Leading Components of the Concept of Individual Health in the Context of Forming the Health-Preserving Competence of Girls and Boys

Abstract

Objective. The objective of the scientific work was to study the leading components of the individual concept of health in the context of the formation of the health-preserving competence of girls and boys and to determine the levels of its formation.Materials and research methods. Research was conducted on the basis of a number of secondary education institutions in Vinnytsia. The material for the analysis was the data of hygienic, medical and sociological (questionnaires and interviews), psychophysiological and psychodiagnostic surveys, which were conducted among adolescents aged 14-17 from 2003 to 2020. Statistic processing of the results was done by the means of Student's test for independent samples and Cochran's Q test and correlation analysis (Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients).Results. The individual concept of health is a complex cognitive-reflective and emotionalevaluative formation based on physiological and hygienic points of view, which characterizes the knowledge, attitude and behavior of a person in relation to his/her own health. The cognitive component is implemented through medical literacy, which can be measured in the forms of general, functional and subject medical literacy. The evaluative-motivational component is formed on the basis of a person's attitude to his/her own health as a ultimate value, his/her willingness to take responsibility for it, the projection of his/her own health development, self-assessment of his/her health. The behavioral component combines both health-preserving and risky forms of behavior that become the basis for a certain lifestyle. All components of the individual concept of health are realized as a health-preserving competence of the adolescent, which, according to the level of its formation, can also be formed at optomal, low or unsatisfactory levels.Conclusions. In the course of the conducted research, the leading components of the individual concept of health in the context of the formation of health-preserving competence of girls and boys were determined and analyzed in detail, and the main levels of its formation were determined.