Scholarlink

Background <p>Early childhood care and development (ECCD) is critical for children’s lifelong health, learning and wellbeing. Home environments play a key role in shaping children’s developmental outcomes, yet parents in Sri Lanka’s tea estate sector face socio-economic and structural disadvantages that limit their ability to provide nurturing and stimulating care. This study aimed to improve home-based ECCD practices among parents in a tea estate community in Sri Lanka.</p> Methods <p>A community-based health promotion intervention, informed by the participatory action research (PAR) approach, was implemented over six months in a tea estate in Nuwara Eliya District. Thirty-five parents of children under five years participated. The intervention involved interactive sessions to build ECCD awareness, identify determinants of poor practices, and co-design feasible, low-cost home-based activities. Parents implemented and monitored actions, culminating in a community-led exhibition. Data were collected through six group interviews with parents and four key informant interviews with child development officers before and after the intervention and analysed using inductive thematic analysis.</p> Results <p>Two themes emerged: (1) Change, and (2) Empowerment. Parents demonstrated increased awareness of nurturing and stimulating home environments, greater engagement in interactive activities, and enhanced use of available low-cost resources. Fathers’ involvement and family support improved, and parents developed simple monitoring tools to track children’s progress. Despite limited living space, families created child friendly environments with improved routines and learning opportunities. The intervention also fostered confidence, leadership, and collective action, extending beyond home-based ECCD to wider community-driven improvements.</p> Conclusions <p>Active engagement through health promotion and PAR enabled parents in a disadvantaged community to adopt and sustain improved home-based ECCD practices. However, the smaller sample size and self-reported data can be the study limitations. The community-driven intervention and its low-cost nature suggest strong potential for adaptation and scale-up in similar low-resource settings.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

A health promotion intervention to improve home-based early childhood care and development practices among a group of parents in a tea estate in Sri Lanka

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年12月28日

查看全文
  • Galmangoda Guruge Najith Duminda,
  • Nadeeka Rathnayake,
  • Kalpani Abhayasinghe

摘要

Background

Early childhood care and development (ECCD) is critical for children’s lifelong health, learning and wellbeing. Home environments play a key role in shaping children’s developmental outcomes, yet parents in Sri Lanka’s tea estate sector face socio-economic and structural disadvantages that limit their ability to provide nurturing and stimulating care. This study aimed to improve home-based ECCD practices among parents in a tea estate community in Sri Lanka.

Methods

A community-based health promotion intervention, informed by the participatory action research (PAR) approach, was implemented over six months in a tea estate in Nuwara Eliya District. Thirty-five parents of children under five years participated. The intervention involved interactive sessions to build ECCD awareness, identify determinants of poor practices, and co-design feasible, low-cost home-based activities. Parents implemented and monitored actions, culminating in a community-led exhibition. Data were collected through six group interviews with parents and four key informant interviews with child development officers before and after the intervention and analysed using inductive thematic analysis.

Results

Two themes emerged: (1) Change, and (2) Empowerment. Parents demonstrated increased awareness of nurturing and stimulating home environments, greater engagement in interactive activities, and enhanced use of available low-cost resources. Fathers’ involvement and family support improved, and parents developed simple monitoring tools to track children’s progress. Despite limited living space, families created child friendly environments with improved routines and learning opportunities. The intervention also fostered confidence, leadership, and collective action, extending beyond home-based ECCD to wider community-driven improvements.

Conclusions

Active engagement through health promotion and PAR enabled parents in a disadvantaged community to adopt and sustain improved home-based ECCD practices. However, the smaller sample size and self-reported data can be the study limitations. The community-driven intervention and its low-cost nature suggest strong potential for adaptation and scale-up in similar low-resource settings.