The contemporary family plays an important role in the shaping of attitudes conducive to good health among its members - particularly children and adolescents. The World Health Organization has even proposed a slogan: ‘Health begins at home’, which underlines the role of the family in shaping and protecting the health of its members. Family is the first natural environment for each individual, which exerts a tremendous influence on health. Parents care for children, perform nursing functions, protect against danger and indicate the ways of behaviour which serve to ensure the proper development of a child. Through these activities and by providing an example for their children parents transmit behavioural templates, which are health promoting or, on the contrary, exert a negative effect on health. Parents bear the responsibility for their children’s health, and during the process of rearing them should shape adequate health attitudes. The tasks associated with health education should constitute an integral part of conscious educational activities. According to the World Health Organization Declaration adopted by Poland in 1998 health is ‘one of the basic rights of an individual’. Parents aware of their role use various sources of information, different means and methods to help to shape health promoting attitude of their child. This type of health education, where a child is the subject of parents’ activities, is defined by the term ‘health heteroeducation’, which starts at the birth of a child and lasts until the period of puberty. Only then a young person starts to decide independently about own health. This stage of health education is called ‘health auto-education’ and practically lasts a lifetime. When a couple decide to have an offspring, they begin to realize the subsequent stage of health education - ‘reverse heteroeducation’. By caring, nursing and educating their child they implant adequate or inadequate behavioural templates. A family, which is a group of reference for a child, may be the basic source of social support, protect against hazardous external influences, and shape the conditions conducive to the health of its members. A child adopts own standards, behaviours, traditions (also those associated with health), and life style. Interactions within a family group are very intensive and long-term, and therefore exert a tremendous effect on the quality of life