Early Childhood Educators' Work Climate and Well-being: Cases of the United States and South Korea

The purpose of this dissertation project is to explore how work climates in early care and education (ECE) programs, ECE educators’ well-being, their practice, and child outcomes are associated with each other in ECE settings in South Korea and the United States. The dissertation is composed of three studies. The first study analyzed the associations among the ECE work climate, classroom chaos, and children’s social, emotional, and behavioral outcomes in the U.S. Using multilevel modeling, I investigated whether the congruence between teachers’ and directors’ perceptions of ECE work climates strengthens or attenuates the association between classroom chaos and child outcomes. The second study examined the association between ECE teachers’ satisfaction with a work environment and their professional commitment via teachers’ perception of personal stress in South Korea. This study aimed to understand how teachers’ perception of the work environment was associated with their well-being in personal life, represented as perceived personal stress, which again, was associated with their professional well-being, illustrated as their commitment to ECE. The third study was a cross-country comparison between the U.S. and South Korea, investigating the mediating role of teachers’ emotion regulation on the associations between their psychological well-being and responsiveness toward children’s challenging emotions and behaviors. Using multigroup path analysis, the study attempted to better understand the mechanism of the association between teachers’ well-being and responsiveness, and cross-cultural variations in this association. The findings from three studies altogether highlighted the importance of promoting the positive and supportive ECE work climate and educators’ well-being across diverse national contexts. In addition, the current findings suggested potential cross-country differences in ECE work climates and educators’ well-being in different cultural and national contexts, implying that differential approaches may be taken to promote positive work climates and well-being in different countries. Practical implications at program and policy levels, and insights for the future research directions were discussed