Back to Annual Meeting

Back to Annual Meeting

Abstract #158874

• Audio (mp3) recording
• Slides (pdf) or Handout

Sharon Morrison, PhD, MSPH, Department of Public Health Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 437HHP Bldg, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, 336-334-3243, sdmorri2@uncg.edu, Paige Smith, PhD, Center for Women's Health and Wellness, UNC Greensboro, PO Box 26170, 401 HHP Building, Greensboro, NC 27402, Raleigh Bailey, PhD, Center for New North Carolinians, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 413 S Edgeworh Street, Greensboro, NC 27401, and Cinthya Saavedra, PhD, Human Development and Family Studies, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, P.O. Box 26170, Stone 145, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170.

Trends in early childcare and development indicate that young children of immigrant households are less likely to be represented in quality programs designed to enhance child health and well-being. This puts these immigrant children at risk for poor educational and health outcomes later in life. Guilford County, North Carolina is an emerging new immigrant gateway community, and is home to over 65,000 immigrant and refugee families with children. Little is known about the early childcare beliefs, practices and needs of the parents/caregivers of these immigrant children. The “Ethnic Community Immigrant Child Care Strategies” project was an action-oriented community diagnosis partnership designed to engage both local university faculty and new immigrant communities and parents in assessing cultural beliefs and practices, problems/needs and solutions related to early child care and educational experiences. With the assistance of trained bicultural/bilingual facilitators, we conducted 12 focus groups with Mexican, Montagnard, and African (Sudanese, Liberian and Niger) immigrant and refugee parents with children 0 to 5 years old. The purpose was to identify the types of care and education their children were receiving; understand the values, priorities and needs related to child care and health; and identify the extent of parents' awareness of existing child care services and their perceptions of these services. This presentation will highlight the results of these discussions and present recommendations for strategies to facilitate participation in childcare programs. Implications for designing and implementing interventions to increase childcare provider capacity to serve immigrant and refugee populations will also be discussed.

Learning Objectives: