Page 51 - 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

Some aspects of the lifestyle of future educators

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Jera Gregorc , Giuliana Jelovčan , Miran Muhič 3
1 University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Education, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2 University of Primorska, Faculty of Education, Koper, Slovenia
3 University of Maribor, Faculty of Education, Maribor, Slovenia
Introduction: The profession of preschool teacher is physically and mentally demand-
ing. Physically, because they usually spend most of the day with more than 20 children
in a small and relatively noisy room, where they often have to lift the children, bend
down to them, hold them in suboptimal postures, etc., and mentally, because they
have to perform pedagogical and administrative work, communicate with parents, co-
ordinate with other professionals and deal effectively with stress. It is therefore im-
portant for preschool teachers to start early to adopt a healthy lifestyle, which makes
an important contribution to maintaining good health. Factors that influence health of-
ten include diet, physical activity, sleep, weight stability, coping strategies, etc. Lifestyle
shaping begins in childhood, but is also important in adolescence and the transition to
adulthood, when future preschool teachers are at faculty. This paper therefore anal-
yses selected aspects of the lifestyles of future Slovenian preschool teachers with the
aim of examining the current situation, addressing potential gaps and identifying op-
portunities for appropriate support.
Methods: 154 third-year students of Preschool Education at the Universities of Kop-
er, Maribor and Ljubljana were included in the sample, 81 full-time and 73 part-time.
A questionnaire (adapted from Maučec, 2017; Health of Slovenian Students, 2012)
containing 39 questions on selected lifestyle indicators was used to collect data on
students’ daily migration patterns, weight maintenance, eating habits, sleep duration,
some habits, time, frequency and intensity of physical activities, as well as their opin-
ions on their knowledge and actual implementation of some aspects of a healthy life-
style.
Results: We found that 24% of students live within 2 km of the faculty and 10.4% live
between 2 and 5 km. Others live further away. All those who live further than 2 km
away travel to the faculty by bus or car. 75.3 % of students spend more than 4 hours a
day on the road. 35.7 % of students are on the road for up to 1 hour, 31.2 % are on the
road for 2 hours, 33.1 % are on the road for more than 3 hours, 75 % of all students izzivi na področju ergonomije, gibalne (ne)aktivnosti ... | challenges in human factors, physical (in)activity ...
are passive in traffic. 15.6% of students sleep less than 6 hours, 24% have poor or very
poor knowledge of how to deal with stress, 33.1% of students are not physically ac-
tive enough to stay healthy. 15.6% of students sleep less than 6 hours, 24% have poor
or very poor knowledge of how to manage stress, 33.1% of students are not physically
active enough to stay healthy. The average body weight increases by almost 2 kg over
three years. The difference between knowledge of healthy lifestyle indicators and the
actual situation shows a non-significant negative discrepancy.
Discussion and conclusions: We believe that the current situation reflects a lack of
awareness among students of the importance of healthy lifestyles, particularly in rela-
tion to the indicators of stress management, appropriate physical activity and choos-
ing more active modes of transportation. The discrepancy between knowledge and
implementation shows that it is necessary to identify the causes of this discrepancy,
develop strategies to increase motivation, include healthy lifestyle content in courses,
adapt the schedules of electives at faculties to favourable dates, introduce physical ac-
tivity breaks and health protocols.
Keywords: preschool teachers, promotion methods, lifestyle indicators

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