Exploratory factor analysis: health perceptions of Chinese early childhood educators in Hong Kong

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore health perceptions of preschool teachers, with a view to inform early childhood practices and teacher education. Pre-service student-teachers and in-service teachers (n = 200) who were voluntarily recruited completed a 24-item health attitude questionnaire. Factor analysis identified four dimensions of health attitudes, reflecting physical, psychosocial, mental and emotional domains. Inter-correlations among the factors suggested that early childhood educators in Hong Kong embrace a holistic view of health, although they consider physical and emotional health as more salient than the psychosocial and mental health dimensions. In comparisons of the perceptions of in-service teachers and student-teachers, students placed less emphasis on psychosocial health, but teachers placed more emphasis on physical health. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for designing health education programmes for preschool teacher education.