Graduation Date

Fall 2023

Document Type

Thesis

Program

Master of Arts degree with a major in Psychology, option Academic Research

Committee Chair Name

Dr. Tasha Howe

Committee Chair Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Second Committee Member Name

Dr. Brandilynn Villarreal

Second Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Third Committee Member Name

Isaac Coppock, MA

Third Committee Member Affiliation

HSU Faculty or Staff

Keywords

Early childhood educators, Burnout, Social-emotional framework

Abstract

The Teaching Pyramid is a research-based socio-emotional framework created for implementation in early childhood education programs. It is designed to support children’s socio-emotional development and decrease persistent challenging behaviors. Challenging child behaviors have been linked to early educator stress. Job stressors in early childhood educators have been previously linked to educator burnout.

This study examined fidelity of implementation of the Teaching Pyramid framework as well as experience being trained and coached on the framework in 21 early childhood educators. It evaluated how these variables correlated with educator burnout, children’s socio-emotional development, and observed quality of care in nine Head Start and State funded preschool classrooms in Northern California. It was hypothesized that higher Teaching Pyramid implementation fidelity would be correlated with lower educator burnout, greater socio-emotional development in the children, and higher observed quality of care. It was also hypothesized that higher levels of burnout would be correlated with lower socio-emotional development in the children and observed quality of care.

There were no statistically significant correlations between any variables in this study. This may have been due to small sample sizes resulting in low statistical power. Future research on burnout as it correlates to professional development frameworks, child development and quality of care should be conducted on larger, more diverse populations of early childhood educators and include more classroom samples for a more robust analysis. Other research-based socio-emotional frameworks should also be investigated as supports to equip early childhood educators with the skills needed to manage job stressors and support children’s early development.

Citation Style

APA

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