Associations between teachers’ personality, psychological well-being, and the quality of their cocaring relationships

Abstract

Recent research has explored the conceptual similarities between coparenting relationships and parent-teacher, or cocaring relationships, in infant and toddler classrooms (Lang, 2015). Cocaring is defined as the relationship between a parent and his or her child’s early childhood educator. Due to the novelty of this cocaring concept, this study aims to fill the gaps by including an observational understanding of how cocaring dimensions are enacted in daily exchanges between parents and teachers. This study will also examine how anxiety, depression, and personality traits impact the quality of the cocaring relationship. Parents and teachers of approximately 30 infants and toddlers, between 6-36 months of age, will be videotaped during pick-up and/or drop-off times in their childcare center classroom. This sample comes from 7 full-time, licensed childcare centers in Central Ohio. Additionally, each participant will fill out several scales including the Cocaring Relationship Questionnaire (Lang et. al, 2014), the Center Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977), the Spielberg State-Trait Anxiety Scale (Marteau & Bekker, 1992), and the NEO – Five Factor Inventory -3, a measure of personality (Costa & Roberts, 2010). By analyzing self-report data and observing teachers’ cocaring interactions in the classroom setting, this study will further our understanding of predictors of cocaring relationship functioning, including anxiety, depression, and specific personality traits. The information gained from this study will prove to be valuable for furthering the field’s theoretical understanding of parent-teacher relationships for very young children, especially when it comes to the overall functioning of cocaring relationships. The observational component of this study can also serve as the foundation for future intervention strategies, bringing the field one step closer towards improving cocaring relationships, and ultimately, positively impacting the development of young children in childcare.