Health Education for Children and Adolescents

Abstract

Health education in one form or another has been a traditional part of public education at the primary and secondary school level. Common approaches have attempted to teach sound habits related to, for example, nutrition, safety, hygiene, physical activity, and more recently, smoking and the use of drugs. These approaches have been justified with reference to a generally accepted belief in the “desirability” of such teaching. More recently, additional emphasis has been directed at health education for children as the links between behavior and health have become more obvious and as the rapidly accelerating costs of treating rather than preventing sickness have been experienced. The objective of the paper is to examine the responses of the research community to the apparent need for more effective health education for children.