Progress 09/15/16 to 12/14/17
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the research and extension components were child care providers who care for preschool-aged children. The research component included a survey with 374 child care providers who care for preschool-aged children and in-depth interviews with a sub-sample of 50 of these child care providers. The research component provided information about child care providers' training needs and preferences, technology use and access, as well as the feeding practices they use with the children they care for during mealtimes. The results from the research component suggested that training was needed in the area of role modeling healthy eating habits for young children and that online training is acceptable and accessible for child care providers who care for preschool-aged children. During the extension component, a four-unit online training was developed that includes units that cover the following topics: the importance of role modeling healthy eating, how to role model healthy eating during mealtimes, how to use peer modeling to encourage the development of healthy eating habits, and how to role model healthy eating in settings other than mealtimes (e.g. during field trips and shared book reading activities). This online training is hosted through the University of Arizona's Desire to Learn web platform and is available to child care providers free of charge. A team of ten Cooperative Extension educators and other professionals who have experience developing and delivering training to child care providers reviewed the training and revisions were made based on their feedback. 57 child care providers who care for preschool-aged children completed the training and completed a short evaluation measure. The target audience for the education component was undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During the spring 2015 semester (Jan 2015- May 2015), fall 2015 semester (Aug 2015-Dec 2015), and Spring 2016 semester (Jan 2016-May 2016) the project director provided formal classroom instruction to 21 (spring 2015) and 14 (fall 2015 & Spring 2016) undergraduate students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as part of the course HDFS 494: Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Sciences Research Program. The project director co-taught this course with her mentor during the spring 2015 semester and was the instructor of record for this course during the fall 2015 and spring 2016 semesters. In addition to classroom instruction in early childhood obesity prevention and research methods, the students in this class were provided with two experiential learning opportunities. First, they worked in groups of 3-4 students to design, carry out and present original research projects that addressed a topic related to childhood obesity. Second, they completed a research assistantship with a research project conducted by researchers at the Family Resiliency Center at the University of Illinois. During spring 2015, the project director also supervised 3 of the students enrolled in this course in their assistantships. These students assisted the project director in designing an on-line survey and data entry and cleaning for the research component of this fellowship project. During fall 2015 & spring 2016, the project director supervised 4 of the students in their assistantships. These students assisted with preliminary data analysis and coding of qualitative interview data for the fellowship project. These students also worked with the project director to prepare a poster that was presented at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior annual conference in August 2016. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Dr. Speirs, the project director, engaged in training around obesity studies, grantsmanship, and professional development. Dr. Speirs received one-on-one mentorship from a team of five mentors with expertise in program development, childhood obesity, pediatric nutrition, child feeding, and early care and education. She met with Dr. Barbara Fiese every other week and with the rest of the mentorship team (Drs. McBride, Donovan, Ebata, and McCaffery) at least quarterly for mentoring sessions. During these sessions the mentoring team assisted Dr. Speirs with issues related to research, program development, and teaching. The mentorship team also helped Dr. Speirs apply for several faculty positions. She obtained an assistant professor and extension specialist position at the University of Arizona which she began in August 2016. Additionally, Dr. Speirs audited courses in Pediatric Clinical Nutrition (FSHN 421) taught by Dr. Sharon Donovan and grantsmanship and ethics (NUTR 550) also taught by Dr. Donovan. She attended a workshop on Running Effective Discussions conducted by the University of Illinois's Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning. Dr. Speirs was able to provide professional development activities for undergraduate students as part of this project. For the education component she taught HDFS 494: Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Sciences Research Program, an undergraduate course at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years. The students in this class were provided with experiential learning opportunities that allowed them to develop their experience as researchers. Additionally, during the spring 2017 semester, Dr. Speirs mentored an undergraduate Family Studies and Human Development student at the University of Arizona (where she is employed). During this independent study, Dr. Speirs mentored the student in completing a research project where she used data collected as part of the research component of this project to explore how child care providers' feeding practices are impacted by their perceptions of their own weight and weight-related goals. The student presented her work as a poster at two research symposia at the University of Arizona. This student is currently in graduate school in an early childhood education master's program where she is directly applying what she learned with Dr. Speirs to her coursework and future professional employment. This project will continue to provide professional development and training activities after the grant period. In particular, Dr. Speirs will mentor undergraduate and graduate students on research projects using data collected as part of the research and extension components. For example, she is planning to work with a doctoral student from Family Studies and Human Development at the University of Arizona during summer 2018 to publish an article using data collected for the research component. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This project has been presented in several different settings. It was presented as a paper at the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Fellows Program Project Directors' Meeting in Washington, DC on August 4-5, 2015 to NIFA staff and other project directors. It was also presented as a webinar for the USDA-NIFA 2015 Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition Seminar Series on October 15, 2015 to a diverse audience including professionals working in food safety and nutrition, dietetic interns, extension educators, federal employees, graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. It was presented to Head Start teachers and administrators at the National Head Start Association's2015Parent and Family Engagement Conference in San Diego, CA on December 1- 4, 2015. This project was also presented to nutrition education professionals, practitioners, and researchers at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Conference in San Diego, CA on July 30 - August 2 and in Washington, DC on July 20-24. Finally, this project was presented to First Things First's Navajo Nation Regional Partnership Council's Early Childhood Coalition Meeting (a group of Navajo leaders who work on issues related to early childhood) in September 2017 in Arizona. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
This project addressed childhood obesity by improving feeding practices in child care settings. Feeding practices (or when and how adults feed children) impact the foods children eat and lifelong eating habits. Controlling feeding practices are an established risk factor for obesity and responsive feeding is linked to healthy eating habits. This project also prepared a cohort of undergraduate students to tackle the challenge of childhood obesity as young professionals by providing formal classroom instruction and experimental learning opportunities around childhood obesity prevention strategies. In particular, the project director conducted a research study that included surveys with 374 child care providers and in-depth interviews with 50 child care providers to describe the feeding practices child care providers use and their training preferences, technology use and access. Analysis of the survey data suggested that child care providers were not role modeling healthy eating during mealtimes. Role modeling is an effective strategy for helping children eat healthy foods and is an alternative to controlling feeding practices. However, less than half of the survey respondents reported always using two important components of role modeling: eating the same foods as the children and enthusiastically talking about eating healthy foods. A four-unit online training for child care providers was developed that teaches about role modeling healthy eating. Evaluation data suggested that after completed the training child care providers had increased knowledge about role modeling and intended to make positive changes to their feeding practices. The following activities were completed for each objective. Objective #1: Conduct a research project to identify the barriers to using responsive feeding practices by examining child care providers' knowledge, motivation, and behavioral skills concerning responsive feeding. 1) Major activities completed: A survey was used to collect information about participants' feeding practices, training preferences, access to and use of technology. A sub-sample of survey respondents were selected for interviews. The interview sample included equal numbers of providers from five contexts: Head Start centers, Child and Adult Care Food program (CACFP)-participating settings (both centers and home-based facilities), and care settings that were not participating in CACFP or Head Start (both centers and homes). In-depth interviews were used to determine providers' knowledge, motivation, and barriers to using responsive feeding. 2) Data collected: Survey data was collected from 374 child care providers and in-depth interviews were conducted with 50 child care providers. 3) Summary statistics and discussion of results: The child care providers in the survey sample reported not using recommended responsive feeding practices. Only 40% of respondents reported always eating the same foods as the children and only 44% reported enthusiastically role modeling eating healthy foods. Interview data indicated that providers faced barriers to role modeling healthy eating. Providers struggled to role model when they were not provided with the same food the children were eating, they were eating healthy foods they did not enjoy, and some of the children expressed dislike for healthy foods. The survey data also suggests that using online training for child care providers is feasible. At least 75% of the sample used the internet at least occasionally, were interested in online training, had participated in an online training, and had access to high speed internet service at home. Additionally, online training should be accessible on multiple devices. Desktop and laptop computers were the preferred method of accessing the internet and participating in training. However, a noteworthy proportion of the sample also used tablets and cell phones. 4) Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized: As a result of this research project, the project director developed new knowledge around the feeding practices used by child care providers and their access to training around feeding practices, as described above. This knowledge has been presented at national conferences, will be submitted for publication in scholarly journals, and has been used to develop online educational materials for child care providers. Objective #2: Apply what was learned during the research project to develop online extension materials to help child care providers nationwide use responsive feeding practices. 1) Major activities completed: A four-unit online training was developed for child care providers. The training focused on role modeling healthy eating as this was identified during the research component as an area where improvement is needed. The units cover: the importance of role modeling healthy eating, how to role model healthy eating during mealtimes, how to use peer modeling to encourage healthy eating, and how to role model healthy eating in settings other than mealtimes. This online training is provided free of charge. 2) Data collected: Ten Cooperative Extension educators and public health professionals reviewed this training and completed a 20 question survey to provide feedback on the training. 57 child care providers completed the training and a 31 question evaluation survey including questions about knowledge gained, satisfaction with the course and intent to change behavior following the course. 3) Summary statistics and discussion of results: Feedback from the ten Cooperative Extension educators was used to make changes to the layout and content of the training and to resolve some glitches in how the online platform displayed the training. Results from the evaluation survey with child care providers who completed the training suggested that they were satisfied with the training; 96% reported that the training activities were helpful and 88% reported that the training was excellent or good. There was evidence that providers had increased their knowledge about how to role model healthy eating. After the training 72% of participants reported an increase in their knowledge of how to role model healthy eating, 79% reported better understanding of how use peer modeling, and 75% reported better understanding how to incorporate healthy foods into activities that take place outside of mealtimes. Participants also reported intending to change their behavior in a positive way. Comparing before the training to after, there was a 30% increase in participants who said that they would always or often eat the same foods as the children. There was a 171% increase in participants who said that they would enthusiastically role model eating healthy foods at every meal. 4) Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized: As a result of the extension component an online training on role modeling was developed and pilot tested. The pilot test suggests that the training is effective. Future work will continue to evaluate the effectiveness of this training and expand the number of child care providers who have access to it. Objective #3: Teach a transdisciplinary research methods course to educate undergraduate students about research and extension programing related to early childhood obesity prevention. 1) Major activities completed: Three semesters of HDFS 494: Transdisciplinary Obesity Prevention Sciences Research Program were taught by the project director. 2) Data collected: N/A 3) Summary statistics and discussion of results: N/A 4) Key outcomes or other accomplishments realized: As a result of participating in HDFS 494, 35 undergraduate students experienced a change in knowledge. These students learned about and gained skills in topics related to childhood obesity and participated in professional development activities. These students also received experiential learning opportunities around research methods and designed, conducted, and presented their own research projects.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2016
Citation:
Speirs, K.E., Dahlberg, E., Gonrong, P., Liu, R., & Tepede, A., (2016). Feeding for the future: Child care providers feeding practices and access to training. Poster presented at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Conference, San Diego, CA, July 30 - August 2.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Speirs, K.E. (2017). Approaches to Feeding Young Children Used by Center-Based Providers, Family Day Care Providers and Head Start Teachers. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Austin, TX, April 6-8.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2017
Citation:
Speirs, K.E. (2017). Online Nutrition Education for Child Care Providers: Technology Access, Interest and Experiences. Poster presented at Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior Annual Conference, Washington, DC, July 20-24.
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