What Do Childcare Providers Know about Environmental Influences on Children’s Health? Implications for Environmental Health Literacy Efforts

Brenda D. Koester, Stephanie Sloane, Elinor M. Fujimoto, Barbara H. Fiese and Leona Yi-Fan Su
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Brenda D. Koester: Family Resiliency Center, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Stephanie Sloane: Family Resiliency Center, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Elinor M. Fujimoto: Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Barbara H. Fiese: Family Resiliency Center, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA
Leona Yi-Fan Su: Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 10, 1-11

Abstract: Children are uniquely vulnerable to toxicant exposures in their environment, which can have long-lasting impacts on their health. Childcare providers are an important population to target for environmental health literacy, as most children in the United States under five years of age spend a significant number of waking hours in non-parental care. There is an increasing body of evidence that children are exposed to toxicants in the childcare environment, and yet little is known about what childcare providers know about environmental influences on the health of children in their care. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 36 home- and center-based Illinois childcare providers to better understand their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors as they relate to environmental influences on children’s health. We found that the majority of providers had a low level of understanding of potential sources of exposure in the childcare environment, and they did not feel that environmental exposures posed a significant risk to children. Future efforts to increase environmental health literacy should focus on raising awareness and knowledge of environmental health issues for childcare providers before addressing ways that providers can reduce or prevent toxicant exposures to children in their care.

Keywords: health literacy; environmental literacy; risk communication; children’s health; childcare providers; environmental health literacy; health communication (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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