UNASSIGNED: Psychological wellbeing is an essential indicator of early care and education (ECE) teachers\' positive practices across countries. Moreover, previous studies suggest that teachers\' wellbeing and practice may be indirectly associated via emotion regulation. However, teachers in various contexts demonstrate different patterns of psychological wellbeing, emotion regulation, and emotional responsiveness, and the ways these factors associate with each other also vary.
UNASSIGNED: The current study investigates whether the indirect associations between ECE teachers\' psychological wellbeing (i.e., emotional exhaustion, job-related competence, and personal stress) and their responsiveness toward children\'s emotions via emotion regulation (i.e., reappraisal and suppression) appear differently in two national contexts, the United States (US) and South Korea (SK). Multi-group path analysis was conducted to compare the mediation models between US teachers (n = 1,129) and SK teachers (n = 322).
UNASSIGNED: We found significant indirect associations among wellbeing, emotion regulation, and responsiveness in both countries. However, significant associations were more prominent among SK teachers, and the patterns of indirect associations had substantial cross-country differences. Furthermore, the roles of reappraisal and suppression emotion regulation found to be different among ECE teachers in SK and US.
UNASSIGNED: The cross-country variations in the associations among wellbeing, emotion regulation, and responsiveness suggest that differential policy efforts and intervention strategies are needed for ECE teachers in the US and SK.

Innovative approaches to childhood obesity prevention are warranted in early care and education (ECE) settings, since intervening early among youth is recommended to promote and maintain healthy behaviors. The objective of the Meals for Good pilot was to explore feasibility of implementing a food bank-based catering model to ECE programs to provide more nutritious meals, compared to meals brought from home (a parent-prepared model). In 2014-2015, a 12-month project was implemented by a food bank in central Florida in four privately-owned ECE programs. An explanatory sequential design of a mixed-methods evaluation approach was utilized, including a pre-post menu analysis comparing parent-prepared meals to the catered meals, and stakeholder interviews to determine benefits and barriers. The menu analysis of lunches showed daily reductions in calories, fat, and saturated fat, but an increase in sodium in catered meals when compared to parent-prepared meals. Interviews with ECE directors, teachers, parents, and food bank project staff, identified several benefits of the catered meals, including healthfulness of meals, convenience to parents, and the ECE program\'s ability to market this meal service. Barriers of the catered meals included the increased cost to parents, transportation and delivery logistics, and change from a 5 to a 2-week menu cycle during summer food service. This pilot demonstrated potential feasibility of a food bank-ECE program partnership, by capitalizing on the food bank\'s existing facilities and culinary programming, and interest in implementing strategies focused on younger children. The food bank has since leveraged lessons learned and expanded to additional ECE programs.