Children's Understanding of AIDS: A Developmental Viewpoint

Understanding AIDS: A Comparison of Children in the United States and Thailand*

“…Both studies are based on Piagetian premises underlying cognitive development in children and their interface with children's understanding of illness and mortality. The earlier study showed a correlation between U.S. children's stage of development and the accuracy of their responses to questions about AIDS (Schvaneveldt et al, 1990); the same trend was expected for Thai children. Because experience also influences children's attitudes and knowledge about illness, and because of the higher prevalence and heterosexual nature of AIDS in Thailand, we assumed that Thai children, compared with U.S. children, would more likely be related to or know someone infected with AIDS and would have more exposure to AIDS information.…”

“…Our study was carried out in the same manner as the prior U.S. study (Schvaneveldt et al, 1990). Permission was granted from the participating school and parents of the children to conduct interviews.…”

“…The purpose of this study was to replicate our earlier study (Schvaneveldt, Lindauer, & Young, 1990) that measured accurate AIDS knowledge of U.S. children with children in Thailand and to compare responses of the two groups. The goal of both studies was to focus on the neglected area of younger children with respect to AIDS.…”

Influence of Social Environment on Young Carers, Assistance and Consequences of Caregiving

“…Previous studies (Burbach and Peterson 1986;Gilbert 1969;Olvera-Ezzell et al 1994;Robson 2000;Schvaneveldt et al 1990) suggest that growing age and low family income make the children aware of the causes and consequences of illness. Children having education are more aware about health and illness.…”

How much do young children know about HIV/AIDS?

“…Berger (1991), for example, argues that younger school-age children compared to adolescents cannot make sense of abstract matters regarding disease and health. Schvaneveldt, Lindauer, and Young (1990) indicate that preschool children know very little of HIV/AIDS. The trend in the field of research into children's understanding of health has been based on two major fields of work.…”