Practice What You Teach: Preschool Educators’ Dietary Behaviors and BMI

The national obesity prevalence for children between 2 and 5 years old was 12.7% from 2017 to 2020. These prevalence rates are concerning because as obesity in youth increases, so do long-term health and psychosocial risks. Preschool children can spend up to 50% of their day in childcare with their educators, consuming meals and snacks together. Therefore, the role modeling of healthy eating behaviors by these educators may have an impact on children’s eating behaviors and future weight status. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Head Start educators’ self-reported dietary intake patterns and BMI. Variables included BMI and 8 items from the Starting the Conversation brief dietary assessment screener. Data were collected at educators’ respective Head Start centers in the spring of 2019. Pearson correlations were calculated to examine the relationship between educators’ self-reported dietary intake patterns and BMI. Of 66 teachers and teacher assistants who completed all items and BMI assessment, significant relationships were found between consumption of snack chips or crackers and fast food (r = 0.33, p = 0.007 and r = 0.27, p = 0.031, respectively). This study’s findings call attention to the importance of supporting healthier diets among early childhood educators.