(P20-082-24) Early Childhood Providers’ Social Support and Strain and the Association With Diet, Health and Professional Burnout

Objectives: Examine Early Childhood Education (ECE) providers’ social experience (i.e., social support and strain) and its relationship with diet, health and professional burnout.

Methods: A follow-up survey (50 items) was distributed electronically via REDCap to New York licensed ECE providers who completed the StayWell ECE survey (n=1,423). The Family Support and Strain Scale queried respondents’ perception of their coworkers’ support (i.e., help) or strain (i.e., hinder). Diet (Rapid Eating Assessment for Participants), physical activity (PA; Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System), Body Mass Index (BMI), self-rated health, stress (Perceived Stress Scale) and professional burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment; Maslach Burnout Inventory) were measured. Multiple linear regressions tested associations between social support and strain with diet, PA, stress, self-rated health and burnout, controlling for age and ECE center type. Analyses were performed using R (v4.3.2, 2023); α < 0.05.

Results: Respondents (n=263) worked in a variety of ECE settings; 41% were low-income, 31% were food insecure, and 80% had moderate/high stress levels. Most (77%) were overweight/obese (BMI x̄=31.9 ± 8.8); 66% consumed < 2 daily servings of whole grains, vegetables, and/or fruit; and, 29% did not exercise in the past month. Low social support was associated with lower diet quality (β= -0.61, p=0.00), lower self-rated health (β= 0.34, p=0.00), higher stress (β= 1.33, p=0.02), higher emotional exhaustion (β= 3.41, p=0.00), higher depersonalization (β= 1.78, p=0.00), and lower personal accomplishment (β= -2.19, p=0.00). PA and BMI were not significantly associated with social support. Social strain mirrored social support relationships; notably, the association between social strain and emotional exhaustion (high burnout) was almost double (β= 6.27, p=0.00) that of social support (β= 3.41, p=0.00).

Conclusions: Social support and social strain in the ECE setting were significantly associated with the quality of providers’ diet, stress, weight status and feelings of burnout. Thus, there is a need to improve the social experience (i.e., more support and less strain) of ECE providers to improve their overall health.

Funding Sources: USDA-NIFA NYC-199404; NICHD 2T32HD087137-06