Based on a questionnaire survey carried out in July 1996, this study aims to evaluate the effects of barefoot education of schoolchildren in elementary schools, with respect to behaviourmodification concerning safety and healthy lifestyle. The subjects were 571 schoolchildren, 420from a school which conducted barefoot education for seven months from April to October and151 from a school which did not. The 420 children in the former were divided into one group(N=289, 76.1%) who were always barefooted and another (N=91, 23.9%) who were not. The major findings were as follows. 1. The comparison between the two schoolchildren groups revealed that the barefoot educationgroup developed more safety and health behaviour such as avoidance against hazardous objects on the schoolyard and in the classroom, hand-washing, and cleaning of gymnastic wear. 2. Within the schoolchildren in the barefoot education school, the?galways berefooted" grouppaid more attention to hazardous objects and did hand-washing more frequently, though significantly different items between the two groups were fewer than those in the between-schoolcomparison. This study suggests advantageous effects of barefoot education on development of safety and healty behaviour in schoolchildren.
