Children’s perceptions of illness and health: An analysis of drawings

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore possible age differences in children’s perceptions of illness and health and to what extent these differ from adults’ perceptions. Design: Cross-sectional design. Setting: Selected nursery and primary schools in Greece. Method: The sample consisted of 347 children aged 5–11 years and 114 adults – as a comparison group. Each participant was asked to create two drawings, depicting illness and health respectively, and to give an explanatory title for each. Drawings were categorised into three main categories, depending on the aspect of illness or health depicted, namely biomedical, psychosocial and lifestyle. Results: Older children produced more multifaceted depictions of illness and health than their younger counterparts, while the youngest group had difficulty to represent the two concepts clearly. A comparison of children’s perception of illness and health revealed that the first is perceived mainly as a biomedical phenomenon, while the latter as a psychosocial one. Finally, a comparison of adults’ and children’s representations showed that children understand illness mainly through its biomedical dimensions, unlike adults who seem to prefer to stress psychosocial ones. Conclusions: Knowledge of children’s subjective perceptions of illness and health may be useful in designing health prevention programmes and for medical professionals working with children experiencing chronic illness.

The Influence of Selected Variables on Lower Secondary School Students’ Concepts About Diseases

“…The youngest respondents had the highest amount of wrong ideas about diseases and the oldest ones had fewer numbers of wrong ideas. Similar results could be found in the study of Mouratidi, Bonoti, and Leondari (2015) and also Myant, and Williams (2005). Pidgeon (1985) also stated that children's knowledge of specific illnesses increases significantly during the school-age years.…”

“…In addition to the environment, children also mentioned the following causes of illness: lack of hygiene, sneezing of strangers, eating at McDonald's, overly sweet and savory meals. Mouratidi, Bonoti, and Leondari (2015) found that older pupils have better concepts about illness and health than younger pupils, while the youngest pupils had difficulties with representing the two concepts clearly. Piko and Bak (2006) demonstrated statistically insignificant difference between boys and girls regarding concepts of illness and that children's past experiences (e.g.…”

A Study on the Spontaneous Representation of Animals in Young Children’s Drawings of Plant Life

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“…Thus, in a study that involves 35 preschool children's drawings, Lauren Madden and Jennifer Liang [25] provide evidence that the children express interactions between plants and animals in their depictions of nature. Furthermore, this study leads to the conclusion that these illustrations become more frequent after the children are involved in specific educational interventions to promote a better understanding of the role that trees have as creatures' habitats.…”

Pediatric Pain Assessment and Tools: The Influence of Culture and Age on Pain Assessment

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