THE PRESENCE OF ROLE MODELING HEALTHY EATING IN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION FACILITIES

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to explore child care providers’ use of best practices around role modeling healthy eating during mealtimes and discover differences that may exist between providers in Head Start centers, center-based child care, and home-based childcare. A total of 338 child care providers responsible for feeding 3-5-year-old children a main meal at least 3 times a week in facilities licensed by the state of Illinois completed a 95-item survey. Fifty of those survey respondents completed in-depth phone interviews. The survey data were analyzed using frequencies, means, andlogistic regression and the interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings from the quantitative analysis revealed that more than 80% of the sample reported rarely or never eating or drinking unhealthy foods (soda, snacks, sweets) in front of the children and less than half of the sample reported always eating and drinking the same foods and beverages as the children and enthusiastically role modeling healthy eating. Head Start teachers were the most likely to role model. Findings from the qualitative analysis suggest differences may be attributed to facility design, where home-based providers may struggle due to the setup of their facility, and mealtime policies that exist in Head Start facilities where it is required for providers to eat with the children. In conclusion, this study showed that providers in all three types of facilities face challenges when it comes to role modeling healthy eating. Providers could benefit from nutrition education programs and policies that stress the importance of rule modeling and emphasize enthusiastic role modeling.