Head Start Teachers’ Well-Being and Program Supports for Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Fall 2021 to Spring 2022

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fahsai

This brief examines Head Start teachers’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on health, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, stress, and job satisfaction. It analyzes supports programs may offer and the supports teachers used, using data from the 2021–2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs collected in fall 2021 and spring 2022. Findings highlight changes across pandemic phases and the associations between receiving wage, non-wage, psychological/physical, and workplace supports and teacher well-being, with limitations on national generalizability.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teacher well-being

Supports for teacher well-being

Associations between supports and teacher well-being

Box 1: Supports for well-being

Box 2: Key findings

Research Brief Head Start Teachers’Well-Being and Program Supports for Well-Being During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Fall 2021 to Spring 2022 Jessica F. Harding, Alex Baum, Addison Larson, Louisa Tarullo, and Sara Bernstein The well-being of Head Start teachers is essential to ensuring high-quality early care and education (ECE) and supporting children’s development. The COVID-19 pandemic raised unique challenges to teachers’ well-being. In this brief, we explore Head Start teachers’ health, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, stress, and job satisfaction; the supports programs offered and the ones teachers used (Box 1); and the associations between teachers’ well-being and those supports during the pandemic. We use data collected in fall 2021 and spring 2022 from the 2021–2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start FACES Programs (the 2021–2022 Study), after nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings reveal insights about the well-being of Head Start teachers in the wake of the pandemic and ways to support their well-being (Box 2) . The data in this brief provide a window into the experiences of Head Start teachers who were able to respond to the survey in 2021–2022. Readers should not assume the data represent all Head Start teachers nationally. To learn more about the samples and weights used for the analyses please see the methods box at the end of this brief (Box 4) and accompanying technical appendix (Harding et al. 2024) . Box 1. Supports for well-being This brief focuses on four strategies Head Start programs might offer to support staff well-being (Bernardi 2023; Gonzales et al. 2024): 1. Wage increases are permanent wage or salary increases. 2. Non-wage supports for economic well-being are benefits like paid sick days and holidays that programs use to support staff economic well-being. 3. Supports for psychological and physical well-being are, for example, professional mental health consultationsand resources to support staff physical health, such as exercise and nutrition resources or a yoga room. 4. Workplace supports address job-and workplace-related factors to reduce job stress and help staff accomplish workrelated goals. Examples are regular checkins with staff and flexible hours scheduling. AUGUST 2024 OPRE Report \#2024-094 1 Box 2. Key findings Teacher well-being • In fall 2021, during the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, most teachers reported being in good health, but many also reported symptoms of anxiety, depression, and job stress related to the pandemic.1 Anxiety and depressive symptoms were higher than they were in similar groups before the pandemic (Bernstein et al. 2019; Terlizzi and Villarroel 2020) . • In spring 2022, as COVID-19 rates generally decreased (New York Times 2023), teachers’ wellbeing improved, with significant reductions in anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and job stress related to the pandemic.2 In addition, although some teachers reported job-related stress, most had high job satisfaction. Supports for teacher well-being • In spring 2022, teachers said that their programs offered a variety of supports for well-being in the past year (Box 1), with nearly all of them saying their program offered at least one support. – Almost half of teachers said their programs offered staff a permanent wage or salary increase in the past year. They also said their programs offered a variety of non-wage supports for economic well-being, supports for psychological and physical well-being, and workplace supports. – Although most teachers thought the supports they received met their needs, some of them reported that other supports they did not receive would have been useful. Associations between supports and teacher well-being • In spring 2022, teachers’ reports of receiving more supports were associated with some aspects of better well-being: – Receiving more wage increases, non-wage supports for economic well-being, sup

FAQs

What dimensions of well-being does the brief analyze for Head Start teachers?

It assesses teachers’ health, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, stress, and job satisfaction during the pandemic.

What support strategies do Head Start programs potentially offer to improve staff well-being?

The brief focuses on four strategies: wage increases, non-wage economic benefits, psychological and physical well-being supports, and workplace supports that reduce job stress and help accomplish work-related goals.

How did teacher well-being change from fall 2021 to spring 2022?

In fall 2021, many teachers reported anxiety, depression, and job stress despite reporting good health; by spring 2022, teachers’ well-being improved with reductions in anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and pandemic-related job stress.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Fahsai