Learning About Germs in a Global Pandemic: Children’s Knowledge and Avoidance of Contagious Illness Before and After COVID-19

Abstract

The present research investigates how a global pandemic may be affecting children’s understanding of contagion. In Study 1, 130 parents (85.4% White, 6.9% Hispanic, 3.8% Asian, 3.8% Black) of children ages 3-9 described discussions surrounding contagion pre- and post-pandemic. Content of these discussions focused on risks and preventative behaviors rather than causal mechanisms of contagion. In Study 2, US children tested during the pandemic (ages 4-7, N=60, 51.7% males) were compared to a sample tested before the pandemic (ages 4-5, N=30, 50% males) on tasks of contagion-related declarative knowledge and causal reasoning. Greater declarative knowledge and causal reasoning in the pandemic sample suggests the effectiveness of informal learning experiences in young children.

Scientific and Folk Theories of Viral Transmission: A Comparison of COVID-19 and the Common Cold

“…Since March of 2020, there has been an outpouring of psychological research on COVID-19. Although much of this work is not directly relevant to causal theories (e.g., focusing instead on behavioral consequences of quarantining, remote schooling, and mask-wearing), studies that have examined beliefs about viral transmission suggest that adults in the U.S. hold a mixture of accurate and inaccurate beliefs, and that their beliefs relate to perceptions of risk, health-related decision-making, and interest in being vaccinated (see DeJesus et al, 2021 ; Leotti et al, 2021 , for research on children’s beliefs). For example, in a sample of U.S. residents tested in October/November of 2020, Murray et al (2021) assessed people’s knowledge about germs, asking them to judge as true or false a range of statements either consistent with scientific theory (e.g., “Being depressed can make a person sick”; “Germs enter the body through the eyes”) or inconsistent with scientific theory but consistent with naïve theory (e.g., “Water kills germs”; “Vitamins and minerals can cure viruses”).…”