Parents’ Responsibilities When Forming Healthy Habits In Children Under 3 Years Of Age

Abstract

Health education is a purposeful process of influence through which knowledge, skills and habits related to health are obtained and formed. Through it, healthy behaviour is established to prevent disease, retore, protect and enhance the health of both individuals and society as a whole.

The aim of this report is to investigate and analyse parents’ responsibility in the formation of healthy habits in children under 3 years of age.

Materials and methods: A direct anonymous survey was conducted among parents of children of up to 3 years of age, regarding their participation in building healthy habits in their children. The survey included parents of 774 children from Varna and was conducted during July 2020. The data were processed statistically. A documentary method was used.

Results and discussion: The specificity of health education with young children is that it starts on the first day of their life and the first educators are their parents. The first three years are particularly important for a child when developing a positive attitude towards healthy habits and their mastery. According to 69.8% of the surveyed parents, both parents are involved in building those healthy habits, while 25.2% answer that the main responsibility of upbringing the child falls with the mother. A significant proportion of parents share that they daily spend time building healthy habits during other daily activities (94.2%). Just over half of respondents (55.4%) claim that sometimes they encounter difficulties when forming healthy habits, with the relative share of those experiencing difficulties when forming such habits decreasing with each subsequent child born.

Conclusion: The science Psychology has proven that in adult life, a person repeats the patterns of behaviour they learned during childhood. In this connection is the huge role of the family, as a role model.