Introduction: Children’s lifestyle changes as they begin school. Sedentary activities associated with hypokinesia suddenly increase. Combined with the sensitive period of intensive psychophysical development this often affects the child’s posture. Persistent inappropriate postural patterns and poor posture influence body statics, and cause increased effort in posture maintenance, thus eventually leading toward the development of structural disorders. In the long term, when not addressed appropriately, this may cause pain, reduce the quality of life, and affect self-esteem due to aesthetic issues. The purpose of preventive exercise programmes aiming to prevent inadequate body mechanics and poor posture is to reduce or prevent the development of structural disorders, pathologies and pain in the highrisk population, i.e. primary school pupils. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to analyse the effects of preventive programmes aiming to improve posture in primary school children. Methods: The descriptive approach was used. PubMed, Cochrane library and PEDro were searched for appropriate studies published in the English language. Articles were selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: Seven studies met the selection criteria. Long-term effectiveness has been proved only with regard to improving the knowledge whereas short-term effects (up to 1 year) have been established with regard to the everyday use of relevant postural principles and their practical application. In a study that focused on improving self-efficacy, kinesiophobia also increased. If such a targeted approach is not applied, self-efficacy and kinesiophobia do not change. Preventive programmes had no significant effect on pain prevalence. Discussion and conclusion: It has been noticed that after 2010 the number of quality studies, which would prove the effectiveness of the promotion of healthy posture in primary school pupils, has decreased. Intervention programmes are mostly designed based on identical and interrelated previous studies, but they still differ from one another. Above all, the differences can be seen in the quality of the assessment methods used, which are mainly subjective and significantly limit the comparability and generalization of the findings. The most appropriate approach to the promotion of healthy posture seems to be the one based on socio-cognitive theory, as the effect is generalized to all the areas being assessed: theoretical and practical knowledge, everyday use, and self-efficacy. It would be appropriate to further investigate such a programme in different environments, by including both genders and, above all, by using standardized and objective assessment tools.
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