Cargando…

The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on early childhood educational contexts and on educators’ working conditions. This study aims to examine the change over time in personal contribution to workplace safety and perception of risk of infection among preschool teachers after returning to in-perso...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bacci, Giulia, Converso, Daniela, Sottimano, Ilaria, Martini, Mara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10378074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37508718
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071222
_version_ 1785079675859501056
author Bacci, Giulia
Converso, Daniela
Sottimano, Ilaria
Martini, Mara
author_facet Bacci, Giulia
Converso, Daniela
Sottimano, Ilaria
Martini, Mara
author_sort Bacci, Giulia
collection PubMed
description The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on early childhood educational contexts and on educators’ working conditions. This study aims to examine the change over time in personal contribution to workplace safety and perception of risk of infection among preschool teachers after returning to in-person work during the third wave of the pandemic (spring 2021). Teachers’ perceptions of workplace safety can influence their quality of work-life and, as a consequence, the quality of service offered to children. Data were collected using two questionnaires: at T0 (January) and at T1 (May). The results showed relations between organizational and personal actions to manage risk and fear of infection at work. Concern about COVID-19 contagion decreased over time (t = 5.53, p = 0.000) and perceptions of personal contribution to workplace safety related to COVID-19 improved: t = −2.18 p = 0.031. The decrease in these concerns illustrates how perceptions of ability to manage contagion and protect workplace safety of preschool teachers improved over time, despite the stability of the pandemic context in the first half of 2021. After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study gives an account of some good practices and their perceived effectiveness in terms of safety for childhood educational contexts.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-10378074
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-103780742023-07-29 The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic Bacci, Giulia Converso, Daniela Sottimano, Ilaria Martini, Mara Children (Basel) Article The COVID-19 pandemic had a major impact on early childhood educational contexts and on educators’ working conditions. This study aims to examine the change over time in personal contribution to workplace safety and perception of risk of infection among preschool teachers after returning to in-person work during the third wave of the pandemic (spring 2021). Teachers’ perceptions of workplace safety can influence their quality of work-life and, as a consequence, the quality of service offered to children. Data were collected using two questionnaires: at T0 (January) and at T1 (May). The results showed relations between organizational and personal actions to manage risk and fear of infection at work. Concern about COVID-19 contagion decreased over time (t = 5.53, p = 0.000) and perceptions of personal contribution to workplace safety related to COVID-19 improved: t = −2.18 p = 0.031. The decrease in these concerns illustrates how perceptions of ability to manage contagion and protect workplace safety of preschool teachers improved over time, despite the stability of the pandemic context in the first half of 2021. After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study gives an account of some good practices and their perceived effectiveness in terms of safety for childhood educational contexts. MDPI 2023-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10378074/ /pubmed/37508718 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071222 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bacci, Giulia
Converso, Daniela
Sottimano, Ilaria
Martini, Mara
The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short The Perception of Workplace Safety and of Risk of Contagion among Preschool Teachers during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort perception of workplace safety and of risk of contagion among preschool teachers during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10378074/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37508718
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/children10071222
work_keys_str_mv AT baccigiulia theperceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT conversodaniela theperceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT sottimanoilaria theperceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT martinimara theperceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT baccigiulia perceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT conversodaniela perceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT sottimanoilaria perceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic
AT martinimara perceptionofworkplacesafetyandofriskofcontagionamongpreschoolteachersduringthecovid19pandemic