Psychologie a její kontexty, Vol.9, No.1

Sociální chování a výkony předškolních dětí s nadváhou pohledem rodičů a učitelek MŠ

Social behaviour and cognitive performance of overweight preschool children as estimated by parents and nursery-school teachers

Hana Včelařová, Panajotis Cakirpaloglu

Nadváha a obezita u dětí jsou spojovány s psychosociálními obtížemi a se znaky psychosomatického onemocnění. V návaznosti na české i zahraniční studie jsme se zabývali tím, zda lze usuzovat na předpojatost vůči českým dětem předškolního věku s nadváhou z projevů sociálního chování a z odhadů výkonů dětí v kognitivních testech (rodiči, učitelkami MŠ). Dvěma souborům předškolních dětí (nadváha; normální tělesná hmotnost; N = 98; 4-6 let) byl předložen Test znalostí předškolních dětí a Urbanův test kreativního myšlení. Rozdíly mezi soubory dětí byly zjištěny v sociálních projevech, výkony dětí v kognitivních testech byly stejné. Z hlediska podmínek našeho výzkumu se předpoklad o významu tělesné hmotnosti pro odhady výkonů dětí ze strany dospělých nepotvrdil. Význam tělesné hmotnosti dětí pro odhad jejich výkonů dospělými se po vstupu např. sociálních proměnných, měnil. Zabývat se otázkami zdravého duševního vývoje dětí s nadváhou je i nadále vhodné, protože souvisejí s možností pozitivních změn v jejich životním stylu i v tělesné hmotnosti.

Klíčová slova:
děti předškolního věku, kognitivní schopnosti, kreativita, nadváha, sociální chování.

Objectives. Excess weight and obesity in children are associated with psychosocial complications and have the attributes of psychosomatic illness. The research followed on from Czech and foreign publications about families with overweight and obese children, about the peculiarities of cognitive and social development, and about the psychosocial circumstances that accompany this section of the populace. This paper maps out the existing state of knowledge in the above areas, too. The aim of the research was to verify findings of foreign studies relating to the experiences of overweight preschool children with prejudices about themselves by their peers also among the Czech population. Similar problem was also researched in terms of performance of these children in two cognitive tests and their estimates by adults. Methods. The study compared the results of the Pre-school Children Knowledge Test and of the Urban’s Figural Test of Creative Thinking in the group of children with overweight (N=52; BMI percentile ranged 92-95; converted to BMI values M = 18.18; SD = 0.36; age 4-6; M=4.62; SD=0.49), their estimates by parents and kindergarten teachers and in the control group of children with normal weight (N=46; BMI percentile ranged 11-72; converted to BMI values M = 15.38; SD = 0.52; age 4-6; M=4.53; SD=0.58). Observation of Social Expressions of both groups of children in a free play situation was performed, too. Results of cognitive tests, estimates and observations were evaluated in the mutual context. Processing the data. We carried out a descriptive analysis of all the variables. The standard significance level used in the statistical testing was ?=0.05. Multiple linear regression was performed in the form of a so-called generalized linear model (GLM) in order to underpin the influence of the quantitative variables of social behaviour and the categorical variables of the child’s weight on the difference between the real results of the cognitive tests and the results as estimated by the children’s mothers, fathers and teachers. From the original, complete set of regressors we gradually eliminated those which proved to be statistically insignificant. Results. In terms of the level of performance of both groups of children in both cognitive tests there were found no significant differences, while observed social expressions showed the one. Estimates of the performance of both groups of children in the two sets by adults were mostly tended towards overestimation. After customizing some of these results to social variables and in terms of estimates by adults the weight band lost in some cases its importance. Conclucions. The number of child respondents was affected by real number of overweight pre-school children in the Zlín region (see Discussion). The link between children’s weight and their performance as estimated by adults may be influenced by social and possibly by other types of variables. The difference in the social behaviour of the two sets of pre-school age children may be an indication of nascent differences in their psychosocial development. Several studies have confirmed that the relationships between problems with preschool peers have tendency to repeat in older peer groups and in some cases were confirmed relations with psychiatric disorders in adulthood, too.

Keywords:
children of preschool age, cognitive abilities, creativity, overweight, social behaviour