In many families, especially those with primary school children, healthy habits such as a balanced diet and sufficient exercise often fall by the wayside. A lack of time and a stressful everyday life mean that quick, unbalanced meals are preferred and extensive physical activity is neglected. However, such a seemingly comfortable lifestyle negatively affects children's health and development.
The "Familie+" project of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health is dedicated to this social problem. Prof. Dr. Filip Mess and external PhD student Friederike Butscher want to promote a healthy lifestyle with more exercise and a balanced diet among families and primary school children. The joint project, in which the Universities of Constance and Leipzig, the Hamburg Medical School, and the Plattform Ernährung und Bewegung e.V. are also involved, was funded by the Federal Ministry of Health to the tune of around 900,000 euros.
"As part of the ‘Familie+’ joint project, we had the opportunity not only to integrate various scientific expertise but also to bring together stakeholders from science with experts from school and community practice", explains Prof. Mess, Head of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health.
The project was carried out across Germany in three model regions with a population of predominantly low socio-economic status. The third and fourth classes of a total of nine elementary schools and their families took part in the project. Specific measures were developed for both the school environment and the family environment, which were adapted to local conditions and implemented. "In the project, the classic areas of life were addressed as part of an intervention, with the topics of increasing exercise, i.e., physical activity, promoting a balanced diet, reducing sedentary behavior, i.e., behavior in a sitting or lying position, and reducing media consumption," explains Butscher.
The measures included different approaches. On the one hand, they involved imparting knowledge, e.g., through card games with explanations of which vegetables are pictured, but also through physical activity such as active breaks. In the model regions, there was also a communal component in which networks for children's health were strengthened, and network meetings were initiated and organized to bring the stakeholders together and promote communal structures.
Ultimately, parents and the immediate environment, such as teachers, significantly influence children's health-related behavior and play a key role in preventing obesity. To promote a healthy lifestyle among primary school children and their families, "you need motivated, open-minded people in the municipalities and also in the schools so that such projects have an effect that reaches the children," explains the former Research Associate.
A significant output of the study was that the local context and local conditions are crucial for the long-term success of school-based health promotion. The results and experiences of the project will be used to create an e-learning course aimed at teachers, local stakeholders, and anyone interested in promoting the healthy growth of children.
To the homepage of the Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
To the website of the "Familie+" project
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Filip Mess
Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
phone: 089 289 24520
e-mail: filip.mess(at)tum.de
Friederike Butscher
Associate Professorship of Didactics in Sport and Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
e-mail: friederike.butscher(at)tum.de
Text: Bastian Daneyko
Photos: Private