Elsa Escalante, graduate student in the Department of Child, Youth and Family Studies, has earned a dissertation award from the Society for Research in Child Development. She is one of four recipients of the 2016 Patrice L. Engle Dissertation Grant in Early Child Development.
Escalante’s dissertation is titled “Feeding Practices of Families with Latino Preschoolers in Colombia and the U.S.: A Cross-cultural Multiple Case Study.” The purpose of the mixed-methods study is to identify the differences and similarities among Colombian and American child’s eating behaviors, child’s temperament, feeding practices, and relationship inputs of parents and teachers.
With this research, Escalante aims to to contribute to the design of culturally responsive intervention programs that promote healthy feeding practices and child development with children at risk—especially focused on Latino population living in diverse cultural contexts.