Hasnin Saima, Dev Dipti A, Hillburn Carly, Sisson Susan B, Tovar Alison
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-0236, USA.
J Nutr Sci. 2025 Feb 24;14:e21. doi: 10.1017/jns.2025.9. eCollection 2025.
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 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.
该研究旨在确定与家庭托儿所（FCCH）环境和设施层面相关的预测因素，这些因素与提供者在实施儿童和成人护理食品计划（CACFP）中向儿童提供蔬菜的建议时所感知到的困难有关。这是一项横断面研究，采用了经过验证的纸质调查问卷和多方法数据分析方法。参与者是内布拉斯加州获得许可的FCCH提供者（N = 943），他们主要是白人（94%）、非西班牙裔（97%）、参与CACFP的人（89%），且位于城市地区（64%）。进行了反思性潜在变量建模，以探索因变量与预测因素之间的关联。因变量是提供者在实施CACFP蔬菜供应建议时所感知到的困难。预测因素包括提供者的用餐时间习惯、提供健康食品的感知障碍、参与CACFP的情况、地理位置、食物获取、粮食不安全和儿童贫困。使用直接内容分析法对调查问卷中的定性评论（n = 122）进行了分析。提供者认为缺乏准备食物的时间以及儿童的口味偏好增加了他们感知到的困难；而参与CACFP则降低了他们在实施CACFP蔬菜供应建议时所感知到的困难。定性评论强调，提供者知道由于儿童的偏好蔬菜可能会被浪费，因此在提供蔬菜时感到气馁。需要更有针对性的专业发展，以解决FCCH提供者感知到的困难，并培养提供者在准备节省时间、可获得CACFP报销且吸引人的蔬菜食谱以及促进儿童食用蔬菜的策略方面的技能。
