Healthy Summer Learners: An explanatory mixed methods study and process evaluation

Healthy Summer Learners (HSL), a novel, 6-week summer program for 2–4th grade children from low-income families in the Southeastern United States, aimed to prevent accelerated summer BMI gain and academic learning loss by providing healthy meals and snacks, 15 min of nutrition education, 3 h of physical activity opportunities and 3.5 h of reading instruction daily. This three-armed pilot quasi-experimental study used a repeated measure within- and between-participant design to compare HSL, to an active comparator—21st Century Summer Learning Program (21 C), and no-treatment control. A mixed-methods process evaluation was employed to evaluate program implementation and provide insight for future program development. Though the program was well received, student attendance was lower than anticipated and full program fidelity was not achieved. During interviews, both parents and teachers noted that the bussing schedule was inconsistent, making attendance difficult for some families. These process evaluation findings may help explain why no statistically significant group-by-time interactions at 3- or 12-month follow up were found for the primary outcomes of zBMI or MAP reading score. Future iterations of HSL should seek to extend program hours, lengthen program duration, and explore ways to lower projected cost of attendance.