Research Article Ethnic Differences in Family Childcare Providers’ Nutrition- and Activity-Related Attitudes and Barriers Qianxia Jiang , 1 Alison Tovar , 2 Patricia M. Risica , 3,4 Kristen Cooksey Stowers , 5,6,7 Marlene Schwartz , 1,5,7 Caitlin Lombardi , 1 Augustine Kang , 3 Noereem Z. Mena, 8 and Kim M. Gans 1,3,5,7 1 Department of Human Development and Family Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA 2 Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA 3 Department of Behavioral and Social Health Sciences, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA 4 Center for Health Promotion and Health Equity, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, RI, USA 5 University of Connecticut Institution for Collaboration in Health, Interventions and Policy, Storrs, CT, USA 6 Department of Allied Health Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA 7 University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, Hartford, CT, USA 8 Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Kim M. Gans; kim.gans@uconn.edu Received 26 October 2020; Revised 7 May 2021; Accepted 21 September 2021; Published 7 October 2021 Academic Editor: Terry Huang Copyright © 2021 Qianxia Jiang et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objective. e aim of the study is to examine family childcare providers’ (FCCPs) attitudes and perceived barriers related to nutrition, physical activity (PA), and screen time (ST) behaviors of preschool children, exploring differences by provider ethnicity. Design. Baseline survey data from a cluster-randomized trial. Participants. Around 168 FCCPs completed a telephone survey, and 126 completed both telephone and in-person surveys. Main Outcome Measures. Phone and in-person surveys include 44 questions to assess FCCPs attitudes and perceived barriers regarding nutrition, PA, and ST in the family childcare home. Analysis. As- sociations by ethnicity (Latinx vs. non-Latinx) were assessed by ANOVA, adjusting for provider education and Bonferroni correction. Results. Some FCCP attitudes were consistent with national obesity prevention guidelines; for example, most FCCPs agreed that they have an important role in shaping children’s eating and PA habits. However, many FCCPs agreed with allowing children to watch educational TV and did not agree that children should serve themselves at meals. Adjusting for education, there were statistically significant differences in attitude and perceived barrier scores by provider ethnicity. For example, Latinx FCCPs were more likely to agree that they should eat the same foods as children(p < .001) but less likely to agree that serving the food at meal and snack time is the adult’s responsibility (p < .001). Latinx FCCPs were more like to perceive barriers related to children’s safety playing outside (p < .001). Conclusions and Implications. While FCCPs hold some nutrition-, PA-, and ST-related attitudes consistent with national guidelines, training opportunities are needed for FCCPs to improve knowledge and skills and overcome perceived barriers related to nutrition and PA. Latinx FCCPs, in particular, may need culturally tailored training and support to overcome misperceptions and barriers. 1. Introduction Childhood obesity, which has dramatically increased since 1988 [1], is a serious and urgent public health problem with substantial consequences for children’s health, greater likelihood of obesity later in life, and long-term adverse health outcomes [2–5]. Children of low-income, racial/ ethnic minority families are at a particularly high risk of overweight and obesity [6–8]. Early childhood is a critical time for developing eating patterns and food preferences, as well as physical activity (PA) and screen time (ST) behaviors, which may persist into Hindawi Journal of Obesity Volume 2021, Article ID 6697006, 12 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6697006