Research on the influence of childcare environment intervention on children's sleep, diet and mental health

This study aimed to explore the intervention effect of childcare environment on children’s sleep, diet and mental health. Two public kindergartens were selected in the same community, and 79 children aged 3~6 years old were recruited as the control group (group C, 38 children) and the experimental group (group T, 41 children). According to the space and facilities, personal daily care, activities, interaction, curriculum structure, parents and teachers in the ‘Early Childhood Care Environment Rating Scale-Revised Edition’ (ECERS-R), the children in the group T were intervened in the childcare environment for 8 weeks. Before and after the experiment, children’s sleep, diet and mental health was measured by the Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire (CSHQ), the Preschool Eating Behavior Scale (PEBS) and the Strengths and Difficults Questionnaire (SDQ). T-test and c ² test were used to compare the differences in the results of each index before and after the experiment. The results showed that childcare environment interventions significantly increased preschool children’s bedtime habits( P <0.01) and reduced their slow eating, craving for drinks, and emotional overeating ( P <0.05), with daytime sleepiness and hyperactivity of children in group T was significantly less than that of group C after the experiment ( P <0.05). The data show that a 8-week childcare environment intervention effectively improved children’s eating and sleeping behaviors, enhanced children’s mental health. These findings provide evidences to embrace childcare environment intervention as an effective measure to promote children’s health.