Training may enhance early childhood educators’ self-efficacy to lead physical activity in childcare

Physical activity (PA) is necessary to support young children’s (< 5 years) physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development [1]; while excessive sedentary time, particularly on screens, can slow young children’s cognitive and psychosocial development, and is associated with irregular sleep patterns [2]. Specific to centre-based childcare, preschoolers (3–5 years) engage in minimal moderate-to vigorous-intensity PA (MVPA; 4.6 min/hr) and spend the majority of their day sedentary (36.2 min/hr) [3]. Considering the large proportion of preschoolers (~ 65%) who spend close to 30 h/week in childcare [4, 5], there is great potential for the staff in this setting to model and shape movement behaviours, including PA and sedentary behaviour, which are known to be established in early childhood [6].

The childcare centre itself accounts for 50% of the variation in young children’s PA [7], stressing the importance of creating environments and shaping early childhood educator (ECE) behaviours in support of PA. Factors known to influence preschoolers’ PA in childcare include: environmental characteristics (e.g., portable play equipment, indoor play area, size/features of outdoor play area [8‐10]; centre policies/practices (e.g., written policies for PA, provision of active/sedentary opportunities, scheduled outdoor time [9, 11]; and, ECE behaviours (e.g., prompts, co-participation, structured/unstructured play, staff training in PA) [8, 9]. While interventions in childcare have targeted environmental characteristics [12, 13] and centre policies [14, 15], an increasing focus has been placed on the influence of ECEs due to the prominent role they play in programming, leading, and modeling appropriate daily PA [16, 17]. In fact, for every additional 5 min/hour that ECEs engaged in MVPA, Carson et al. [18] found that children in their care engaged in an additional 1.3 min/hour of the same behaviour, stressing the influence ECEs can have on children’s behaviours. Additionally, with the large variation in environmental characteristics and policies among childcare centres [7], targeting ECEs may be necessary to mediate differences in PA rates attributable to centre-based characteristics.

Researchers have shown that programming active opportunities is often related to the value ECEs place on PA [16], as well as their self-efficacy to lead PA [19]. In fact, ECEs who reported low PA-related self-efficacy attributed this to their lack of training in PA [20]. According to Social Cognitive Theory, self-efficacy—defined as the confidence to complete a task—is one of the most robust determinants of behaviour [21]. As such, in order to better support ECEs’ effective facilitation of PA in childcare centres, fostering their self-efficacy in PA domains is important; one avenue to achieve this, suggested in the literature [22] and requested by ECEs themselves [23], is to provide ECEs with PA-specific training.

While the impact of PA training for ECEs has yet to be explored quantitatively in relation to their self-efficacy to promote and teach PA in childcare, the association of ECE training with PA rates of children has led to its incorporation in PA interventions in centre-based childcare [24, 25]. As a result of such PA training for ECEs, children have been found to engage in more MVPA [26, 27]. Specifically, a recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) incorporated PA training for ECEs [25], which increased preschoolers’ MVPA in childcare (+ 4 min/8-h day). In an extension of this RCT [25], results showed that ECEs (n = 17) reported feeling more knowledgeable and confident in their ability to lead PA opportunities following training and communicated that they would use the PA knowledge gained in future programming [28]. Given the noted increase in PA levels of preschoolers in this intervention [25], fostering ECEs’ knowledge and confidence in leading PA in childcare may have beneficial and lasting effects on the daily programming of active opportunities in this setting.

This study presents results of two single-blind cluster-RCTs. Full methodological details of the SPACE study and SPACE-Extension study are reported previously [29, 31]. None of the data from the self-efficacy or knowledge variables reported in this manuscript have been reported previously.

This study was the first to explore ECEs’ self-efficacy about PA for preschoolers and knowledge of PA and screen time guidelines following the implementation of PA interventions, with and without a PA training component, in centre-based childcare. The SPACE intervention positively impacted select items pertaining to ECEs’ self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA, while the SPACE-Extension intervention demonstrated no effect on ECEs’ self-efficacy. ECEs’ knowledge of both the PA and the screen time guidelines did not significantly change following either intervention; however, changes observed in the SPACE intervention approached significance for knowledge of the PA guideline. These results highlight important considerations regarding the inclusion of PA training for ECEs. Several important findings are discussed below.

ECEs’ self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA may be an important indicator of their related teaching behaviours in childcare [40, 41]. As such, fostering their self-efficacy through PA training remains an important avenue to explore. For example, in the SPACE study, ECEs in the experimental group (who received PA training) increased their self-efficacy to both engage preschoolers in 180 min of daily PA, and to facilitate PA opportunities when outdoor play was not feasible, compared to the control group. On the contrary, the only significant change in ECEs’ self-efficacy in the SPACE-Extension, where no staff training was offered, was a result of regression to the mean. These results were not surprising, as PA-related education has been found to positively affect self-efficacy in early childhood education students [40, 42, 43]. Altunsöz and colleagues [42] explored the effect of completing a physical education and games course on early childhood education students’ (n = 83) self-efficacy to teach fundamental movement skills (FMS) for preschoolers and found a significant main effect of the course on students’ self-efficacy to teach FMS (p = <.001). Similarly, Bruijns and colleagues [40] surveyed 1292 early childhood education students across Canada and found that those who had taken one or more PA-related courses reported higher self-efficacy for engaging young children in appropriate daily MVPA than those who had no training in PA. Taken together, these findings suggest that PA training may be highly beneficial for ECEs, who have communicated there is a gap in such training in their post-secondary program [40, 43]. While only a few self-efficacy items demonstrated a significant change as a function of the SPACE intervention, efforts to integrate PA education into ECEs’ pre-service programs and include more opportunities for professional development in PA in childcare professions may help to foster ECEs’ PA-related self-efficacy.

Equally as beneficial for ECEs as fostering their self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA is to ensure they have appropriate self-efficacy to implement health-promoting changes in childcare centres. Even though ECEs’ implementation self-efficacy remained relatively unchanged over the course of both interventions, they reported high initial implementation self-efficacy, which persisted even at the cessation of the intervention. This suggests that despite the burden of modifying the outdoor play curriculum and managing the new equipment, ECEs still felt confident in their ability to carry out the intervention. This finding is important, as PA interventions in centre-based childcare have been found to be most effective when led by ECEs [44]. As such, designing an intervention that is supported and easily administered by ECEs is essential. In a recent pilot study, ECEs (n = 11) were trained on how to break up bouts of sitting time (> 20 min) with various activities (e.g., active story time, movement breaks) [45]. The authors reported that ECEs exhibited high intervention fidelity and were also highly positive about the intervention, showing the benefit of providing training and support for ECEs when implementing movement behaviour interventions in childcare. In the present study, while no significant changes in implementation self-efficacy were observed, ECEs in the SPACE-Extension reported a slight decrease in their self-efficacy to carry out the intervention at post-intervention compared to their baseline scores, while ECEs’ implementation self-efficacy in the original SPACE study remained relatively constant. As such, while no concrete conclusions can be drawn from these changes, incorporating training for ECEs as an intervention component may ease its implementation and acceptability, which are both important factors for eventual adoption.

PA training for ECEs in childcare is not only important to foster self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA and implement PA interventions, but also to improve their knowledge of PA guidelines. In the SPACE study, where ECEs were educated about the Canadian PA Guidelines for the Early Years [34] (among other topics), there was an increase in the proportion of ECEs in the experimental group that indicated the correct response for preschoolers’ minimum daily total PA, compared to the control group. Contrarily, the SPACE-Extension did not have a significant impact on ECEs’ knowledge of this guideline. Considering the majority of young children spend many hours in childcare [4, 5], this setting is where children accumulate the majority of their weekday PA [46]. Thus, it is important for ECEs to be knowledgeable about the PA guidelines and modify their programming to ensure sufficient movement is incorporated throughout the day. Previously, ECEs (n = 20) reported that it was not their responsibility to facilitate PA in their childcare classroom, as they perceived the children in their care were already active enough [47]. However, in light of the findings from the present study showing that most ECEs were unsure of PA guidelines for young children, it is possible that ECEs’ perceptions of sufficient levels of activity may not be accurate. Therefore, ensuring ECEs are provided with this type of education, coupled with strategies on how to incorporate PA into programming, may equip them with the knowledge and tools necessary to ensure guidelines are met.

In contrast with ECEs’ increased awareness of the PA guidelines in the SPACE study, the intervention did not have the same effect with respect to their awareness of the screen time guideline for preschoolers. Despite this content being presented as part of the ECE training in the original SPACE study, perhaps ECEs were not as attentive to this information because their centres may already have limitations regarding screen use (as is the case in ~ 29% [n = 178] of Canadian childcare centres [48]). Further, the screen time guideline for preschoolers is only one component of the sedentary behaviour guidelines [35]. Given preschoolers’ reduction in sedentary time as a result of the SPACE intervention (− 2.13 min/hr) [30], ECEs may have been more interested in the content pertaining to reducing sitting time and breaking up long bouts of sedentary behaviour than the specifics regarding screen time limits. Nevertheless, Vanderloo [49] reported in her systematic review that young children engage in 0.1 to 1.3 h/day of screen-viewing while in centre-based childcare. As such, if screens are permitted in the centre, it remains important that ECEs are cognizant of the screen time guidelines, as well as the harmful effects of excessive screen use for young children [2].

This study provides evidence that PA training for ECEs can positively influence their self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA, as well as increase their knowledge of PA guidelines. Taken together, these benefits are likely to have significant public health impacts; improved PA-related self-efficacy and knowledge of PA guidelines may translate to ECEs’ teaching behaviours, where knowledge of PA guidelines and self-efficacy to engage preschoolers in PA might serve to increase the quantity and quality of active play opportunities provided to young children in childcare. Future interventions in childcare should focus on professional development for ECEs to determine if tailored PA training can independently impact PA rates of preschoolers. Further, providing more support for ECEs in the form of increased training opportunities may help foster their competence and perceived capability to organize and design PA experiences for their children; such supports may lead to more intentional monitoring and programming of PA in childcare curricula.