Abstract

Family Day Care (FDC) is an essential service supporting Australian families requiring convenient, versatile, and quality education and care for their children. FDC educators’ mental wellbeing (MWB), often overlooked, is vital to ensure optimal education and care. This study aimed to gauge Australian FDC educators’ MWB and identify factors positively or negatively affecting MWB. A cross-sectional questionnaire measuring MWB, and eight predictor variables influencing MWB, was completed by Australian FDC educators. Structural equation modelling was utilised to ascertain relationships of the predictor variables on MWB. This study established MWB was lower than population norms (N = 292) and provided a model accounting for approximately 46% of overall contribution to MWB. Body appreciation and resilience were associated with positive MWB, while increased job stress and food insecurity negatively impacted MWB. This research can inform strategies focused on influential factors impacting FDC educator MWB, ensuring children continue to receive high quality education and care.

RAS ID

82306

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

1-1-2025

Funding Information

Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences / School of Science

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publisher

Springer

Comments

Rayfield, T., Wallace, R., Lombardi, K., Afrifa-Yamoah, E., & Mills, B. (2025). Determining the mental wellbeing of family day care educators in Australia. Early Childhood Education Journal. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-01939-2

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1007/s10643-025-01939-2