The Impact of Family on Children’s Attitude Toward Health

Abstract

Background. Parents have a signifcant impact on the formation of their children’s attitude toward health. A detailed study of this efect will allow us to devise strategies for interaction with children and directions of psychological correction of maladaptive behaviors in health issues. Objective. To study the relationship between attitude toward health in primary-school-age children and their parents and styles of childrearing. Design. Te study comprised 69 primary-school-aged children and their parents. Te method of “Unfnished Sentences About Health” and the questionnaire “Analysis of Family Relationships” were used. Components of attitude toward health such as health self-esteem, assessment of healthy people, diseases, health promotion actions, health promotion factors (causes), and the value of health were considered. Results. Te fndings showed that the parents’ components of attitude toward health are interrelated with those in children’s at all levels (from behavioral to semantic and axiological) and are connected with the style of childrearing. Conclusion. Data analysis showed the impact of the style of childrearing and the interrelation of certain parental attitude toward health components with attitude toward health in primary-school-age children. Tis problem requires detailed study due to its theoretical signifcance and the obvious social challenges it presents.

Keywords

• health psychology
• attitude toward health
• children’s health
• family relationships
• childrearing