The well-being of preschool and assistant teachers in the wake of the economic collapse

• Main Authors: Rafnsdóttir, Guðbjörg Linda, Sigursteinsdóttir, Hjördís
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Icelandic
• Published: Menntavísindasvið Háskóla Íslands 2020
• Subjects: mental health; social support; kindergarten employees; management; workload; work organization; working environment; andleg líðan; félagslegur stuðningur; starfsfólk leikskóla; stjórnun; vinnuálag; vinnufyrirkomulag; vinnuumhverfi; Iceland
• Online Access: https://ojs.hi.is/index.php/netla/article/view/3113

The well-being and working conditions of preschool teachers and assistant teachers can affect children and their developmental processes, as they spend so many hours together every week. The social-emotional capacity and the psychological wellbeing of preschool and assistant teachers are fundamental characteristics that support improved social and emotional learning practices in the classroom. Preschool teachers and assistant teachers who experience emotional exhaustion and burnout at work are less likely to exhibit positive practices in children’s caregiving. This a major concern, since teaching is often recognized as one of the most stressful occupations. Although interest in preschool and assistant teachers’ own psychological well-being and selfcare is growing, more research is needed to understand the state of their well-being to find ways to better support their mental health. Therefore, in the current study, we explore factors in the work environment that support or reduce the well-being of preschool and assistant teachers, such as management, social support at work, workload, job roles and job development. We studied the work conditions and connections between work environment and self-evaluated mental well-being of approximately half of all preschool teachers and assistant teachers in Iceland - in seventeen out of the seventy-two municipalities in Iceland. The past decade has seen considerable changes in the work environment of municipal employees, which can be traced to the economic collapse in 2008. These changes are reflected in, among other things, mergers of preschools and a decrease in numbers of preschool teachers and assistant teachers while the proportion of children attending preschool has increased. In 2009, there were 284 preschools in Iceland but in 2016, they were only 254. However, the proportion of children attending preschools has risen, from 82% to 86% while the number of preschool and assistant teachers has decreased by 2% between 2014 and 2016. The aim of the study is to assess the ...