Job Demands and Resources Experienced by the Early Childhood Education Workforce Serving High-Need Populations.

The early childhood education (ECE) workforce plays a key role in promoting early childhood development by their interactions with young children during formative years. However, the inherent demands of the profession and the work conditions within ECE settings affect job satisfaction and overall health and well-being. This study applied the Job Demands-Resources Model (JD-R) and administered a cross-sectional survey (n = 137) to examine disparities in personal and external demands and resources that may impact job satisfaction and turnover rates among ECE staff who provide care for preschool children (3-5 years of age). ECE staff reported higher levels of personal demands, including depression and perceived stress, and external demands, including workload and staffing concerns, compared to the national workforce (all p < .01). The data also illustrated disparities related to resource access; ECE staff reported lower levels of personal resources, including mindfulness, and less access to external resources including safety climate, resource adequacy, role clarity, respect, and management relationships (all p < .01). Only 34% of ECE staff reported being very satisfied with their work compared to 49% of the national workforce (p < .01). External resources were significantly and positively associated with job satisfaction (B = .09, p < .01). These findings suggest that ECE staff experience significantly higher demands and have access to significantly fewer resources in the workplace, and that bolstering job-related resources may translate to increased job satisfaction.

Protective resources that promote wellbeing among New Zealand moms with young children facing socioeconomic disadvantage.

Poor maternal mental health and well-being during early stages of parenting impact child developmental outcomes. The primary objective of this study was to explore protective resources that may confer resilience among mothers living in low resourced neighborhoods in New Zealand. A purposive, non-probabilistic sampling method was used to recruit an ethnically representative sample of mothers with children under the age of five living in high deprivation neighborhoods in Auckland, New Zealand (n = 74). Data was collected via focus groups and interviews. Analyses consisted of both a deductive, theory-driven approach, and an inductive, data-driven approach. The most frequently mentioned resources that supported positive mental health and well-being included: 1) social support, and specifically family and instrumental support; 2) neighborhood cohesion, including collective efficacy and neighborhood permanence; and 3) alignment with social and cultural norms, though tensions surrounding cultural identity were also identified as sources of stress by some mothers. These findings highlight how the socioecological context impacts subjective perceptions of environmental demands and modifiable factors that may be promoted to improve maternal mental health and well-being and subsequent child health and development outcomes.

Impact of a nutrition education programme on preschool children's willingness to consume fruits and vegetables.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of a preschool-based nutrition education programme consisting of twelve 'hands on' nutrition education lessons delivered during the school year on young children's willingness to consume fruits and vegetables. DESIGN: Quasi-experimental, pre-post design including the collection of plate waste evaluation data at the start and end of the 2015-2016 school year within two groups: (1) randomly selected classrooms receiving the intervention and (2) within conveniently sampled preschool classrooms not receiving the intervention serving as a comparison group. SETTING: Centre-based preschool programmes serving low-income families in the Denver metro area. PARTICIPANTS: Three- to five-year-old children in preschool classrooms participating in the intervention during the 2015-2016 school year (n 308) and children enrolled in comparison classrooms (n 215). RESULTS: Repeated-measures logit models assessed whether increases in the odds of consuming small samples of fruits and vegetables between Time 1 (pre-intervention) and Time 2 (post-intervention) were different for children within the intervention group compared with the comparison group. Analyses showed that the change over time in consumption of the three vegetable samples varied by intervention status with greater change occurring among children within the intervention group (edamame: P = 0·001; cauliflower: P ≤ 0·0001 and red pepper: P ≤ 0·0001). Unlike vegetables, the change over time in consumption of the two fruit samples was not different between children within the intervention and comparison groups. CONCLUSIONS: An experiential-learning nutrition education programme can positively influence eating behaviours of low-income preschoolers in a centre-based setting by increasing willingness to consume vegetables.

An exploration of constructs related to dissemination and implementation of an early childhood systems-level intervention.

Obesity and overweight in early childhood have detrimental impacts on children's health and development. Changing policy, system and environmental features focused on physical activity and healthy eating behaviors as part of health promotion interventions can play a key role in prevention strategies in early childhood education settings. These types of changes can have broad reach and are often sustained over time, which allows for impact on children who enter the early childhood education setting year after year. However, there is currently a gap between the generation of evidence for health promotion programs and their application into practice. This study used qualitative methods to evaluate intervention-, organizational- and individual-level factors within a dissemination and implementation framework that may be related to the implementation of a health-promoting intervention in early childhood education settings. Intervention-level factors, including feasibility and adaptability, organizational-level factors, including staff and leadership engagement, and individual-level factors, including attitudes, skills and knowledge, were identified as constructs that impacted the successful implementation of the intervention. These findings provide insight into core dissemination and implementation constructs that should be targeted by obesity prevention interventions in early childhood education settings to ensure maximum impact on sustainable behavior change.

Changes in demands and resources faced by the early childhood education workforce due to COVID-19.

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on demands, resources, and job satisfaction among a convenience sample of early childhood education (ECE) staff employed in Head Start preschools in a large metro area of Colorado. A survey was administered to a sample of Head Start staff at two timepoints: Time 1 (pre-COVID-19 pandemic) in October of 2019 (n = 137) and Time 2 (during the COVID-19 pandemic) in November of 2020 (n = 86). The survey consisted of a combination of validated measures to assess personal and external demands and resources and work satisfaction. Workload is a perceived external demand that significantly improved from pre- to mid-pandemic in this sample (z = -3.3, p < 0.01). Many personal and external resources changed pre- to mid-pandemic, though none were statistically significant. Overall job satisfaction in this sample increased, though it was not statistically significant (z = -1.04, p = 0.3). Mitigating demands, such as minimizing workload, and increasing job-related resources, such as bolstering management supports, may lead to improved job satisfaction of the ECE workforce employed in Head Start settings. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified poor mental health and numerous job demands, some of the pandemic-related regulations may have also decreased the workload for some subgroups of the ECE workforce, potentially translating to improved job satisfaction. However, significant disparities remain with respect to personal and external demands among this sample of the ECE workforce compared to the national workforce suggesting multi-level resources and supports are critical to further buffer these stressors.

First Analysis of Nationwide Trends in the Use of the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework.

OBJECTIVE: To understand Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) Implementing Agencies'(SIAs) use of the SNAP-Ed Evaluation Framework (Framework), which is a tool that includes 51 indicators that SNAP-Ed programs can use to measure the success of their programs in the first 5 years after its release. METHODS: A repeated cross-sectional study design was utilized to administer electronic surveys to between 124 and 154 SIAs who received SNAP-Ed funding in fiscal years 2017, 2019, and 2021. Analyses included descriptive statistics and tests of proportions. RESULTS: Most SIAs indicated that they used the Framework to inform both data collection instruments and program planning decisions and the rates remained relatively constant over the 3 time points (> 80%). The most common specific use of the Framework across all 3 time points was to define, count, or measure the work accomplished, but this statistically decreased from 2017 (76%) to 2021 (57%) (z-score = 3.31; P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results of this analysis confirmed that 5 years after its introduction, uptake and use of the Framework was high and that, as a whole, SIAs focused on priority indicators set by the US Department of Agriculture, with no notable increases in addressing and measuring longer-term, multisector, and population-wide outcomes. The systematic study of the Framework's usability over time has a broader application to other national health promotion initiatives with shared frameworks.

Stakeholder Education and Community Mobilization Garner Support for Sex Education.

PURPOSE: The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio UT Teen Health (UTTH) implemented a community-wide teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) initiative in south San Antonio. This article describes how UTTH staff educated community stakeholders and mobilized community members to support implementation of evidence-based TPP interventions. METHODS: UTTH educated key stakeholders about the need for TPP efforts, strong local support for such efforts, and the value of evidence-based interventions (EBIs). The process of stakeholder education and partnership development leading to implementation of EBIs was lengthy with, for example, an average of 11 meetings and 13.5 months between the initial meeting and formal approval of EBI implementation among school partners. UTTH also mobilized the community by engaging community members on leadership teams that actively supported the initiative efforts. RESULTS: Partnerships to implement EBIs were developed with 16 middle and high schools across five local school districts, two divisions of the juvenile justice system, and five youth-serving organizations. From 2011 to 2015, more than 12,500 youth (51% female) aged 11 to 19 years received EBIs. Of the total served, 95% were served through partnerships with local schools, 4% by juvenile justice, and 1% by youth-serving organizations. CONCLUSIONS: Engaging and educating members of the community require notable time and resource investments up front; however, once strong partnerships are built, there is an ongoing opportunity to reach youth. In south San Antonio, schools provided the opportunity to reach the largest numbers of youth.

Recommendations for developing and sustaining community health workers.

This report provides recommendations for the development and sustenance of community health workers. These recommendations are a result of the San Antonio Community Health Worker Summit held January 2010. Recommendations include defining the workforce, training standards, evaluating financial benefit, strategizing Medicaid reimbursement, and creating support networks.