Early childhood educators’ workplace well-being: it’s everyone’s right!

Extant literature on Early Childhood educator workplace well-being focuses on the disease model of well-being, with studies mainly addressing stress and burnout. There is a paucity of research conceptualising healthy workplace well-being for educators and an absence of theorising to frame, understand and enhance Early Childhood educator workplace well-being. This paper reports on
Phase 2 of an exploratory sequential mixed methods study, which aimed to explore the individual, relational, and contextual factors influencing healthy workplace well-being. Using Phase 1 interview findings (Author, blind for review), a survey was developed to investigate predictors on workplace well-being in early childhood services in Australia. The survey drew on the sub-theory ‘Basic psychological needs’ of Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that autonomy, relatedness, and competence predicted workplace well-being even after controlling for demographic and organisation variables.