Promoting children’s emotional well-being in pre-school settings: A grounded theory study exploring the views of early years practitioners

Working to promote the emotional well-being of children is currently a key area of development for the UK government. The increasing responsibility that professionals have for supporting children and young people’s mental health needs has been reflected in recent policy and legislation with particular prominence in the new Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Code of Practice (DfE & DoH, 2014). In the context of early years education, the new legislation makes specific reference to the importance of early identification and provision in improving long-term outcomes. In that respect pre-school settings can offer the ideal context where the early intervention and prevention of mental health difficulties can take place. However, at present there is limited research in the UK which focuses on the views of early years practitioners particularly on their role in supporting children’s emotional needs. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather the views of seven early years practitioners from 4 different pre-school settings across an inner London Borough. The study aimed to explore and explain the contexts and mechanisms which facilitate or hinder the promotion of children’s emotional well-being in pre-school settings. A grounded theory methodology was used to analyse the data. The emergent theory proposes that early years practitioners’ experience of promoting children’s emotional well-being can be best understood as an interactive relationship between internal and external influences summarized by the overarching category labelled “Balancing internal and external factors to promote well-being”. The findings are discussed in relation to existing psychological theory and research and the implications for early years practitioners and Educational Psychologists considered.