Page 179 - Petelin, Ana, ur. 2024. Zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih / Health of Working-Age and Older Adults. Zbornik povzetkov z recenzijo ▪︎ Book of Abstracts. Koper: Založba Univerze na Primorskem/University of Primorska Press

Mindfulness, psychological well-being and health-related behavioural
styles of preschool teachers

2
1
Rok Mrhar , Blaž Simčič , Petra Dolenc 2
1 Kindergarten Nova Gorica, Nova Gorica, Slovenia
2 University of Primorska, Faculty of Education, Koper, Slovenia
Introduction: Preschool teachers are exposed to a variety of stressful situations due to
high responsibilities and work demands. Many studies highlight the effects of mindful-
ness on coping with stress and burnout prevention as well as improving well-being.
However, there is a lack of studies investigating health behaviors of educators. The ob-
jective of the study was to examine the relationship between mindfulness, health-rela-
ted behaviors, and psychological well-being in preschool teachers.
Methods: One hundred and thirteen preschool teachers from kindergartens in the Go-
riška and Coastal Karst regions participated in the study. Mindfulness was measured
with the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), psychological well-being was
measured with the WHO-5 questionnaire, and health-related behaviors were measu-
red with a specifically designed questionnaire based on the CINDI surveys, which sys-
tematically monitor health-related behaviors in the Slovenian population.
Results: Participants mostly rate their health as good, but reported being absent from
work due to illness more often compared to the general working population. Accor-
ding to BMI data, approximately 30% of participants can be classified as overweight.
Concerning physical activity, 52% do not meet the recommendations for sufficient posterji | poster presentations
weekly exercise. The results on eating habits are quite satisfactory, although, for so-
me foods such as fruit, vegetables, and fish, almost half of the participants do not me-
et the current guidelines. The data on smoking are encouraging, with the vast majo-
rity (82%) of preschool teachers being non-smokers. Regarding sleeping habits, most
rate the quality of their sleep as medium (36%) or good (31%). Although the average
sleep duration is around seven hours, 31% of preschool teachers do not meet the re-
commendations for sufficient sleep. Correlation analyses show that mindfulness is po-
sitively associated with self-rated health (r = 0.50; p < 0.001) and perceived fitness (r
= 0.35; p < 0.001), no significant correlations were found with other health-related as-
pects. Moreover, higher levels of mindfulness are significantly associated with higher
psychological well-being (r = 0.53; p < 0.001), the latter is positively correlated with
self-rated health (r = 0.51; p < 0.001), and sleep quality (r = 0.39; p < 0.001).
Discussion and conclusions: The research findings can serve as a baseline for enhancing
healthy behaviors and thus improving well-being and satisfaction among employees in
education. In addition, the findings point to the potential benefits of practicing mind-
fulness as a psychological resource that can contribute to an individual's well-being and
quality of life. Further research on these topics seems particularly relevant for impro-
ving health for all those involved in children's education and development.
Keywords: mindfulness, psychological well-being, health-related behaviours, early chil-
dhood education

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