The role of families in promoting health behaviours in their preschool aged children

This thesis explores parental health behaviours in order to develop a questionnaire which will measure the health behaviours of parents. It does so in a triangulated study by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. The aims of the qualitative study were to explore parents’ concepts of health and the health behaviours they initiate for their preschool aged children and examine the relationship between parents’ health concepts and the health behaviours they undertake for their children. The aims of the quantitative study were that the health concepts of wellness, health promotion and illness prevention, identified by these parents, were measured. In line with the major research aims of the second quantitative study the emerging theory from the inductive exploration of parents’ health and their health behaviour and the health literature formed the basis for the construction of a questionnaire which contained health domains of wellness, health promotion and illness prevention and their cluster