Utilizing state workforce registries and targeted surveys to investigate workforce wellbeing

Abstract

The twofold aim of the presented work was to detail a partnership with the first and third authors, the National Workforce Registry Alliance (NWRA), and two state ECE professional registries and to demonstrate the viability of state workforce registry data and the utility of combining survey data and registry data to investigate predictors of professional and personal workforce wellbeing. Administrative data from state workforce registries was linked to survey data collected by the NWRA (n = 902 respondents). Respondents represented different settings (center-based and family child care home) and roles (teachers and administrators). The Early Childhood Professional Wellbeing Framework (Gallagher & Roberts, 2022) was used to develop a path analysis to demonstrate the effectiveness of the partnership and test the relationships between individual and contextual elements of the framework and latent variables representing professional and personal wellbeing. No individual and contextual elements significantly predicted personal wellbeing, however being part of a historically marginalized population, working in family child care homes, and having more years of experience all significantly predicted professional wellbeing. Professional wellbeing also significantly, positively predicted personal wellbeing (β = 0.95, p < 0.001). The full set of individual and contextual elements and professional wellbeing accounted for 88% of the variance in personal wellbeing (R² = 0.88, p < 0.001). The utility of workforce registry data, aspects of the partnership, and the benefits and challenges of the process are discussed.