Preschool Health Education Program (PHEP): an Analysis of Baseline Data

Abstract

As part of the initial stage of a project to develop and field test a health education curriculum for preschool children, baseline data were collected for use in evaluating the impact of the curriculum as well as to determine the relationship of parental health variables and the devel opment of children's health behavior. Mothers of 202 children, 2, 3 and 4 years of age were interviewed to determine if parental health variables were related to their children's reported practice of health and safety behaviors. The analysis showed no relationship between health related background variables, mothers' health behavior, health locus control, value placed on health and the children's practice of health and safety behavior. There was no evidence to support a parental modeling effect for children's health behavior for the subjects participating in this study. The mothers will be interviewed yearly for three more years to observe changes over time and to determine the impact of the health education intervention.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Chamberlin, W. , Nader, R. Relationship Between Nursing School Behavior Patterns and Later School Functioning. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 41:597-601, 1971.

Haikal, DJ Impact of a Health Education Project for Preschool Children. International Journal of Health Education 12:192-197, 1969.

Campbell, D. Illness is a Point of View: The Development of Children's Concepts of Illness . Child Development 46:92-100, 1975.

Campbell, D. The Child in the Sick Role: Contributions of Age, Sex, Parental Status, and Parental Values. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 19:35-51, 1978.

Bonham, GS, Wilson, RW Children's Health in Families with Cigarette Smokers. American Journal of Public Health 71:290-293, 1981

Byler, R. , Lewis G. , Totmak, R. Teach Us What We Want to Know. New York: Mental Health Materials Center, 1969

Marshall, CL Attitudes Toward Health Among Children of Different Races and Socioeconomic Status. Pediatrics 46:422-426, 1970.

Cosby, WH An integration of the Visual Media Via Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids into the Elementary School Curriculum as a Teaching Aid and Vehicle to Achieve Increasing Learning. University of Massachusetts, doctoral dissertation, 1976.

Lutwama, Jsw. A guide to Predicting the Health Interests of School Children. International Journal of Health Education 10:33-42, 1967.

10.

Perry. Beliefs on Health and Illness in Young Children. Unpublished manuscript, May 11, 1973.

11.

Gochman, DS. Some Correlates of Children's Health Beliefs and Potential Health Behavior. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 12.148-154, 1971.

12.

Gochman, DS , Bagramian, RA , Sheiham, A. Consistency in Children's Perceptions of Vulnerability to Health Problems. Health Services Reports 87:282-288, 1972.

13.

Gochman, DS. Perceived Vulnerability and Its psychosocial Context. Social Science and Medicine 11:115-120, 1977.

14.

Becker, MH , Green, LW A Family Approach to Compliance with Medical Treatment. A Selective Review of the Literature. International Journal of Health Education 18:173-182, 1975.

15.

Geertson, HR, Gray, RM. Familistic Orientation and Inclination Toward Adopting the Sick Role. Journal of Marriage and Family 31:638-646, 1970.

16.

Mechanic, D. The Influence of Mothers on Their Children's Health Attitudes and Behavior. Pediatrics 33:444-453, 1964.

17.

Pratt, L.

Child Rearing Methods and Children's Health Behavior

Journal of Health and Social Behavior 14:61-69, 1973.

18.

Parcel, GS , Baranowski, T. Social Learning Theory and Health Education. Health Education , 12:14-18, 1981.

19.

Rokeach, M. , The Nature of Human Values. New York, Free Press, 1973.

20.

Wallston, K.A. , Development of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control (MHLC) Scales. Health Education Monographs. 6:160-170, 1978.