Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Feb;20(2):346-356.
doi: 10.1017/S136898001600207X. Epub 2016 Aug 19.

Latino parents' perceptions of the eating and physical activity experiences of their pre-school children at home and at family child-care homes: a qualitative study

Ana C Lindsay  1 , Mary L Greaney  2 , Sherrie F Wallington  3 , Faith D Sands  4 , Julie A Wright  1 , Judith Salkeld  5
Affiliations

Latino parents' perceptions of the eating and physical activity experiences of their pre-school children at home and at family child-care homes: a qualitative study

Ana C Lindsay et al. Public Health Nutr. 2017 Feb.

Abstract

Objective: Research indicates that healthful eating and physical activity (PA) practices implemented in child-care settings can have a positive effect on children's healthful behaviours in this setting, and this effect on healthful behaviours may possibly transfer to the home environment. While more research is needed to examine whether behaviours learned in family child-care homes (FCCH) transfer, the potential for transferability is especially important given that Latino children's home environment has been characterized by obesogenic parenting practices. We aimed to examine Latino parents' perceptions of their pre-school children's eating and PA experiences at home and at FCCH.

Design: Qualitative study. Six focus groups were conducted in Spanish (n 36). Transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis to identify key concepts and themes.

Results: Analyses revealed that Latino parents perceive their children have healthier eating and PA experiences at FCCH than at home. Parents attributed this to FCCH providers providing an environment conducive to healthful eating and PA due to providers having more knowledge and skills, time and resources, and being required to follow rules and regulations set by the state that promote healthful eating and PA.

Conclusions: Understanding parental perceptions, attitudes and practices related to establishing and maintaining an environment conducive to children's healthful eating and PA at home and at the FCCH is essential for the design of successful interventions to promote children's healthful behaviours in these two settings. Given that parents perceive their children as having more healthful behaviours while at FCCH, interventions that address both settings jointly may be most effective than those addressing only one environment by itself.

Keywords: Eating and physical activity; Family child-care homes; Latino; Parental perception; Pre-school.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Ogden CL, Carroll MD & Flegal KM (2014) Prevalence of obesity in the United States. JAMA 312, 189–190. - PubMed
    1. Nyberg K, Ramirez A & Gallion K (2011) Physical activity, overweight and obesity among Latino youth. Salud America! http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/research/2011/12/physical-activity--overw... (accessed August 2016).
    1. Rossen LM (2014) Neighbourhood economic deprivation explains racial/ethnic disparities in overweight and obesity among children and adolescents in the USA. J Epidemiol Community Health 68, 123–129. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rossen LM & Talih M (2014) Social determinants of disparities in weight among US children and adolescents. Ann Epidemiol 24, 705.e2–713.e2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Guerrero AD, Mao C, Fuller B et al. (2016) Racial and ethnic disparities in early childhood obesity: growth trajectories in body mass index. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities 3, 129–137. - PMC - PubMed