Poster #66 - Mealtime practices in the US and TW

• In Event: Poster Session 09

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the early childhood educators’ perspectives on feeding young children during mealtimes. Three hundred forty-four (110 in the US and 234 in Taiwan) early childhood educators completed a questionnaire, Building Mealtime Environments, and Relationships: An Inventory for Feeding Young Children in Group Settings (BMER).

Three specific topics in BMER were selected given the intention of this study and corresponding to the operational definition (i.e., eating, learning, and socialization) of a positive mealtime environment. They are the food (i.e., items on what children are offered to eat), food intake (i.e., items on strategies that support children to self-regulate their intake of food), and conversations (i.e., items on the talk that takes place during mealtime) (Fletcher, et al., 2005). Response options were via a five-point Likert scale ranging from very important to not important at all.

Descriptive statistics were computed to explore responses; mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentages in each topic area were calculated for the two groups of participants. In addition, the independent samples t-test with Levene's Test for Equality of Variances was used to examine whether any statistical evidence associated two groups of EC educators in terms of their perspectives in mealtime environments.

The results found both groups of professionals think it is important for children to have appropriate serving utensils for the food being offered, and menu planning is based on a nutritionally sound meal pattern. Both US and TW educators rated high on the food area to demonstrate the importance of the mealtime setting such as what children should be offered to eat. Both groups strongly agreed on the statements like “Menu planning should be based on a nutritionally sound meal pattern to meet children’s nutrient needs”, “Menu should include a variety of food”, and “Children are allowed additional portions”.

Besides, there are cultural differences between the two groups. Although both groups shared a similar perspective in the mealtime setting as meals are served and eaten, they seemed to have different perspectives in the food intake area. In general, TW educators seemed to pay more attention to children’s food intake and quantities because they rated almost all statements higher than US educators. It seems that the feeding priority is different; culture could play a role. It is recognized the major task for EC professionals is to “care” young children in terms of health and safety until they transition to kindergarten when education becomes a priority (Hsieh, 2004; Jang et al., 2014).

On the other hand, US educators generally rated every statement in the conversation area higher than TW educators. This indicates that US educators are more likely to make mealtime an opportunity to support children’s social conversations than TW educators. It is commonly known that mealtime interactions are seen as key experiences for young children to gain language development and literacy skills, socialize into the family culture, and enhance children’s emotional development (Bruns & Thompson, 2012).

Group Authors

Hsin-Hui Grace Lin, Ph.D. linh@uhv.edu The University of Houston at Victoria USA

Yu-Ching Yeh, Ph. D. ycyeh@mail.ncyu.edu.tw National Chiayi University Taiwan ROC

Ling Tsao, Ph.D. ltsao@uidaho.edu University of Idaho USA

Authors

• Hsin-Hui Lin, The University of Houston at Victoria

• Ling Tsao, University of Idaho
  Presenting Author

• Yu-Ching Yeh, National Chiayi University