Knowledge of illness during childhood: Making distinctions between cancer and colds

Abstract

Research on children's knowledge of illnesses has largely concentrated on studying how children reason about common innocuous diseases. It is also important to uncover how children reason about more severe diseases, such as cancer, to be able to treat and communicate with children diagnosed with this disease. Several aspects of prevalent childhood cancers may challenge the intuitive theories that children hold about illness and can make cancer a difficult illness for children to understand. In the present study we assess knowledge of six dimensions (prognosis, internal, course, contamination, contagion, cause) of cancer and colds as a comparison illness. Healthy 5-, 7- and 10-year-olds, and adults were administered a yes/no and forced-choice questionnaire created to tap into six dimensions of two illnesses. Results indicate that 5-year-olds reason about cancer and colds in similar ways, but 7- and 10-year-olds begin to make a distinction between cancer and colds on some of the illness dimensions. Children in the youngest two age groups were found to think that cancer is just as contagious as colds but by age 10 children begin to think of cancer as a less contagious illness. Adults clearly differentiate between the two illnesses on almost all the dimensions.

Health locus of control as a psychological factor in improving treatment results in adolescents with primary hypertension and diabetes

“…According to Piaget's concept, children aged 11-12 gradually internalise their disease, which begins to be perceived as an internal psychophysical process. With age not only does the child's level of health cognition become higher (Bares & Gelman, 2008), but also awareness of the disease process increases, together with the conviction that the process can be to a certain extent controlled and influenced by the appropriate behaviour (Altman & Revenson, 1985).…”

Hearing the Child's Voice: Their Lived Experience in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

“…Both children and adults may revert to immanent justice and folkloric explanations for causes of illness and death when faced with stressful and uncertain situations (Ramen & Winer, 2002). The specific meaning of an illness to a child may vary with the nature of the illness, the child's ability to understand it as a phenomenon, previous experience, the family situation, and the child's age (Bares & Gelman, 2008;Myant & Williams, 2005;Peltzer & Promtussananon, 2003;Piko & Bak, 2006;Williams & Binnie, 2002). The child's health status has an effect on their perception of illness creating some discrepancies in the perceptions of healthy, hospitalized, and chronically ill children (Koopman et al, 2004;McQuaid, Howard, Kopel, Rosenblum, & Bibace, 2002;Veldtman et al, 2001).…”

“…Bares and Gelman (2008) recruited 36 children from U.S. Midwestern preschools and after-school programs and measured their knowledge of six dimensions of cancer and colds (prognosis, internal, course, contamination, contagion, and cause) using their own 34-item questionnaire; Cronbach's alpha was .61.…”

“…The 10-year-olds identified an understanding of the severity of cancer, believed it was not transmitted through contagion, and did not apply contamination to cancer or colds. These developmental changes may be explained by increasing education from external sources as the child ages and greater cognitive processing skills (Bares & Gelman, 2008).…”

“…Developmental changes may be explained through external sources such as peers and social networks as well as school education. The researcher-developed questionnaire reflected Western thinking therefore may not be generalizable to other cultures (Bares & Gelman, 2008). Zhu, Liu, and Tardif (2009) …”