Page 57 - Petelin, Ana. 2024. Ed. Zdravje delovno aktivnih in starejših odraslih | Health of the Working-Age and Older Adults. Zbornik prispevkov z recenzijo | Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press

https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-397-5.57-66

Some Aspects of the Lifestyle

of Future Educators

Jera Gregorc , Giuliana Jelovčan , Miran Muhič 3
1
2
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

Abstract

Introduction: The profession of preschool teacher is physically and
mentally demanding. 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, coordinate with other professionals and deal effectively with
stress. It is therefore important for preschool teachers to start early
to adopt a healthy lifestyle, which makes an important contribution
to maintaining good health. Factors that influence health often
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 analyses selected aspects
of the lifestyles of future Slovenian preschool teachers with the aim
of examining the current situation, addressing potential gaps and
identifying opportunities for appropriate support. Methods: 154 third-
year students of Preschool Education at the Universities of Koper,
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, avoidance
of certain habits, e.g. smoking, taking painkillers, etc., time, frequency
and intensity of physical activities, as well as their opinions on their
knowledge and actual implementation of some aspects of a healthy
lifestyle. 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