• First study applying the NIOSH Worker Well-Being Framework in ECE settings. • Fills a key gap by assessing ECE teacher turnover holistically. • Includes underused indicators, such as physical environment satisfaction and workplace discrimination. • Supports a person-environment pathway that clarifies intervention points to support well-being in ECE settings. There is a gap in the early childhood education (ECE) literature related to assessing workforce turnover holistically. Most studies have only examined a few factors that predict turnover or turnover intent. This study explores the intent to turnover in Head Start ECE settings using the comprehensive National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Worker (NIOSH) Worker Well-Being framework and accompanying Well-Being Questionnaire (WellBQ). Survey data were collected from 332 ECE staff members employed in 29 centers in five large urban and rural Head Start agencies in Colorado. Five separate higher hierarchical linear regression models were employed to predict turnover intent, one for each of the five NIOSH well-being domains. The following well-being indicators were found to be significant predictors of turnover intent: Socio-demographics: identifying as non-Hispanic, younger, having a lower level of education, longer tenure, and being a non-classroom teacher; Work Evaluation and Experience: job dissatisfaction, work-related negative affect, and lacking job engagement; Workplace Policies and Culture: an unsupportive work culture, management mistrust, and work to non-work conflict; Workplace Physical Environment and Safety Climate: physical work environment dissatisfaction, discrimination, and work-related bullying; Health Status: lower number of chronic health conditions, higher overall stress, higher poor mental health, lower frequency of being sleepy at work, and higher productivity; Home, Community and Society: life dissatisfaction and financial insecurity. This study took a “deeper dive” into investigating well-being indicators from a comprehensive well-being framework and their associations with turnover intent. Findings from this study support a person-environment pathway: organization climate and physical work conditions influence employee’s evaluations and affective states, which, in turn, drive turnover intent. This pathway clarifies intervention points that may contribute to and/or help to mitigate job-related demands experienced by the ECE workforce. These findings can inform the development of evidence-based, multi-level well-being promotion programs in ECE settings to promote the retention of this essential workforce, which in turn, will benefit the more than 10 million children in their care in the U.S.
Puma et al. (Thu,) studied this question.