Factors Influencing Job Satisfaction and Intent to Leave Among Early Intervention Professionals

There is a critical shortage of early intervention (EI) professionals who work with families of infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities. Research suggests that many EI professionals are dissatisfied with pay and opportunities for career advancement and face stress due to overwork or lack of training. To inform efforts to retain EI professionals, we surveyed 427 EI professionals consisting of EI specialists, service coordinators, therapists, administrators, and staff to examine the relationship between various facets of job satisfaction (e.g., compensation, work, supervisors, management, co-workers, culture, training/mentoring), work-related factors (e.g., job roles, years of experience, program turnover/shortages, intent to leave), and socio-demographics (e.g., age, Hispanic ethnicity, educational attainment). Our findings suggested that respondents’ dissatisfaction with work was most closely associated with their intent to leave in the next year. In addition, respondents working in programs with high levels of turnover were more dissatisfied with management, while respondents working in programs with staff shortages were more dissatisfied with EI work. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.