Assessing Children's Conceptions of AIDS

Abstract

Assessed intuitive theories of AIDS transmission through clinical method interviews in a cross-sectional design for a sample of 205 1st; 195 3rd; and 208 5th-grade students, balanced by sex and race (black/white). Analyses of relationships between the types of theories children held and their responses to closed-end questions about transmission and willingness to interact with a person with AIDS supported the validity of the interview method. Grade differences were noted for knowledge of high-risk routes, rejection of misconceptions, and cohesiveness and complexity of children's theories. Theories also differed by race and verbal abilities. Implications for most appropriate ways to assess children's understanding of illnesses and directions for future research are discussed.

High School Intervention for Influenza Biology and Epidemics/Pandemics: Impact on Conceptual Understanding among Adolescents

“…Currently, articles published in the field of conceptions related to the understanding of a specific virus have focused on HIV/ AIDS (Walsh and Bibace, 1991;Robertson and McQueen, 1993;C. Sigelman et al, 1993a;Sigelman et al, 1993b;Sigelman et al, 1993c;Sigelman et al, 1995;Kistner et al, 1996;Quadagno et al, 1997;Sigelman et al, 1997;Peltzer et al, 1998;Peltzer, 2000Peltzer, , 2001Peltzer and Promtussananon, 2003;Stansbury and Sierra, 2004;Phaswana-Mafuya and Peltzer, 2005;Peltzer et al, 2006;Keselman et al, 2007). Additionally, analysis of the questionnaire results revealed that adolescents have no idea about the structure of influenza and the way that it recognizes a specific cell type (in this case, epithelial cells) to infect them (Figure 3).…”

Children with Diabetes: Perceptions of Supports for Self‐Management at School

“…17,2n. 21 Findings suggested some individual differences in the types of support children needed. For example, some needed help buying lunch in the cafeteria, whereas others needed encouragement from friends to follow their medical regimens at school.…”