ECE Program Supports and Teacher-Perceived Support from Families: Are They Connected?

According to the Conservation of Resources theory of stress, early care and education (ECE) teachers who receive greater tangible and interpersonal supports from their workplaces will be more positive and effective in their roles. This may translate to them perceiving or eliciting greater support from families, which is a key component to family engagement, a growing area of study in the ECE landscape. This study explores whether four program-level supports (benefits, professional development supports, teacher social supports, program-level family involvement activities) are associated with teacher-perceived support from families. The hypothesis was that all four will be positively associated. This study uses survey data from 102 preschool teachers and 13 preschool program directors in urban areas of two US states. We use ordinary least squares regression with cluster-robust standard errors and a stepwise build-up modeling procedure to determine associations between independent and dependent variables. While teacher social supports had the expected positive association with teacher-perceived support from families, family involvement activities were negatively associated. Our findings suggest that programs looking to improve family engagement may consider interpersonal/cultural supports for teachers and the larger school community. All else equal, simply offering more family involvement activities may not improve engagement culture.