Browsing by Subject "valmiudet"

Introduction: Existing studies show that taste preferences and food behavior begin to develop during early childhood and that they are strongly influenced by early experiences related to food and the example received from grown-ups around. Hence, early childhood education holds a key role in promoting healthy food habits to children. Early childhood education also endorses health equality by offering a chance to familiarize oneself with a variety of different foods. Health and joy from food - meal recommendations for early childhood education and care, published in 2018, presents general guidelines for a healthy diet during childhood. The key objectives of food education in early childhood are to create a positive relationship towards food, teach children about food chain and food cultures, familiarize them with different food products, and to create a positive, and a calm atmosphere during mealtimes. High-quality food education can promote public health and prevent obesity and chronic diseases. The example given by childcare professionals affect the development of food behavior of children. Therefore, it is crucial that these professionals feel equipped to engage in food education and that they have enough skills, knowledge and resources to do so. Objectives: This paper studies the state of food education in childcare units. The aim is to discover whether childcare professionals feel capable to act as food educators in addition to their other responsibilities. Furthermore, it is studied whether the feeling of high readiness is linked to higher food education among childcare professionals. This Master’s thesis was carried out as a part of the Food Education project by the Finnish Heart Association. The aim of the Food Education project is to promote meal recommendations for early childhood education and care nationally so that all childcare units would have similar premises for high quality food education. Methods: This cross-sectional study was executed with an online based questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to the childcare units of the cities of Tampere and Akaa and to individual childcare professionals through the Finnish Heart Association. The questionnaire was designed for the purpose of this study and it consisted of three parts. Respondents were asked about their background information, how often they commit to specific food education activities, and about their beliefs towards food education. The data was analyzed with a principle component analysis (PCA) and sum variables were created based on the results of the analysis. Four food education strategies were recognized. The readiness of the professionals was divided into five categories based on the PCA results. Sum variables were analyzed with an analysis of variance (ANOVA) between groups which were formed based on background information. In addition, logistical regression analysis was conducted to discover the association between food education strategies and the self-reported feeling of readiness. Results: In total 173 educators, including childcare directors (n= 9), teachers (n = 71) and nurses (n = 93), replied to the questionnaire. Four food education strategies were recognized: an educator driven strategy, a communication-based strategy, a body focused strategy, and a child driven strategy. The ANOVA revealed that childcare directors use significantly more the child driven food education strategy compared to other groups whereas participants with no higher than secondary level education engage significantly less in body focused food education. A majority of respondents reported feeling high capability to act as food educators and considered food education to be an important part of children’s health promotion. Also, they appreciated a child focused approach and the relevance of food education as such. The support received from the work community and the work environment was considered to be rather poor especially among the teachers and the nurses. However, high feeling of capability was not associated with a higher frequency of any of the food education strategies. Conclusions: Food education in childcare today is heterogenic and dominated by educator driven strategies. Body focused strategies are the rarest. The educators experience quite high levels of readiness to engage in high-quality food education, but the support received from the work community and environment is low. Also, the resources are limited and there is a need for common ground rules and processes. In order to meet the national goals of food education, more resources and engagement of the work community is needed.