The purpose of this study was to examine Head Start (HS) teachers’ characteristics, working conditions, whole well-being, and classroom quality and their associations compared to other (non-HS) ECE teachers. The study collected survey and direct assessment data on a range of working conditions and whole well-being (physical, psychological, and professional well-being) from 262 teachers (112 HS teachers and 150 ECE teachers, including private child care and public pre-K teachers). Additionally, we used emotional/behavioral and instructional supports among 83 teachers in their classrooms. Our findings from the propensity score analysis revealed that HS teachers are better educated, have better resources in general, and provide higher classroom quality, but they have more job demands, are less likely to have daily breaks, and have overall poorer whole teacher well-being, which was unexpected and paradoxical. Job demands, well-being resources, and a high-quality physical environment were all significant predictors of teacher well-being. We also found that some resources (i.e., well-being resources, physical environmental quality) served as moderators, either buffering the negative impact of physical job demands or having a combined, synergizing effect in fostering teacher well-being. Finally, teachers’ job demands and whole well-being were found to predict classroom quality. The study highlights the unique strengths, needs, and challenges of HS teachers and offers insights into optimizing working conditions to promote their well-being, which may also help improve classroom quality.

中文翻译：

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启蒙教师悖论：工作条件、整体幸福感和课堂质量

本研究的目的是检查领先 （HS） 教师与其他（非 HS）ECE 教师相比的特征、工作条件、整体幸福感和课堂质量及其关联。该研究收集了 262 名教师（112 名 HS 教师和 150 名 ECE 教师，包括私立托儿所和公立学前班教师）关于一系列工作条件和整体福祉（身体、心理和职业福祉）的调查和直接评估数据。此外，我们在课堂上的 83 名教师中使用了情感/行为和教学支持。我们从倾向得分分析中得出的结果显示，HS 教师受教育程度更高，总体上拥有更好的资源，课堂质量更高，但他们有更多的工作需求，不太可能每天休息，并且整体教师的幸福感总体上较差，这是出乎意料的和自相矛盾的。工作需求、福利资源和高质量的物理环境都是教师福祉的重要预测因素。我们还发现，一些资源（即幸福感资源、物理环境质量）起到了调节作用，要么缓冲了体力工作需求的负面影响，要么在促进教师幸福感方面具有综合的协同效应。最后，发现教师的工作需求和整体幸福感可以预测课堂质量。该研究强调了 HS 教师的独特优势、需求和挑战，并提供了优化工作条件以促进其福祉的见解，这也可能有助于提高课堂质量。