Personal and Professional Emotional Characteristics of Early Childhood Teachers and Their Proneness to Communicate with Parents and Colleagues About Children’s Emotions

BACKGROUND: Early childhood teachers represent important socializers of children’s emotions providing professional practices, such as communication about children’s emotions, influencing children’s development. According to an ecological framework, early childhood teachers’ emotional practices are guided by both their personal and professional emotional abilities. OBJECTIVE: In this study, we addictively took into account both teachers’ personal (i.e., level of education, years of experience, parenthood status, personal emotional self-efficacy) and professional emotional characteristics (i.e., self-efficacy as emotional socializers, and coaching style) in their contribution to teacher-parent/colleague communication about children’s emotions. METHODS: 382 early childhood teachers from Center and South of Italy took part to this study (mean years of professional experience = 15.07, SD = 10.29 years). RESULTS: Results showed a positive association between proneness to communicate with parents about children’s emotions and having one’s own children, self-efficacy as emotional socializer, and coaching style. As for communication with colleagues about children’s emotions, we found positive associations with years of experience, personal emotional self-efficacy, and coaching style. CONCLUSIONS: These findings reinforce the need for preservice and in-service programs to promote a reflective orientation to professional practice focusing on early childhood teachers’ personal and professional emotional competence.