Family child care home providers’ perceived difficulty in serving vegetables to children: findings from a multi-method study

TL;DR

This study explores why family child care home providers find it hard to serve vegetables to children, identifying factors like time constraints and children's taste preferences.

Contribution

The study introduces a multi-method approach to identify predictors of perceived difficulty in serving vegetables in family child care homes.

Findings

Providers' perceived lack of time and children's taste preferences increased their difficulty in serving vegetables.

CACFP participation was associated with decreased perceived difficulty in implementing vegetable recommendations.

Qualitative feedback showed providers felt discouraged due to anticipated vegetable waste from children's preferences.

Abstract

The study aims to identify family child care home (FCCH) setting- and environment-level predictors related to providers’ perceived difficulty in implementing the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) recommendations for serving vegetables to children. This was a cross-sectional study, which used a validated paper-based survey with a multi-method data analysis approach. Participants were licenced FCCH providers (N = 943) in Nebraska, who were predominantly White (94%), non-Hispanic (97%), CACFP-participants (89%), and in urban areas (64%). Reflective latent variable modelling was conducted in Mplus to explore associations between dependent variable and predictors. Dependent variable was providers’ perceived difficulty to implement CACFP recommendations for serving vegetables. Predictors were providers’ mealtime practices, perceived barriers to serve healthy foods, CACFP participation, geographic location, food access, food insecurity, and child poverty. Qualitative comments (n=122) from the survey were analysed using direct content analysis approach. Providers’ perceived lack of time to prepare foods and perceived children’s taste preferences increased their perceived difficulty; and CACFP-participation decreased their perceived difficulty to implement CACFP recommendations for serving vegetables. Qualitative comments highlighted that providers felt discouraged to serve vegetables knowing that vegetables would likely be wasted because of children’s preferences. More tailored professional development is required to address FCCH providers’ perceived difficulty and build providers’ skills on preparing time saving, CACFP-reimbursable and appealing vegetable recipes, and on strategies to promote vegetable consumption in children.

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