Health-Related Views and Self-Care Behaviors of Young Children

The purpose of this study was to determine the nature of health-related views and self-care behaviors in preschool children. Families (N = 75) with children between the ages of 4 to 6 years were interviewed in their homes. Children were able to provide spontaneous logical reasons for eating vegetables, exercising, and brushing teeth and to report behavior they initiated to keep healthy. Parents reported a variety of strategies to promote health and self-care behavior in their children. These findings indicate young children can verbalize their ideas about health and self-care.