PhD, Associate Professor S.I. Zheleznyakova¹
Dr.Sc.Phil., Professor A.I. Panyukov¹
PhD, Professor T.Sh. Mamedova¹
Lecturer I.V. Tarasova^1
1Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Moscow

Keywords: values, culture, physical education, youth, health protection, health culture, healthy lifestyle.

Introduction. Advanced health culture is deemed the core aspect of quality of human life. Man’s state of health and physical fitness level are the indicators of his competitiveness that are associated with the social opportunities of the individual in general. Over a long study period, health, from a value standpoint, has been ranked first in the hierarchy of the leading values for an individual, along with the family and material welfare values [3, p. 22; 8, p. 214]. Therefore, it is relevant and highly demanded by humanities to explore the real place and role of this value in the young people’s consciousness. Among the current trends in public consciousness is increased attention to the physical aspect of a harmoniously developed personality, namely, good physical shape, visual appeal, long-lived immunity. In the collective consciousness there exists an integrative model of a successful personality, good health indicators being among the most important characteristics. All this can be described as a growing phenomenon of "healthy lifestyle trend" [5, p. 137], which is proved by the involvement of society in the discussions on the very concept of "health", on its norms and criteria. As such, health as a phenomenon is considered in all its aspects - as social health of both society and individual.

Objective of the article was to study the attitude of young people to health culture values.

Methods and structure of the study. Health culture is studied as inseparable from the cognitive, behavioural and creative components [1, p. 445]. While studying this phenomenon, it is necessary to analyze both the respondents’ views, opinions and assessments of the role and significance of the physical culture values in the life of modern young people, and motives, affirmation and readiness, as well as actual behavioural performance, practical actions of the individual to keep fit.

Health culture consists of a number of aspects, where the key ones are: physical culture understood as regular exercises and overall physical activity; cultivation of healthy, rational nutrition; cultivation of inadmissibility of bad habits; medical culture understood as the healthcare system potential reasonably used by an individual.

In 2013, a questionnaire survey of young people was conducted in Nizhny Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region, facilitated by the Committee for Matters Concerning Young Persons [4, p. 110].

The respondents’ characteristics: the quoted representative sample size - 406 respondents aged 14 to 29 years. The controlled parameters included gender, age, speciality, and place of residence. The sampling error rate did not exceed 5%. We studied cognitive, motivational and behavioural aspects of health culture, which were expressed verbally - in assessments, opinions, judgments.

Results and discussion. Based on the results of the study, a number of conclusions can be formulated regarding the healthy lifestyle affirmations and values ​existing within the consciousness of modern young people. Firstly, in the collective youth consciousness, health as a value is obviously prioritized. Among the most relevant personal issues that need to be solved as soon as possible, the parameter "to ensure a good state of health" is ranked among the top three (30% of the respondents chose this response option) along with issues of material security (35%) and housing provision (24%). Health is also among the most significant life values ​​in general (66%), being second only to family values ​​(71%). (Here and further, the number of responses amounts to more than 100%, since it was allowed to choose several response options). Secondly, the respondents demonstrate a sufficiently high level of awareness of the importance and ways to develop health culture. There is a well-expressed information request of the youth on the following key health issues: how to stop getting sick (34%); how to cope with stresses (25%); how to overcome bad habits (24%); how to adhere to nutrition principles (23%); how to live a full life when you have a chronic disease (10%); how to make it a routine to do sports (6%). Thirdly, the research revealed the reasons for insufficient attention to own health. They are as follows: time shortage and inability to find time to look after own health (19%); insufficient sources of information on healthcare and medical services (19%); pressure for money for medical services, drugs (16%). Fourth, we discovered the means of implementation of the affirmation and readiness to develop own health culture used in practice. These are various types of physical activity: skating and skiing (39%), walking (32%), gym or fitness center workouts (30%), practicing a certain sport and pool sessions (25% each), morning exercises (25%), hiking (17%) and cycling (14%). The following dependence is observed: the more materially secure the respondent, the more actively he trains in a gym or a fitness center, the lower his incomes, the more often he uses such means as walking and exercises at home. However, regardless of the form of motor activity, the main thing is the existence of a well-formed need for its implementation.

The data analysis and processing suggest for the conclusion that it is the framework of health saving behaviour that matters for young people, that is, those life principles that make it possible to use and preserve health resources. These include nutrition education, ability to cope with stresses, understanding of the need to break bad habits [9]. These directions are especially relevant in light of the fact that the majority of young people live in a state of chronic stress, which, in turn, leads to lowering the age of onset of a number of diseases considered to be age-related (cardiovascular diseases, disease of the digestive system, nervous and mental diseases). It is important that a fifth of the respondents demonstrated their desire to break their bad habits.

According to the survey, 15% of the respondents did a certain sport in a sports section; 6% attended a sports club; 4% were engaged in children's and youth sports school. In general, the number of individuals training purposefully and those unrelated to physical culture and sports (that is, two polar groups) was approximately the same: 20-25% of the total number of respondents, a half in total; the second half can be conditionally designated as doing sports from time to time. The main reason why young people are not engaged in sports is, most likely, the lack of motivation than the material cause: they have no time (34%); no interest; no money to pay for classes (16% each); no suitable company for sports activities (12%); no gym, swimming pool, section nearby (6%).

Therefore, the healthy lifestyle values are universally significant, recognized and shared on the cognitive level by modern young people. However, speaking of the motivational component of the health culture, the following contradiction is to be emphasized: the knowledge that is needed to keep healthy is hardly put in the everyday life of most people, including young people.

Most often there are two types of attitudes. It is either the focus on professional sports, which implies engagement into sports sections from the age of 3, restrictions in the name of sporting achievements from early childhood, or attending school physical education classes, which should not only aim to hit the qualifying standards, but to teach individual methods of maintaining adequate physical shape. Since studies are the major activity of youngsters, it is primarily an educational institution that takes efforts to develop their physical culture somehow. Therefore, it is crucially important to update and approximate the goals of educational activity in the field of physical education to the needs of the individual and to the public request, so that physical education at school, college, university could become a tool for learning and managing their physical resources.

Conclusions. There is a need for a holistic pedagogical system of formation of a healthy generation, where a youngster would turn into a subject from an object of the impact, develop conscious motivation for health preservation and promotion. It is obvious that the health protection values and affirmations, important at any age, are most effectively formed in youth, since in fact it determines the entire life of a person, its quality and duration.

References

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Corresponding author: andryushenko-lil@mail.ru

Abstract

Objective of the article was to analyse the place and role of health values in the young people’s consciousness and cultural demands. It outlines the key problems and contradictions of the modern development stage in the personal health culture related demands and expectations. Subject to the study were 14-29 year old residents of a typical industrial city. The quoted representative sample of respondents for the survey included a few controlled parameters such as gender, age and speciality, with the error rate of 5%.  The study demonstrated the key contradiction between the proclaimed readiness for the healthy behavioural models on the one hand and actual underestimate of the necessary individual health protection and improvement activities as required by the individual fitness standards on the other hand. The study makes a special emphasis on the objective key problems and barriers on the individual physical self-improvement path, including the accessibility of physical training and sport assets and financial affordability of the training services. It also considers the subjective factors facilitating or hampering the progress of health cultural values in the young people’s communities – including individual interpretations of the well-developed personal physical culture; individual health elements; and motivations for healthy lifestyle. The article gives an account of the young-people’s perceptions of an ideal healthy lifestyle; justifies the physical well-being and personality development criteria being applied to rate the individual success; and outlines the progress avenues for the social institutions to encourage healthy lifestyles in the young population.