Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF ILLNESS AND THEIR ACCEPTANCE OF MEDICALLY ILL PEERS
Diss Abstr Int [B]; 52(1):513 1991. Unique Identifier : AIDSLINE ICDB/92677144 Cuddy ME; Univ. of Georgia
Abstract:
This study examined cognitive-developmental differences in children's understanding and acceptance of medically ill peers. Participants were 100 kindergarten and fifth grade students, who were interviewed regarding their understanding of cancer and AIDS and their willingness to interact with same-age, same-sex youngsters depicted in photographs as having these illnesses or as being healthy. Illness understanding data were scored using the cognitive-developmental categories of Bibace and Walsh, indicating that the kindergarten students exhibited understanding at the level of preoperational thought and the fifth graders, at the level of concrete operations. Grade was used as a marker of developmental level in subsequent analyses along with the between subjects factor of gender and repeated measures of peer's medical condition, observability of symptoms, and context of the anticipated peer interaction. Girls reported greater willingness to interact with medically ill peers than did boys. Healthy peers were preferred to those with cancer who were preferred to those with AIDS. Fifth graders reported greater acceptance of peers with observable illnesses than did kindergarten students. This developmental difference was apparent only for cancer, for the contexts of being in the same class, eating lunch together, and working together. Overall, more differences were obtained for peer nominations and the pattern suggested that while children report some willingness to accept medically ill peers they indicate reluctance to seek active interaction with an ill child. The results suggested that medically ill boys may be at risk for peer difficulties. Both fifth grade and kindergarten students seemed aware of the social stigma associated with AIDS. Further study is warranted to understand the development of this stigmatization and ways to increase acceptance of peers with AIDS. Because maturity of illness understanding was not consistently related to greater acceptance of medically ill peers, attempts to increase children's disease understanding may not always result in improving their attitudes toward medically ill peers. The failure to obtain developmental differences for the relatively intimate contexts of playing together and inviting home to spend the night raised the possibility that individual differences other than those investigated may account for children's attitudes about friendship with a medically ill peer. (Abstract shortened with permission of author. Full text available from University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, MI, as Order No. AAD91-07184).
Keywords: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome/*PSYCHOLOGY Age Factors *Child Development *Cognition Female Human *Interpersonal Relations Male Neoplasms/*PSYCHOLOGY Sex Factors THESIS
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1992. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
