BACKGROUND Early childhood educators have the potential to influence children's dietary outcomes through daily interactions. However, existing research suggests that educator practices are often suboptimal. Previous research has often focused on individual characteristics that affect practices. There is less study of contextual influences of practices of early childhood educators. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to understand and describe contextual factors evident in narratives of early childhood educators influencing mealtime and nutrition promotion practices. We use the Promoting Action on Research Implementation in Health Services framework to consider how contextual factors related to practices of early childhood educators. DESIGN This cross-sectional, qualitative study collected data through in-depth interviews with early childhood educators. Analyses of the data reflected a factist perspective and semantic approach to complete thematic content analysis of in-depth interviews. PARTICIPANTS The study used a stratified purposive sampling approach to recruit 28 educators to balance across educator role, agency type (Head Start vs state-funded), and obesity prevalence in the community. Early childhood educators were mostly lead teachers (62%), between the ages of 30 and 49 (82.1%), and white (75%) or African American (14.3%). RESULTS The coders identified three primary themes: Mealtime Structures, Resources, and Classroom/Center Atmosphere. Mealtime Structures associated with detrimental practices included cafeteria meals with rigid schedules. Mealtime Structures associated with evidence-based practices (EBPs) included classroom meal service. Resources associated with detrimental practices included limited funding. Resources associated with EBPs included meals paid for early childhood educators and classroom food experiences. Classroom/Center Atmosphere factors associated with detrimental practices included poor food offerings and policies that conflicted (eg, allowing children to bring in outside foods). Classroom/Center Atmosphere factors associated with EBPs included clarity around meal service rules and healthy, appealing food offerings. CONCLUSIONS This study highlighted that it may be difficult for an early childhood educator to adopt and maintain EBPs in certain contexts.

中文翻译：

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背景与早期护理和教育环境中的营养促进和进餐实践有何关系？定性探索


背景幼儿教育工作者有可能通过日常互动影响儿童的饮食结果。然而，现有的研究表明，教育者的做法往往不是最理想的。先前的研究通常关注影响实践的个人特征。关于幼儿教育工作者实践的背景影响的研究较少。目的 本研究的目的是了解和描述幼儿教育工作者叙述中影响进餐时间和营养促进实践的明显背景因素。我们使用促进卫生服务研究实施行动框架来考虑背景因素如何与幼儿教育工作者的实践相关。设计 这项横断面定性研究通过对幼儿教育工作者的深入访谈收集了数据。对数据的分析体现了事实主义的视角和语义方法来完成深度访谈的主题内容分析。参与者 该研究采用分层有目的抽样方法招募 28 名教育工作者，以平衡教育工作者角色、机构类型（Head Start 与国家资助）和社区肥胖患病率。幼儿教育工作者大多是主导教师（62%），年龄在30至49岁之间（82.1%），以及白人（75%）或非裔美国人（14.3%）。结果 编码人员确定了三个主要主题：用餐时间结构、资源和教室/中心氛围。与有害做法相关的用餐时间结构包括严格时间表的自助餐厅用餐。与循证实践 (EBP) 相关的用餐时间结构包括课堂用餐服务。与有害做法相关的资源包括有限的资金。 与 EBP 相关的资源包括为幼儿教育工作者支付的餐费和课堂饮食体验。与有害做法相关的教室/中心氛围因素包括食物供应不佳和政策冲突（例如，允许儿童带入外部食物）。与 EBP 相关的教室/中心氛围因素包括膳食服务规则的明确性以及健康、有吸引力的食品供应。结论 这项研究强调，幼儿教育者在某些情况下采用和维持 EBP 可能很困难。