All articles

This research focuses on the problem of psychological health and its structural components. The aim of the research is theoretical analysis and empirical study of the relationship between features of older preschool children’s relationship to nature and their psychological health. It was assumed that there is an interdependence between the features of the perceptual-affective component of a child’s relationship to nature and his relationship with himself within the structure of psychological health. The article provides insight into modern research in the problem of psychological health and validates the model of psychological health as a system of personal relationships, which includes relationship to yourself, relationship to others, and relationship to the world, in particular the natural world. A distinctive feature of the model is the importance of emotional contact with nature and the subjective perception of it, along with dialogue and emotional interaction between people. The diagnostic program was designed on this basis. It offered the opportunity to explore features of children’s psychological health at the ages of 5-7, including their personal relationship to nature. The program includes diagnostic methods in the form of conversation, a verbal associative test, projective techniques and the author’s modified technique using a projective method with materialization as described in the children’s test “Diagnostics of emotional relationships in the family” (Bene, 1999). 156 children at the ages of 5-6 and 6-7 years have taken part in the empirical research. It was shown that the development of the perceptual-affective component of child’s relationship to nature is reliably linked with their emotional state, the features of self-awareness, and their social position in a group of peers.