”Barns forestillinger om helse og sunnhet: Har barnehagens helsefokus betydning?”.

The purpose of this study is to examine what four-year-old and five-year-old children think and feel about health and whether their perception is affected by either being in a kindergarten with a special focus on health or being in a kindergarten that does not focus on health.

The researchers found that children attending a kindergarten with special focus on health, and children attending a kindergarten without this focus only replied significantly differently to one question. The question concerned whether the children believe they would become more easily ill from playing indoors or outdoors. Children in kindergartens with special focus on health believed to a greater extent that children playing outdoors become more easily ill. The answers were checked for differences between gender and age groups, and there were no significant differences. Moreover, researchers found that children generally have extensive knowledge about health and that this knowledge mainly comes from their parents, and secondarily from books and television. The children list kindergarten as the place where they have received the least amount of knowledge about health.

The study is based on 88 group interviews with four-year-old and five-year-old children from seven kindergartens in Trondheim, of which four kindergartens had special focus on health. The children were interviewed in pairs using a picture book. Answers to questions about health and nutrition were recorded on a structured response form. The results were analysed statistically to see if there are differences in responses between children from the two types of kindergartens.

Lundheim, R. og Furuset, K. (2010). ”Barns forestillinger om helse og sunnhet: Har barnehagens helsefokus betydning?”. Norsk Pedagogisk Tidsskrift, 94(5), 384-395.