Head start classroom demands and resources: Identifying associations with teacher burnout.

Theoretical models of job stress suggest that teachers' experience with burnout occurs, in part, because of an imbalance between job demands and the resources available to meet those demands. Using a diverse sample of 230 Head Start educators, the present study explored how school-based demands (i.e., class size, behavioral challenges) and resources (i.e., school social supports) contributed to teachers' self-reported burnout. Findings revealed that greater social support, specifically leads teachers' relationship with their assistant teacher (TA), was associated with lower ratings of burnout. There was also a significant interaction between classroom behavior problems and TA relationship quality, such that relationship quality reduced burnout in classrooms with low and average levels of behavior problems, but not in classrooms with high levels of behavior problems. Implications of these findings for preschool teacher well-being are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Early childhood hospitalization and problematic behaviors: A propensity score analysis.

Existing research suggests that children who experience poverty and hospitalization in early childhood are at risk of developing behavior problems. We examined whether the association between early childhood hospitalization and children's internalizing and externalizing behaviors were moderated by family poverty status and child sex. Participants included 224 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. There was no direct association between hospitalization and problematic behaviors. Poverty status during early childhood, but not child sex, significantly moderated the association between hospitalization and externalizing problems. Findings support the need for community programs that promote an integrative approach to healthcare for families experiencing poverty.

Intervention Implementation of Tools of the Mind for Preschool Children's Executive Functioning.

One of the more prominent early childhood interventions focused on the development of executive function (EF) skills is Tools of the Mind (Tools; Bodrova and Leong, 2019). Intervention studies comparing Tools classrooms with control classrooms, however, reveal inconsistent findings for children's EF outcomes. The current study utilizes Head Start CARES teachers assigned to the Tools of the Mind enhancement intervention (Tools; N = 75) and the children in their classrooms (N = 738). Relations between teachers' characteristics (i.e., teaching experience, psychological well-being, and educational background), training attendance and implementation (i.e., coach rated fidelity and observed scaffolding), and the interaction among these factors were examined as predictors of classroom-level gains in EF. Results revealed several significant moderation effects indicating that Tools implementation is related to classroom EF gains for some but not all teachers.

Gains in teacher-child interaction quality and children's school readiness skills: Does it matter where teachers start?

Teachers' initial level of interactional quality at the beginning of a school year (baseline) was examined as a potential moderating factor in the relation between change in interactional quality and change in children's school readiness skills throughout an academic year. Participants were 269 preschool teachers and 1179 children from low-income backgrounds. Teacher-child interactions and children's school readiness skills were measured in the fall and spring of the preschool year. Overall, improvements in the quality of teacher-child interactions across the year were not significantly related to children's skill development. Three important findings emerged; two main effects and one interaction effect. Gains in teachers' instructional support across the year were related to children's literacy and inhibitory control development. Additionally, the relation between gains in teachers' emotional support and gains in children's inhibitory control was moderated by teachers' initial level of emotional support at the beginning of the year. These findings provide limited evidence for the need to consider teachers' initial level of quality and how much they change across the year in understanding the relation between quality of teacher-child interactions and children's skill development.

Kindergarten School Engagement: Linking Early Temperament and Academic Achievement at the Transition to School.

RESEARCH FINDINGS: Although children's temperament contributes to their academic success, little is known regarding the mechanisms through which temperament is associated withacademic achievement during the transition to elementary school. One such mechanism may be school engagement, but findings are inconsistent and limited. Across two waves of data at the transition to school, we examined the role of kindergarten emotional and behavioral engagement as links between preschool temperament (positive emotionality, anger, andeffortful control), and kindergartenacademic achievement, among a predominantlyMexican/Mexican-Americansample of 241children drawn from Head Start classrooms. Significant direct effects indicated that preschool anger was negatively,and positive emotionality and effortful control werepositively,associated withkindergarten behavioralengagement.Only preschool anger was significantly associatedwithkindergarten emotional engagement. In turn, kindergarten behavioral, but not emotional, engagement was directly, positively associated withkindergartenacademic achievement. All three preschool temperament measures were indirectly related to kindergarten achievement via kindergarten behavioral engagement, and anger was indirectly related to kindergarten achievement via emotional engagement. PRACTICE OR POLIC: Findings highlight the importance of understanding the role of engagement as a mechanismthat can foster children'sacademic achievement at a key developmental transition.

The role of sex of peers and gender-typed activities in young children's peer affiliative networks: a longitudinal analysis of selection and influence.

A stochastic actor-based model was used to investigate the origins of sex segregation by examining how similarity in sex of peers and time spent in gender-typed activities affected affiliation network selection and how peers influenced children's (N = 292; Mage = 4.3 years) activity involvement. Gender had powerful effects on interactions through direct and indirect pathways. Children selected playmates of the same sex and with similar levels of gender-typed activities. Selection based on gender-typed activities partially mediated selection based on sex of peers. Children influenced one another's engagement in gender-typed activities. When mechanisms producing sex segregation were compared, the largest contributor was selection based on sex of peers; less was due to activity-based selection and peer influence. Implications for sex segregation and gender development are discussed.