Budavari Alexa C, McDaniel Heather L, Morgan-López Antonio A, Musci Rashelle J, Downer Jason T, Ialongo Nicholas S, Bradshaw Catherine P
University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development, Charlottesville, VA, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
Prev Sci. 2025 Jan 2. doi: 10.1007/s11121-024-01757-9.
Retention of early career teachers is a critical issue in education, with burnout and self-efficacy serving as important precursors to teachers leaving the field. An integration of the PAX Good Behavior Game (GBG; Barrish et al., 1969) and MyTeachingPartner (MTP; Allen et al., 2015) was tested in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to investigate whether the combined programs would improve long-term outcomes for early career teachers. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a higher proportion of missing data and attrition in follow-up data collection than otherwise would have been expected. The current paper focused specifically on intervention impacts on teacher-reported burnout and self-efficacy through the COVID-19 pandemic and explored various approaches for addressing missing data as an illustrative example for other researchers who may similarly have faced missing data challenges due to the pandemic. Participants included in the original trial were N = 188 early career teachers (grades K-3) who were randomly assigned to either the intervention (i.e., GBG + MTP; n = 94 teachers) or control condition (n = 94) and provided baseline data. Specifically, teachers reported on their burnout and self-efficacy at pre-intervention (Fall), post-intervention (Spring), 1-year post intervention (in Fall and Spring), COVID Year 1 (Spring 2021), and COVID Year 2 (Spring 2022). We conducted a series of outcomes analyses under varying missing data assumptions (i.e., MCAR, MAR, NMAR). There were mixed findings (i.e., both null and beneficial) regarding GBG + MTP impacts on burnout, which varied across missing data assumptions; however, there were no GBG + MTP impacts on self-efficacy. This study may also provide insight for other researchers encountering similar challenges when analyzing follow-up data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic, as we highlight pros and cons of several different approaches for modeling missing data related to attrition due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures.
留住初入职场的教师是教育领域的一个关键问题，职业倦怠和自我效能感是教师离开该领域的重要先兆。在一项随机对照试验（RCT）中，对PAX良好行为游戏（GBG；Barrish等人，1969年）和我的教学伙伴（MTP；Allen等人，2015年）的整合进行了测试，以调查这两个项目相结合是否会改善初入职场教师的长期成果。然而，由于新冠疫情，后续数据收集过程中缺失数据和人员流失的比例高于预期。本文特别关注干预措施在新冠疫情期间对教师报告的职业倦怠和自我效能感的影响，并探索了处理缺失数据的各种方法，为其他可能因疫情同样面临缺失数据挑战的研究人员提供一个示例。原始试验的参与者包括N = 188名初入职场的教师（幼儿园至三年级），他们被随机分配到干预组（即GBG + MTP；n = 94名教师）或对照组（n = 94），并提供了基线数据。具体而言，教师在干预前（秋季）、干预后（春季）、干预后1年（秋季和春季）、新冠疫情第1年（2021年春季）和新冠疫情第2年（2022年春季）报告了他们的职业倦怠和自我效能感。我们在不同的缺失数据假设（即完全随机缺失、随机缺失、非随机缺失）下进行了一系列结果分析。关于GBG + MTP对职业倦怠的影响，结果不一（即有无效的，也有有益的），这在不同的缺失数据假设下有所不同；然而，GBG + MTP对自我效能感没有影响。本研究还可能为其他研究人员在分析新冠疫情期间收集的后续数据时遇到类似挑战提供见解，因为我们强调了几种不同方法在模拟因新冠疫情和相关学校关闭导致的人员流失相关缺失数据方面的优缺点。
