Progress 03/01/24 to 02/28/25
Outputs
Target Audience:? Since the submission of last year's report, we added an additional 14 classrooms in the second study cohort, for a cumulative total of 22 classrooms participating thus far. At the time of the submission of this report, the current analytical sample years includes 21 early childhood educators (ECEs), 261 preschool-aged children, and 90 parents. ECE attrition is due to: (1) one ECE leaving their classroom mid-year and the replacement ECE choosing not to participate, (2) two ECEs leaving their classrooms and being replaced by new ECEs, and (3) three ECEs consenting to participate, but withdrawing or taking personal leave before the study began. It should also be noted that both children and parents are dropped from the study when ECEs leave or children leave/unenroll from participating classrooms. Children Children were assessed twice during each study cohort, once each in the Fall (baseline) and the Spring (post-intervention). Children's ages ranged from 3 to 5 years at baseline (= 4.25 years). Males accounted for approximately 55% of the sample. The "Eating the Alphabet" (ETA) curriculum was delivered to all children and was used as the standard food literacy curriculum (control) in all SNAP-Ed funded classrooms. Approximately 52% of children were returning preschoolers and had participated in the ETA curriculum the previous year. The sample was predominately White (~90%). (Note that child race was not collected in Year 1 and includes Year 2 numbers only.) Out of a total of 282 available children in classrooms, 261 were eligible to participate and baseline descriptives are reported below (132 intervention, 129 control). We had high completion rates for child assessments and teacher ratings of children at both baseline and post-intervention. Attrition is mainly due to child unenrollment, teacher/classroom unenrollment, refusals, and absences. Every reasonable effort was made to return to classrooms to complete children who were absent on the day of the initially scheduled assessments. Parents Out of a total of 267 eligible parents/caregivers (referred to as parents here on), 170 (64%) consented to participate in the parent portion of the study, which was comprised of baseline and post-intervention surveys (all parents) and nine web-based educational lessons (parents randomized to intervention classrooms). A total of 90 parents (40 intervention, 50 control; 53% of those consented) completed baseline surveys. See Table 3 for parent baseline descriptives. The majority of parents were mothers (~82%), with fathers, relative guardians, and "other relationship" comprising the remaining 18%. Parents, on average, were approximately 35 years of age, with a median age of 33 years. The majority of parents were White (91%), married or living with a partner (73%), and were categorized with obesity (mean BMI = 30). Most parents did not hold a post-secondary degree (56%), with most reporting they were either unemployed or working only part time (59%). Over half (54%) of parents reported a total family income of $45,000 or less. Over half (53%) of consented parents completed the baseline survey. Of the 77 parents in the intervention condition, 21 completed all 9 nutrition education lessons.At the time of the submission of this Year 2 report, post-intervention surveys are still ongoing. To date, there have been 76 completions (45% completion rate). Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) A total of 22 classrooms have participated in the study thus far. One classroom was dropped pre-intervention when the consenting teacher left the classroom, and the new teacher chose not to participate. As such, 21 ECEs (11 intervention, 10 control) completed a baseline survey in the Fall that included demographic information. A separate survey, sent after teachers had adequate time to become familiar with the children in their classrooms, also included baseline ratings of child food exposures and preferences for all participating children in the study. All ECEs were female, predominately White, and approximately 45 years of age. ECEs were, on average, categorized with obesity (mean BMI = 31). Over 85% of ECEs reported holding a bachelor's degree or higher and reported participating in a wide range of college courses and trainings relevant to the study aims. The ECEs were highly experienced, holding, on average, approximately 17 years of experience teaching in childcare centers, 12 years as a lead ECE, and 10 years at their current center. At the time of submission of this report, all classroom lessons for the second cohort were implemented/completed, including 27 Eating the Alphabet (ETA) lessons in all classrooms, and 11 Healthy Eating (HE) lessons for 11 ECEs randomized to the intervention condition. Additionally, all 21 ECEs completed their post-intervention surveys, and all but 1 ECE completed their post-child ratings, which are still ongoing. To provide curriculum support and scaffolding, all ECEs received coaching/mentoring visits from certified early education development specialists throughout the year as follows: 1) All ECEs across conditions received two visits for the ETA curriculum, one in the Fall and one in the Spring. 2) Intervention ECEs also received four visits for the HE curriculum in the Spring. Additionally, the 11 intervention ECEs were offered and completed a free professional development course on Building Children's Food Literacy that was developed in Year 1. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Research Assistant/Data Collector Training and Certification Several new research staff completed a 2-day training and certification with trained research staff. Data collectors were certified after having achieved 95% assessment fidelity. Returning research staff also received a half-day "refresher" training prior to collecting post-intervention data. Early Childhood Educator (ECE) Training All teachers, regardless of experimental condition, received a pre-recorded training webinar, led by research staff. The training described each lesson in detail. ECEs in intervention classrooms received additional training on implementing the Healthy Eating lessons, modifying the classroom food and mealtime environment and engaging parents in the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The results of the study were disseminated as a scientific poster at the 2024 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior annual conference in Knoxville, TN in July 2024. Additional results will be presented at the 2025 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior annual conference in Indianapolis, IN in July 2025. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Recruitment of new preschools/childcare agencies for the final cohort began in May 2025. We sent 30 recruitment e-mails to ECEs affiliated with three partner childcare agencies, and we anticipate recruiting ECEs from another partner agency in the near future.?
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Progress towards goals 1 and 2 Implementation of the intervention has been completed in 2 of 3 cohorts thus far. All data for Cohort 1 has been collected, as well as all baseline data for Cohort 2 and the majority of post-intervention data. We are in the process of collecting a few remaining post-intervention ECE ratings of children, as well as parent surveys. Data entry and cleaning will continue through Fall 2025, and preliminary data to address Goals 1 and 2 will be analyzed in Year 3. Progress towards goal 3 All materials needed to address goal 3 were developed in Year 1. Although we are currently underpowered to address major study research questions, we will use descriptive statistics to examine potential patterns and associations among parent-reported data and child primary outcomes. Preliminary data to address Goal 3 will be analyzed in Year 3. Progress towards goal 4 We have not yet conducted analyses to explore research questions outlined in goal 4. Although we may be underpowered, we will begin toexamine potential patterns and associationsonce data entry and cleaning are complete.Preliminary data to address Goal 4 will be analyzed in Year 3. Progress towards goal 5 Goal 5 will be addressed in Year 4, once the intervention ends and all data have been analyzed.
Publications
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Progress 03/01/23 to 02/29/24
Outputs
Target Audience:A total of eight early childhood educators (ECEs) consented to participate in the first of three study cohorts. At the time of the submission of this report, the Cohort 1 final analytical sample included 7 early childhood educators (ECEs), 83 preschool-aged children, and 25 parents. Attrition is due to: (1) one ECE leaving their classroom mid-year and the replacement ECE choosing not to participate, (2) children being unenrolled from the classroom, and (3) children being lost to follow up. Both children and parents are dropped from the study when ECEs leave or children unenroll from participating classrooms. Children Children were assessed in both the Fall (baseline) and the Spring (post-intervention). Children's ages ranged from 3 to 5 years (mean age at baseline = 4.2 years). Approximately 60% of the sample were male. All children participated in the "Eating the Alphabet" (ETA) curriculum, the standard food literacy curriculum used in all SNAP-Ed funded classrooms (control). Out of a total of 109 available children in classrooms, 100 (61 intervention, 39 control) had baseline assessments completed and 83 (43 intervention, 40 control) had post-intervention assessments completed. Parents Out of a total of 108 parents/caregivers (referred to as parents here on), 46 consented to participate in the parent portion of the study in Cohort 1, which included completing surveys (all parents) and nine web-based educational lessons (parents randomized to intervention classrooms). A total of 25 parents (16 intervention classroom and 9 control) completed the baseline survey. Approximately 76% of caregivers were mothers, with the remaining 24% reported as fathers or another relative guardian.Parents, on average, were approximately 37 years of age, Caucasian (76%), and married (60%).Approximately 40% of caregivers did not hold post-secondary degree, and 68% were either unemployed or working part time.Forty-eight (48) percent of caregivers reported a total family income of $45,000 or less. Of the 16 caregivers in the intervention condition, 7 completed all 9 nutrition education lessons.Post-intervention surveys are currently being completed, with 10 completions at the time of the submission of this report. Early Childhood Educators (ECEs) A total of seven ECEs participated in Cohort 1 of the study. ECEs completed a baseline survey in the Fall that included demographic information. The survey also included baseline ratings of child food exposures and preferences for all participating children in the study. All ECEs are female and Caucasian with a mean age of approximately 46 years. Over 70% of ECEs reported holding a Bachelor's Degree or higher and ECEs reported a variety of relevant college courses and trainings. On average, ECEs held approximately 17 years of experience in childcare centers, 10 years as a lead ECE, and 7 years at their current center. At the time of submission of this report, all classroom lessons were implemented/completed, including 27 ETA lessons and 11 Healthy Eating (HE) lessons, for those ECEs in the intervention condition. Additionally, 5 of 7 ECEs completed their post-intervention surveys and child ratings. ECEs received coaching/mentoring visits from certified early education development specialists broken down as follows: 1) All ECEs received two visits for the ETA curriculum, one in the Fall and one in the Spring. 2) Intervention ECEs also received four visits for the HE curriculum in the Spring. Additionally, the 4 intervention ECEs completed a professional development course on Food Literacy (See Products Section to follow). Changes/Problems:Our primary roadblock with Cohort 1 involved significant delays in our proposed timelines. We did not receive initial grant funds until May 2023. Further, our Institutional Review Board underwent a substantial restructuring, and our primary IRB analyst was replaced In the midst of our protocol review, causing significant delays in receipt of human subjects approval. This delayed ECE and parent recruitment until late Summer/early Fall 2023 and resulted in a smaller Cohort 1 sample than originally projected. We aim to make up for this sample deficiency by recruiting larger samples in Cohorts 2 and 3, and we are on track to do so, having started recruitment early for Cohort 2. There were some minor adjustments made to the protocol. At the outset of the study, we discovered that all classrooms in Cohort 1 followed state-mandated regulations for meals served in the centers. As such, our proposal to offer children two additional sides during lunch was not feasible. We pivoted and incorporated a snack choice task instead. Children were offered two energy-dense (e.g., potato chips, cookies) and two nutrient-dense (e.g., baby carrots, grapes) snacks at baseline and post-intervention. The development of the BKC Food Literacy course also took much longer than anticipated or originally projected. Cohort 1 intervention ECEs completed the course during the intervention window in March. Future cohorts will complete this course in the Fall, immediately following the baseline ECE survey. Lastly, due to feasibility concerns, we dropped the mid-intervention child assessments and follow-ups.We also dropped mid-intervention parent and ECE surveys. We did, however, complete the mealtime environment and classroom observation at mid-intervention, to have an additional timepoint for comparison. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Research Assistant/Data Collector Training and Certification Several research staff completed a 2-day training and certification with trained research staff. Data collectors were certified after having achieved 95% assessment fidelity. Early Childhood Educator (ECE) Training All teachers, regardless on experimental condition, received a pre-recorded training webinar,led by research staff. The training described each lesson in detail. ECEs in intervention classrooms received additional training on implementing the Healthy Eating lessons, modifying the classroom food and mealtime environment and engaging parents in the project. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Recruitment of new preschools/agencies for Cohort 2 began in May 2024.At the time of the submission of this report, 12 ECEs have responded to the recruitment e-mail indicating interest in the study. Of these 12 ECEs, 6 have consented to participate and 4 have scheduled meetings to learn more about the study, immediately after which the consent form will be shared. Preliminary data from the Cohort 1 sample will be available by the next reporting period.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
All baseline data for Cohort 1 has been collected, as well as the majority of post-intervention data. We are in the process of collecting the remaining post-intervention ECE surveys, ECE ratings of children, and parent surveys. Progress towards goals 1 and 2 All ETA lessons, providing children with experiential learning and repeated taste exposures, were delivered in all Cohort 1 study classrooms.HE lessons, aimed at enhancing children's nutrition knowledge, were also delivered in intervention classrooms. Baseline child assessments were completed in November 2023 and post-intervention child assessments were completed in April 2024. Preliminary data to address Goals 1 and 2 will be available by Fall 2024, once data entry, cleaning, and analysis are complete. Progress towards goal 3 We have refined nine web-based lessons packaged in two education units for caregivers; lessons are in online video format.At the time of submission of this report, seven participating caregivers completed all lessons.Preliminary data to address Goal 3 will be available by Fall 2024, once data entry, cleaning, and analysis are complete. Progress towards goal 4 While the majority of data have been collected for Cohort 1, at the time of the submission of this report, there were still outstanding parent and ECE post-intervention surveys. Additionally, trained research assistants (RAs) observed each participating classroom and associated caregivers at baseline and post-intervention.RAs made observations of (1) the classroom mealtime environment, and (2) the level of chaos in the classroom.The mealtime environment instrument measures the built environment available to support healthy eating behaviors during lunch; this includes caregiver behaviors, portion sizes, positive food talk, etc. (RAs also observed the mealtime environment at mid-intervention.) The Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS) is a home environment measurement of confusion and disorganization that was modified for use in childcare centers. Data to address Goal 4 will be available by Fall 2024, once data entry, cleaning, and analysis are complete. Progress towards goal 5 Cohort 1 ECEs taught the proposed nutrition education curricula and intervention ECEs completed the professional development course focusing on Food Literacy. Preliminary data to address Goal 4 will be available by Fall 2024, once data entry, cleaning, and analysis are complete.
Publications
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