Abstract: The parents of 238 children in standard one (7 – 8 year olds) in two localities in New Zealand (one group chosen randomly, the other a census of a small community) were interviewed about health matters. Objectives of the study were:1. To describe parents understanding of the nature of health.2. Their understanding of threats to their health.3. To describe actions they take to promote their own and their children's health.Few respondents describe health as being just the absence of illness: the concept of energy is important in many descriptions of health. Threats to the health of children are seen as coming more from the environment as compared with adults, for whom more threats are seen as having a physiological origin. Only 13% of adults thought that they put a lot of effort into keeping healthy. The underlying rationale is the recognition of the importance of people's own actions in the attainment and maintenance of health