P035 COVID-19’s Impact on Head Start Teachers’ Relationships, Health Behaviors, and Stress Levels

BACKGROUND: Early care and education (ECE) workers experience physical and mental barriers to health. The novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) worsened ECE workers' physical health, emotional stress, and financial burdens. These measures of well-being are important as they have also been linked to ECE workers' relationship with children in their classrooms. OBJECTIVE: Examine the impact of COVID-19 on the well-being of North Carolina (NC) Head Start (HS) teachers with an emphasis on their personal/professional relationships, personal health behaviors, and stressors. STUDY DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS: A cross sectional convenience sample of NC HS teachers were recruited to participate in the study. Data were collected from teachers across all three regions of North Carolina September 2020-March 2021 using an online 27-item survey. MEASURABLE OUTCOME/ANALYSIS: Researchers analyzed demographic information and quantitative survey data using basic descriptive statistics. Two researchers coded participants’ open-ended responses using basic thematic analysis. RESULTS: Survey respondents (n = 88) were predominantly female (97.6%), Black/African American (46.6%) or White (43.2%), with an average age of 43 years old. Teachers reported increased challenges to maintaining relationships with coworkers (57.9%), children in their classrooms (84.4%), and the children's families (81.1%). Half (50.6%) reported COVID-19 impacted their health. Over 70% indicated COVID-19 made physical activity challenging, 61.5% experienced weight gain, and 59% increased their snacking. Teachers expressed an increase in six psychological distress indicators; nervousness (88.9%), hopelessness (54.3%), restlessness (72.4%), sadness (50.6%), everything is an effort (58.4%) and worthlessness (31.2%). CONCLUSIONS: Survey results furthered the understanding of COVID-19’s effects on HS teacher health. In a workforce overburdened with stress, COVID-19 compounded and created barriers to wellness. Future research should explore avenues to reduce health barriers for all ECE workers during the ongoing pandemic. FUNDING: NIH