Psychosomatic symptoms in preschool children and how to treat them.

Abstract

BACKGROUND Recent years saw an increase in children with emotional problems, which negatively affects not only their mental but also physical health. The current study aims to determine the structure of psychosomatic symptoms in preschool children and develop an effective treatment method for preschool teachers to deploy. METHODS A total of 259 children aged 4 to 5 years from Moscow preschools were divided into two groups: children (n=92) exposed to a standard education program and children (n=167) enrolled in the proposed education program for psychosomatic enhancement. The experiment lasted 6 months. RESULTS Using the proposed education program led to substantial improvements in the following KiddyKINDL subscales from baseline: Physical Well-being (1.19-fold increase, p<0.05), Emotional Well-being (1.24-fold increase, p<0.05), Self-esteem (1.21-fold increase, p<0.05), Family (1.17-fold increase, p<0.05), and Kiddy Parents (1.2-fold increase, p<0.05). The control group demonstrated slight but not significant improvements (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS Therefore, the preschool teachers can use the proposed education program to enhance the psychosomatic health of preschool-aged children.