

ABSTRACT

The current study aimed to identify individual- and environmental-level social indicators of mental health for Washington State early childhood education (ECE) teachers before and at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using survey data collected in Fall 2019 and April 2020 from the Washington State ECE Workforce Survey Study (N = 1156), I examined whether ECE teachers' socio-demographic, professional, and work environment characteristics were predictive of ECE teachers' depression scores before the pandemic in Fall 2019. In addition, I also examined whether COVID-19 stressors were predictive of change in depression scores in ECE teachers at the onset of the pandemic, after controlling for pre-pandemic depression levels and other individual- and work environment-level characteristics. When looking at social indicators of mental health before the pandemic, regression model results showed that ECE teachers' age, self-identification as Latinx, weekly work hours, teachers' students' age group, job demands, and job support were each uniquely predictive of depression scores. Specifically, weekly work hours, working with infants and toddlers, and job demands were predictive of increased depression, and teachers' age, self-identification as Latinx, and job support were predictive of decreased depression. In the second regression model, results showed a significant mean increase in depression scores from Fall 2019 to onset of the pandemic in April 2020, indicating a change from mild to more pervasive symptoms of depression in ECE teachers. Further, the model results revealed that ECE teachers' pre-COVID depression scores, age, self-identification as Asian, and other minority racial groups, such as Native American, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, and biracial, and job demands, and income worry were predictive of change in depression scores, with income worry being one of the strongest predictors. Specifically, job demands before COVID and income worry were predictive of more change in depression scores (indicating more depression symptoms), and pre-COVID depression scores, self-identification as Asian, Native American, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, and biracial were predictive of less change in depression scores, indicating a little less increase in depression scores compared to teachers with higher depression scores before the pandemic and White teachers. Implications of these findings on the ECE teacher workforce, as well as recommendations for policy and practice, are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)