Trends in California Child and Adult Care Food Program Participation Among Family Child Care Home Providers: The Role of Tiered Meal Reimbursements

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are significant public health concerns with long-term consequences for children's mental health, physical well-being, and socioeconomic outcomes. This study examines whether younger maternal age at childbirth (≤ 24 years) is associated with children's exposure to any ACE and whether parental emotional support moderates this association. This study analyzed 2022 National Survey of Children's Health data for 32,092 children ages 6-17. Logistic models adjusted for child age, sex, US-born status, special health care needs, highest household education, family poverty level, partnered status, and any adult employment. Younger maternal age was associated with substantially higher odds of any ACE. With child-level covariates (M1), the OR was 3.20 (95% CI [2.98, 3.43]); with family-level covariates (M2), 2.14 ([1.98, 2.31]); and in the fully adjusted model (M3), 2.05 ([1.90, 2.21]). In the fully adjusted moderation model (M4), the main effect for younger maternal age remained strong (OR = 1.75, [1.49, 2.06]). This study highlighted that risk concentrates where structural disadvantage and early parenthood intersect. Emotional support did not reduce children's ACE risk. Interventions should prioritize caregiver support services and structural supports, such as income, housing, childcare, and behavioral health for young families.

Recent social changes in South Korea indicate that fathers’ roles have shifted from being primarily “work-oriented” toward seeking “work-family balance,” accompanied by increasing paternal involvement in childcare. Through big data analysis, this study examines how such trends are reflected in news articles and social networking service (SNS) discourse. A total of 919 articles from 11 nationwide daily newspapers (2016-2023) were analyzed using NetMiner and Latent Dirichlet Allocation topic modeling. Between 2016 and 2019, the dominant themes included parental education, international case studies, changing gender roles and equality, low fertility, the division of childcare and housework in dual-income families, and paternal participation in play. Additional themes, such as men’s parental leave, gendered divisions of labor, changing stereotypes, and fathers’ engagement in play, emerged after the COVID-19 outbreak. For the SNS dataset, 2,842 comments on 158 YouTube videos about “dad childcare” (Jan-Jul 2023) were analyzed using NetMiner’s SNS Data Collector. The results showed overwhelmingly positive responses, expressing love, happiness, and gratitude, highlighting paternal involvement as essential to family values. These findings suggest that perceptions of fathers’ childcare roles have improved significantly and a gender-equal culture of sharing childcare and household responsibilities is expanding, underscoring the requirement for supportive policies and institutional backing.

ABSTRACT Online mini-dramas, short-form videos with concise narratives and emotional appeal, have gained traction among aging migrants – older individuals who relocate to support family childcare needs, often facing social isolation and loneliness due to their displacement and cultural disconnection. This study examines how 24 Chinese aging migrants engage with mini-dramas through individual media dependency, using qualitative interviews and thematic analysis. Findings reveal that mini-dramas fulfill emotional needs by fostering understanding of self and society, guiding actions to build emotional belonging, and providing play for emotional release. By introducing emotional dependency, this study reframes individual media dependency (IMD) theory for new media and culturally specific populations, highlighting mini-dramas as a vital emotional resource. It also proposes practical applications, including family-centered interventions, platform enhancements, and public health policies, to support aging migrants’ emotional well-being.

This study examines how two Czech four-generation families organise childcare as a multigenerational family system. Using a qualitative multiple-case design, I conducted six semi-structured interviews with women across three caregiving generations (G1–G3) and two intra-family focus groups. Interpreted through the lenses of intergenerational solidarity and negotiated family responsibilities, the cases show parents providing day-to-day care, grandparents supplying practical help and emotional support, and great-grandparents contributing chiefly through presence, storytelling, rituals and occasional practical assistance. Arrangements were contingent rather than uniform, shifting with illness, work schedules, school timetables and proximity; distinguishing between practical tasks and relational time helps explain how families redistribute tasks while maintaining regular intergenerational contact. Limitations include a two-case design, a women-only sample and retrospective accounts; men’s and children’s voices were not directly collected. Findings highlight the often-overlooked role of great-grandparents in childcare within a post-socialist context and suggest that support for families should recognise multigenerational coordination of care.

Objective:Declining participation by family childcare home (FCCH) providers in the Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) may stem from inadequate tiered reimbursements for nutritious foods. During the COVID-19 pandemic, federal waivers temporarily eliminated tiers and increased reimbursements. We evaluated provider, sponsor and family perceptions of CACFP benefits and challenges in general and regarding the temporary removal of tiers and increased reimbursement rates.Design:From September 2023 to February 2024, FCCH providers, CACFP sponsors and CACFP family recipients in California participated in semi-structured interviews about CACFP benefits and challenges, perception of tiers and the COVID-19 waiver, quality of food and business viability. Thematic analysis was conducted using the immersion crystallisation method.Setting:Virtual interviews with California providers, sponsors and families.Participants:FCCH providers (n 31), CACFP sponsors (n 10) and CACFP family recipients (n 6).Results:Providers and sponsors reported that the higher temporary reimbursement rate positively impacted food budgets and quality. Pandemic-era facilitators of CACFP participation included the higher reimbursement rate, tier removal and a hybrid model for monitoring visits. Benefits beyond the pandemic included nutrition education and supporting child food security. Families valued CACFP for providing a variety of high-quality foods. However, barriers to CACFP participation persist, including administrative burden, inadequate reimbursements, strict regulations and the impacts of the pandemic and inflation.Conclusions:Increasing CACFP reimbursements while reducing other participation barriers can better support FCCH providers’ and sponsors’ participation. Supporting FCCH CACFP participation and retention can enhance access to healthy and nutritious meals for children from families with low income.

"I had neither a mother nor a father": Child care and neglect for Brazilian families.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted oral health practices in early care education (ECE) centers. This study describes the implementation of oral health evidence-based practices (EBP) in ECE centers enrolled in the web-based Go NAPSACC program pre-, during-, and post-COVID-19 stay-at-home (SAH) orders. This repeated cross-sectional study analyzed retroactive data from three types of programs (n = 1,490), that participated in Go NAPSACC oral health modules between January 2017 and April 2024: Head Start (n = 154), family child care home (FCCH; n = 540), and center-based (n = 796). Programs that did not use the Oral Health module (n = 10,425) and had duplicate registrations (n = 91) were excluded. The analysis focused on EBP total score and percentage of EBP met scores. We found significant differences in oral health EBP total and EBP met scores between program type (p < 0.001). Head Start programs had statistically significant higher EBP total percentage scores (81.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 78.5, 85.2; p < 0.0001) than FCCH programs (69.5, 95% CI = 67.1, 71.8; p < 0.0001), and center-based programs (59.5, 95% CI = 57.3, 61.7). Similarly, Head Start programs had higher EBP met scores (62.0, 95% CI = 57.7, 66.3; p < 0.0001), than FCCH programs (49.7, 95% CI = 46.7, 52.7; p < 0.0001), and center-based programs (36.9, 95% CI = 34.1, 39.8). We observed no statistically significant differences among programs based on SAH order period for neither EBP total scores (period, p = 0.761; interaction between program type and period, p = 0.788) nor EBP met scores (period, p = 0.178; interaction between program type and SAH order period, p = 0.293). These findings suggest that ECE programs struggle to meet oral health EBP across the three study periods, and the observed differences across program type was not explained by SAH orders.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted oral health practices in early care education (ECE) centers. This study describes the implementation of oral health evidence-based practices (EBP) in ECE centers enrolled in the web-based Go NAPSACC program pre-, during-, and post-COVID-19 stay-at-home (SAH) orders. This repeated cross-sectional study analyzed retroactive data from three types of programs (n = 1,490), that participated in Go NAPSACC oral health modules between January 2017 and April 2024: Head Start (n = 154), family child care home (FCCH; n = 540), and center-based (n = 796). Programs that did not use the Oral Health module (n = 10,425) and had duplicate registrations (n = 91) were excluded. The analysis focused on EBP total score and percentage of EBP met scores. We found significant differences in oral health EBP total and EBP met scores between program type (p < 0.001). Head Start programs had statistically significant higher EBP total percentage scores (81.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 78.5, 85.2; p < 0.0001) than FCCH programs (69.5, 95% CI = 67.1, 71.8; p < 0.0001), and center-based programs (59.5, 95% CI = 57.3, 61.7). Similarly, Head Start programs had higher EBP met scores (62.0, 95% CI = 57.7, 66.3; p < 0.0001), than FCCH programs (49.7, 95% CI = 46.7, 52.7; p < 0.0001), and center-based programs (36.9, 95% CI = 34.1, 39.8). We observed no statistically significant differences among programs based on SAH order period for neither EBP total scores (period, p = 0.761; interaction between program type and period, p = 0.788) nor EBP met scores (period, p = 0.178; interaction between program type and SAH order period, p = 0.293). These findings suggest that ECE programs struggle to meet oral health EBP across the three study periods, and the observed differences across program type was not explained by SAH orders.

HighlightsWhat are the main findings?I-T CHILD delivered by early childhood mental health consultants to strengthen the mental health climate in family child care programs improved the quality of the language environment for infants and toddlers. In particular, there was a significant increase in child vocalizations and a significant decrease in children’s exposure to electronic media sounds.What is the implication of the main finding?Family child care providers serving minoritized communities are capable of harnessing the power of healthy interactions with children.Improving the quality of the mental health climate has far-reaching effects beyond social and emotional learning; its impact on early language can serve as a protective factor for minoritized children.Background: Early language development, a key predictor of later academic achievement, arises out of social interactions and communication. High-quality social and emotional interactions in early child care and education (ECCE) programs may therefore promote language-rich environments for young children. While culturally and linguistically minoritized communities face systemic barriers that limit equitable access to high-quality ECCE including social and emotional learning (SEL) programs, access to evidence-based SEL programs remains inequitable, disproportionately benefiting White, English-speaking, and higher-income ECCE providers. The current study aims to examine how I-T CHILD, a program designed to foster a climate that supports mental health and SEL in ECCE, improves the quality of the language environment using LENA technology. Methods: Implemented at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, 38 family child care providers located in an urban setting (63.2% Hispanic/Latine; 40% living in poverty) were randomly assigned to the 12-week I-T CHILD program or to the waitlist-control group. Data were analyzed using hierarchical linear modeling procedures. Results: Infants and toddlers cared for by I-T CHILD providers produced significantly more vocalizations (p = 0.002; ES = 1.50) and were exposed to significantly less media and electronic sounds (p = 0.032; ES = −0.97) than infants and toddlers in the waitlist-control condition. Conclusions: Our findings reinforce the importance of the mental health climate in ECCE and its circular effect on early language development. We offer key insights into how mental health climate interventions in ECCE settings can enhance language interactions, center the child, and foster foundational skills linked to long-term academic success for historically underserved populations.

Diplomatic personnel played a critical role in looking after British nationals during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, little is known about their experiences of parenting during this time. Exploring the family-related experiences of diplomatic staff during the pandemic is important in order to understand the unique challenges faced by diplomatic families during a prolonged crisis and identify ways to support them. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 13 diplomatic personnel and thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Participants reported challenges relating to online schooling; home-schooling; boarding schools and childcare. Unique challenges were reported for those with older children and neuro-diverse children. Quarantine and evacuation, necessitated by the pandemic, left many separated from their children for long periods of time. Participants reported wanting greater support from their employer, particularly greater recognition of family units and the challenges they faced. The insights gained from this study could be used by diplomatic organisations or other multi-national organisations to develop policies aimed at improving the experiences and wellbeing of employees and their families during times of increased global uncertainty. Recommendations emerging from this study include ensuring that, if desired, families are kept together during a crisis (e.g., having a choice whether to evacuate or not where duty of care requirements permit); arranging travel exemptions for diplomatic families where possible and making every effort to reunite children with parents when desired; respecting childcare situations when defining work arrangements; and considering subsidies for childcare for diplomatic families.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-025-03133-w.

Rural Family Child Care Homes Using GO NAPSACC to Self-assess Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity in Their Programs

Disparities in Major Challenges Experienced With Child and Adult Care Food Program Participation Among Early Child Care Providers.

The rapid advancement of digital technology has significantly influenced family life, particularly parenting and child care practices. Increasingly, working parents have relied on caretakers and, more recently, digital devices to keep children engaged. These internet-connected gadgets often feature games and apps that capture children’s attention but also expose them to online risks such as hate content. This study explores how parents in Sargodha protect their children from online hate content, with a focus on parental practices and perceptions, and the moderating role of digital literacy. Using an exploratory quantitative approach, data were collected from 210 educated parents with children under the age of 18. The structured questionnaire addressed five key dimensions, including internet supervision, exposure awareness, and digital guidance. Findings revealed that parents actively monitor and regulate their children's online activity, enforce time limits, and remain vigilant about harmful digital content such as hate speech, cyberbullying, sexual content, and online scams. Most parents also educate their children on online safety and preventive strategies. The study underscores the importance of digital literacy as a moderating factor, enhancing parents’ ability to shield their children from online threats and foster a safer digital environment.

This study addresses the quality assessment challenges in the digital transformation of childcare services, constructs a smart childcare quality assessment system based on big data analysis, and proposes an XGBoost prediction model optimized based on the exponential triangulation algorithm. By integrating machine learning technology and policy analysis framework, a dynamic assessment system connecting government regulation, agency operation and family demand is established. During the model construction process, feature engineering methods are used to extract multidimensional indicators of service quality, and nonlinear correlation analysis is combined to capture the complex mechanism of action in child care services. The experiments compare the performance of five typical machine learning models in the classification task, and the results show that XGBoost and the improved model have a significant advantage in the core metrics: the optimized model outperforms the native XGBoost in both accuracy (0.944 vs. 0.935) and recall (0.944 vs. 0.935), with an improvement in the F1 value of 1.1 percentage points, which indicates that the algorithm optimization effectively enhances the integration ability of feature space and the delineation precision of decision boundary. It is worth noting that although the improved model outperforms the native XGBoost in most classification metrics, XGBoost still maintains a slight advantage in the AUC value (0.961 vs. 0.951), which may stem from the inherent adaptability of its gradient boosting mechanism to the category-imbalanced data, especially when dealing with the low-probability samples, and demonstrates a stronger robustness. The study further reveals the nonlinear coupling law between policy elements and environmental variables in service quality assessment, and provides technical support for government departments to build a dynamic monitoring network with hierarchical classification by establishing the quantitative mapping relationship of quality characteristics-rating criteria-resource allocation.

University Cooperative Extension, which may be the original rural Implementation Science model, holds great promise for translating research into practice and addressing rural health disparities. As this model not only requires successful collaboration between academic researchers and Extension Educators but also possible implementation adaptation to the context of Cooperative Extension and the environments in which they work, implementation research is critical to effective translation into practice and impact. This study was informed by the RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework describes Cooperative Extension Educators' implementation of the virtual Happy Healthy Homes interventions, a nutrition intervention and a children's environmental health intervention, for rural Family Child Care Home providers. Educators provided feedback on curricula, were trained and conducted the two virtual interventions with providers. Implementation of intervention activities and dose were recorded using REDCap. Virtual, structured interviews were conducted to assess Educators' intervention adoption, implementation, and maintenance. Transcribed interviews were analyzed for themes by two investigators and confirmed by a third. Results indicated that the majority the intervention curricula and activities were delivered as planned. Adoption themes included topical relevance to the community; toolkit provision and financial resource need; and need for additional marketing materials. Implementation themes included Educator's content expertise; learning environment distractions; and virtual delivery. Maintenance themes included transferability of content to multiple audiences; mission alignment; and Educator awareness. Overall, the implementation partnership with Extension Educators was successful. Virtual implementation was novel for Educators but considered to be positive and an opportunity for expanding future reach.

BackgroundChildren are highly sensitive to adversity during their first five years of life, with exposure to chronic parental mental illness (MI) consistently linked to socio-emotional impairments and mental health problems in children. Children born during the COVID-19 pandemic were exposed to unprecedented levels of parental distress, with parental MI reported at three times the pre-pandemic rates. This situation underscored a pressing need for scalable solutions to foster positive mental health and developmental outcomes for a generation of children. In response, we developed the Building Emotional Awareness and Mental Health (BEAM) program, an innovative mobile health (mHealth) solution for parents of young children. Clinical trials to date evaluating BEAM have shown promising results, demonstrating reductions in parent depression, suicidality, anxiety, and harsh parenting practices. This trial involves an effectiveness-implementation hybrid design with co-primary aims of (1) determining BEAM’s effectiveness in improving parent mental health, and (2) evaluating the implementation of BEAM in the community through metrics such as feasibility, acceptability, and uptake. This trial’s secondary aim is to measure BEAM’s effectiveness in improving short-term child mental health and developmental outcomes using primary data and long-term psychosocial family outcomes using administrative data. A final exploratory aim of this trial will measure the cost-utility of delivering BEAM relative to extant health programming.MethodsA single arm trial with repeated measures will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing the BEAM intervention in the community with a sample of 400 parent participants with a child aged 24–71 months. Participants must self-report moderate to severe symptoms of depression, anxiety, parenting stress, and/or anger at time of enrolment (T0) and live in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Individuals will be recruited through four streams including the (1) Manitoba Crisis Response Services, (2) primary care offices (paediatricians and/or general practitioners), (3) Manitoba family community organizations and child care centres, and (4) social media. Study participants will complete 12 weeks of psychoeducation modules, with access to an online social support forum and check ins with a peer coach. Assessments of parent and child mental health symptoms will occur at pre-test before BEAM begins (T1), immediately after the last week of the BEAM intervention (post-test, T2), 6-month follow-up (T3), and 12-month follow-up (T4).DiscussionThe BEAM program offers a promising solution to address elevated parental mental health symptoms, parenting stress, and related child functioning concerns. The present implementation trial aims to extend the groundwork established by an open pilot trial and RCT of the BEAM program, in a next step of testing BEAM’s readiness for nationwide scaling.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT06455397. Registered on June 11, 2024.

Given the unique challenges of offering childcare in home-based settings, specialized support is needed to help family childcare educators offer high-quality early learning and childcare. The purpose of this study was to increase understanding of the unique needs of home-based educators and identify supports based on educator and consultant perspectives. This study addresses the current gap within the Canadian early learning and childcare system in understanding family childcare educators’ experiences by asking the following questions: (1) What are the experiences of family childcare educators in Alberta? and (2) From educator and consultant perspectives, what are the factors that facilitate the ability to provide high-quality childcare in family childcare programs? A descriptive qualitative engaged research approach was used in this study. In focus groups, 26 experienced educators and consultants shared their perceptions of facilitators and barriers to high-quality family childcare. Our study highlights three areas for growth in Alberta’s childcare sector: the need for professional development targeted to the family childcare field, increased access to community connections and resources, and agency support enabling educators to take breaks. Family childcare educators have unique workplace strengths and challenges and require support from families, professional support systems, and policy makers to provide high-quality early learning and childcare.

Multiple Roles and Children With Mixed-Age Groups Are Primary Challenges for Adoption of Responsive Feeding for Rural Family Child Care Home Providers.

The research presented in this article uses a community resilience framework to examine the lived experiences of Somali refugee Family Child Care providers in the United States who participated in the Steps to Family Child Care Success Program (STEPS), a year-long professional development program embedded in an ethnic community based organization (ECBO). Our research informs international efforts to design and implement professional development programs that meet the unique needs of home-based providers. Interview and focus group data identified challenges providers encountered when operating a FCC business that were related to language barriers, learning how business is conducted in the United States, and navigating FCC systems and regulations. At the same time, data illuminated many ways in which providers drew upon their community identity, their STEPS cohort, and the ethnic community based organization that operated the program to access the resources, knowledge, and support needed to be successful. Reflecting the construct of community resilience, findings indicate that providers experienced tensions between different ways of being in Somalia and the United States as well as identified processes, resources, and supports that allow providers to overcome challenges. Our research provides an example to those in the field of ECEC of a professional development model that is responsive to the strengths of communities of color.