Focus Area: Early Childhood

Enhancing the Use of the Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) Tool in Early Care and Education Settings

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The Environment and Policy Assessment and Observation (EPAO) is a tool designed to evaluate practices, environmental attributes, and policies of early care and education (ECE) settings that influence children’s nutrition and physical activity. The purpose of this project is to provide easy-to-use and readily available resources to facilitate the EPAO tool’s use by researchers and More

The Impact of the First 1,000 Days on Childhood Obesity

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The first 1,000 days, or the period from conception through age 2, is increasingly recognized as a critical period for the development of childhood obesity and its adverse consequences. This issue brief is based on two review papers that examined evidence on risk factors for developing childhood obesity and interventions that could prevent childhood obesity More

Interventions for Childhood Obesity in the First 1,000 Days: A Systematic Review

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The first 1,000 days – conception through age 2 – represents an important period for the development and prevention of childhood obesity. This study reviews existing evidence from interventions occurring in the first 1,000 days that included prevention of childhood overweight or obesity as an outcome, identifies gaps in current research, and discusses conceptual frameworks More

Evaluating State Regulation of Early Care and Education Settings to Strengthen Licensing Laws Related to Healthy Feeding and Active Play

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The aim of this study is to describe state child-care licensing laws relating to healthy eating and active play targeting children ages 0 to 2 in early care and education settings for all U.S. states and territories. Investigators will use legal research methods to search state websites, the commercial legal databases LexisNexis® and WestlawNext®, and More

Impact of Policies on Physical Activity and Screen Time Practices in 50 Child-Care Centers in North Carolina

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This study assessed whether physical activity and screen-time policies in child-care centers were associated with physical activity and screen-time practices and preschool children’s physical activity. Data were collected from a sample of 50 child-care centers in North Carolina. Center directors completed a survey to assess center-level policies around physical activity and screen time. Research assistants More

Comparative Evaluation of a South Carolina Policy to Improve Nutrition in Child Care

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In April 2012, South Carolina enacted 13 nutrition standards for child-care centers serving lower-income children throughout the state. This study evaluated consistency with the standards before and after the policy took effect using North Carolina, a state not making policy changes, as the comparison. Researchers recorded foods and beverages served to children and documented the More

Gathering Baseline Data to Understand Implementation Changes and the Impact of the New Child and Adult Care Food Program Standards

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently proposed updated nutrition standards for foods and beverages served in Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participating child-care centers and homes. This study will contribute to the tracking of successes and challenges following implementation of the new nutrition standards, and will build off of two prior HER-funded More

Examining State Policy Approaches to Promoting Implementation of Out-of-School Time Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Standards

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The purpose of this project is to examine the use of state policy approaches to promote the implementation of the National AfterSchool Association Healthy Eating and Physical Activity (NAA HEPA) standards. The research team will build a conceptual framework, elicit expert opinion on state policy approaches, analyze real-world experiences using case studies in two states, More

Testing Variations on Family-Style Feeding To Increase Whole Fruit and Vegetable Consumption among Preschoolers in Child Care

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National data show that preschool-age children in the U.S. do not eat the recommended amount of whole fruit and vegetables (FV). Child-care settings are an important place to influence children’s diets, since over 80 percent of preschool-age children receive care outside the home, and many children eat most of their meals while in child care. More