A qualitative comparison of parent and childcare provider perceptions of communication and family engagement in children's healthy eating and physical activity

Abstract

Background: Parents and childcare providers play a substantial role in the development of health behaviours among the children they care for. In order to ensure the optimal growth and development of children, communication and family engagement in childcare is critical. Previous studies examining parent or provider perceptions about healthy eating or physical activity have explored these concepts individually and/or have only included only parents or providers. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare childcare provider and parent perceptions of communication regarding healthy eating and physical activity as well as use of best practice strategies on family engagement for these topics.Methods: Childcare providers (n = 12) in childcare centres or a family childcare home and a parent (n = 12) of a child they provide care for participated in a semistructured interview guided by the Social Ecological Model. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and uploaded to NVivo for data analysis. Data were analysed using a directed content analysis. Three trained qualitative researchers developed a codebook and then compared responses between parents and providers.Results: Similarities in provider and parent responses included agreement on healthy eating; influences on child development; parents being the most influential on children's healthy eating; how they identified physical activity opportunities; and the use of family engagement principles. Differences that arose included parents' roles in promoting children's physical activity; challenges for parents in promoting healthy eating and physical activity; and providers' encouragement of physical activity.Importantly, few parents mentioned providers were top influences on their child's healthy eating or physical activity. Providers also mentioned having difficult conversations with parents was challenging.Conclusions: Future efforts are needed to (1) help parents understand the providers' role in the development of their child's health behaviours and (2) strengthen efforts to engage families in healthy behaviours outside of childcare facilities.

A Convergent Mixed Methods Study to Explore Physical Activity Among Teachers and Children During the Preschool Day

“…It has often been suggested that the more teachers promote and demonstrate physical activity the more likely children are to be physically active (Bruijns et al, 2022a ; Fossdal et al, 2018 ; Froehlich Chow & Humbert, 2014 ; Kippe et al, 2021 ). Most teachers in our study believed they helped children to be more physically active during preschool and stated they even had more of an impact on children’s daily physical activity levels than the children’s parents, which is similar to findings from other studies (Derscheid et al, 2010 ; Dinkel et al, 2022 ; Kippe et al, 2021 ). Although teachers identified themselves as key role models to children’s physical activity, children still spent up to 60% of their outdoor play time being inactive; engaged in activities such as sitting on fixed equipment, despite outdoor play time being intended for children to achieve MVPA.…”

Do Childcare Teachers Evaluate Children’s Weight Status More Accurately Than Parents? A Brief Report

“…Although childcare teachers are not directly responsible for the children’s healthcare, they have a role in supporting families in providing the best care for their children. 5,13 They are often the first to advise parents on development and health issues. 14…”

“…Childcare teachers can play a relevant role in this process as they collaborate closely with families, supporting parents on children’s development, education, and health issues. 5 However, to properly advise parents about their children’s weight issues, teachers must be able to identify children who might be at increased risk of non-healthy weight. Although we could not find any study about childcare teachers’ perception of children’s weight, earlier contributions showed that teachers were generally skeptical about the definition of overweight in young children, were unsure about how to address this issue, 6 and had difficulty accepting that a child has overweight even when a healthcare professional identified this condition.…”

Black and Latiné parents' perspectives on supporting their children's emotional and physical health

“…For example, a meta‐analysis of parenting interventions found that changes in parenting practices, parenting knowledge, and parent–child interactions led to substantial changes in child development and health outcomes (Jeong et al, 2021). The impact of parenting practices may be especially profound for young children, who are more likely to spend more time with their parents and rely on them for their basic social–emotional and physical needs (Cui et al, 2018; Dinkel et al, 2022; Sulik et al, 2015). For example, a longitudinal study showed the impact of parenting on children's socio‐emotional outcomes was strongest at 3 years old and predicted children's externalizing behaviors at age 7 years (Sulik et al, 2015).…”