AbstractsPsychology

Family Child Care Homes (FCCHs) are the second largest provider of non-relative care in the U.S. However, despite providing care for nearly 1.9 million children under the age of 5, little is known about the physical activity levels of children attending FCCHs. This dissertation sought to provide new information with regards to physical activity in children attending FCCHs. The purpose of the first study was to objectively measure physical activity in children attending FCCHs. 114 children (60 boys and 54 girls) 3.7 ± 1.1 years of age from 47 FCCHs wore an ActiGraph GT1M accelerometer for the duration of child care attendance during a randomly selected week. Counts were classified as sedentary (SED), light (LPA), or moderate-to-vigorous (MVPA) using the cut-points developed by Pate et al. (2006). Total physical activity was calculated by summing time spent in LPA and MVPA. Non-wear time was estimated by summing the number of consecutive zero counts accumulated in strings of 10 minutes or longer. Children were included in the analyses if they had 2 or more monitoring days in which wear time was ≥75% of the attendance time. On average, children accumulated 25.9 ± 5.7 min of SED, 10.1 ± 4.2 min of MVPA, and 34.1 ± 5.7 min of total physical activity per hour of attendance. Further analysis revealed that among healthy weight children, 4 year-olds exhibited significantly lower levels of SED and significantly higher levels of MVPA and total physical activity than 2- and 3- year-olds. Among 4-year-olds, overweight and obese children exhibited significantly higher levels of SED and significantly lower levels of MVPA and total PHYSICAL ACTIVITY than healthy weight counterparts. The results from this study indicated that preschool-aged children attending FCCHs are mostly sedentary and accumulate low levels of MVPA during the child care day. The purpose of the second study was to assess the validity of two proxy report instruments designed to measure physical activity in children attending FCCHs. Valid self-report measures are needed for large scale intervention studies and/or population-based surveillance studies in which more burdensome objective measures are not feasible. In Year 1 of the study, FCCH Providers (N=37) completed the Burdette parent proxy report, modified for the family child care setting, for 107 children aged 3.4 ± 1.2 years. In Year 2, 42 Providers completed the Harro parent and teacher proxy report, modified for the family child care setting, for 131 children aged 3.8 ± 1.3 years. Both proxy-reports were assessed for validity using objectively measured physical activity as a criterion measure (accelerometry). Significant positive correlations were observed between scores from the modified Burdette proxy report and objectively measured total physical activity (r = 0.31, p < 0.01) and MVPA (r = 0.33, p < 0.01). Across levels of Provider-reported activity, both total physical activity and MVPA increased significantly in a linear dose-response fashion. Provider-reported MVPA scores from modified…