Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: MITA, SATOKO CHIKA.Assessing Perceptions of Preschool Mealtime Environment.(Under the direction of L. Suzanne Goodell).In the US, obesity is a serious health issue that affects people of all ages, including preschool-aged children (i.e., children 3-to 5-years-old).One of the major causes of early childhood obesity is believed to be energy imbalance (i.e., energy consumed is greater than energy expended).To help reduce this energy imbalance in preschoolers and to address early childhood obesity, researchers have attempted to assess factors influencing preschoolers' physical activity and healthy eating habits.A preschool mealtime environment can be an ideal setting to help preschoolers develop sound eating habits by exposing them to healthy foods, providing nutrition education, and interacting with the adults in a classroom (e.g., teachers).In spite of the potential that a preschool mealtime environment has to help foster children's healthy eating habits, little is known about how preschool teachers influence preschoolers' healthy eating, particularly their fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption at mealtimes.Additionally, though the importance of preschool teachers' possessing skills and knowledge to create a positive mealtime environment (PME) has been recognized, the definition of a PME and how to establish a classroom PME have yet to be discussed.The lack of a clear definition of a PME prevents researchers from assisting teachers in establishing a classroom PME through teacher training and interventions.Therefore, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to qualitatively assess preschool teachers' perceptions of a mealtime environment in a preschool setting.In study 1, researchers conducted face-toface individual interviews with 28 Head Start teachers in central NC and asked teachers how they get their students to eat FV.Investigators found 6 dominant emergent themes and
Author: Satoko C. Mita
Language: English
Subfield: Nutrition and Dietetics
Field: Nursing
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2528209637