Predictors of Head Start and Child-Care Providers’ Healthful and Controlling Feeding Practices with Children Aged 2 to 5 Years

Authors

Dipti A. Dev, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Brent A. McBride, University of Illinois at Urbana ChampaignFollow
Katherine E. Speirs, University of Illinois at Urbana ChampaignFollow
Sharon M. Donovan, University of Illinois at Urbana ChampaignFollow
Hyun Keun Cho, Western Michigan UniversityFollow

ORCID IDs

Dipti A. Dev

Date of this Version

2014

Citation

Published in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 114 (2014), pp. 1396-1403; doi: 10.1016/j.jand.2014.01.006

Comments

Copyright © 2014 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Published by Elsevier. Used by permission.

Abstract

Few child-care providers meet the national recommendations for healthful feeding practices. Effective strategies are needed to address this disparity, but research examining influences on child-care providers’ feeding practices is limited. The purpose of this study was to identify determinants of child-care providers’ healthful and controlling feeding practices for children aged 2 to 5 years. In this cross-sectional study, child-care providers (n = 118) from 24 center-based programs (six Head Start [HS], 11 Child and Adult Care Food Program [CACFP] funded, and seven non-CACFP) completed selfadministered surveys during 2011-2012. Multilevel multivariate linear regression models were used to predict seven feeding practices.Working in an HS center predicted teaching children about nutrition and modeling healthy eating; that may be attributed to the HS performance standards that require HS providers to practice healthful feeding. Providers who reported being concerned about children’s weight, being responsible for feeding children, and had an authoritarian feeding style were more likely to pressure children to eat, restrict intake, and control food intake to decrease or maintain children’s weight. Providers with nonwhite race, who were trying to lose weight, who perceived nutrition as important in their own diet, and who had a greater number of nutrition training opportunities were more likely to use restrictive feeding practices. These findings suggest that individual- and child-care-level factors, particularly provider race, education, training, feeding attitudes and styles, and the child-care context may influence providers’ feeding practices with young children. Considering these factors when developing interventions for providers to meet feeding practice recommendations may add to the efficacy of childhood obesity prevention programs.