Municipal Intentions to Promote Preschool Children’s Capabilities and Health: A Descriptive Study of 25 Swedish Municipalities

Abstract

Preschools are environments where children are given opportunities to develop emotional, social and intellectual capabilities, characteristics that by recent research have been revealed as health protecting. The objectives of this study were to examine the intentions of 25 Swedish municipalities to develop such capabilities through activities in preschool and to relate these intentions to municipal socio-economic conditions. Indicators on municipal intentions to promote preschool children's emotional, social and intellectual capabilities were rather frequently utilised by the 25 municipalities in this study. However, promotion of physical activity, parent support, and children's influence in preschool were not prioritised. The extent of intended preschool activities was not determined by municipal wealth, which might be due to a national system for equalizing municipal resources.

Municipal policies and plans of action aiming to promote physical activity and healthy eating habits among schoolchildren in Stockholm, Sweden: a cross-sectional study

“…Regarding the influence of municipal demographic and socio-economic characteristics, similar results have been reported from previous studies. Guldbrandsson and Bremberg showed that growing municipalities reported fewer safety-promoting measures [ 46 ] and fewer measures aiming to promote mental health among preschool children [ 47 ] than municipalities with a stable population size. On the other hand, in these studies the proportion of the adult population with more than 12 years of education was not associated with the amount of health-promoting actions, i.e ., the intentions to promote young people's health appeared to be similar in municipalities with higher and lower percentage of well-educated people.…”

The significance of policy documents in municipal child health promotion

“…Three municipalities in Stockholm County in Sweden were invited to take part in the study. With the purpose of including municipalities with different emphases on child health promotion, the selection of municipalities was based on municipal child health promotion activity levels revealed in previous studies [14][15][16][17]. The three municipalities all agreed to participate in the study.…”

“…The present study is the third phase of a research project. In the first phase, health-promoting activities directed toward children and adolescents in 25 Swedish municipalities were surveyed (described elsewhere) [14][15][16][17]. In the second phase, the development of child health-promoting activities in three Swedish municipalities was examined (described elsewhere) [13].…”