「幼稚園教育要領」，「保育所保育指針」，「幼保連携型認定こども園教育・ 保育要領」健康領域に関する幼児の健康生活調査尺度の作成

In order to create a scale for measuring child health in accordance with the content of the “Childcare guidelines”，“Course of study for Kindergarten”，“Course of study for Centers for early childhood education and care”, understanding the health status of children today and carrying out health education are important to help foster collaboration between the child’s educational environment, home, and local community. The objective of this study was to develop a scale for measuring child health and wellness, and to investigate differences in child health between genders (boy/girl) and between grades (lower, middle, and upper). A total of 234 children (108 boys, 126 girls) from seven nursery schools in Toyama Prefecture were used as targets for analysis. In terms of survey items for assessing child health, after conducting exploratory factor analysis, the following five factors and a total of 35 items were extracted: “lifestyle security,” “a healthy daily rhythm,” “interest in health,” “active play,” and “healthy eating.” Factors scores, after carrying out two-factor analysis of variance, were as follows: significant primary effects between grades were found for “lifestyle security” and “active play”, and in survey items, boys in lower grades scored higher than girls for the items “outdoor play” and “friendly play with peers.” Furthermore, boys scored higher than girls across all grades for “likes running”. From the above results, it is possible that gender differences may affect the ways in which children engage in and conceive of outdoor and active play. In light of this finding, we conclude that guidance that enables girls to spend more enjoyable time outside is necessary.