Cross-cultural differences in children's concepts of health and illness

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In spite of general agreement that cross-cultural research is needed in the health area, most existing investigations of children's development of health and illness-related concepts have involved samples from developed countries. The study examined the development of the concepts of health and illness as a function of subject's age, socio-economic status (SES), gender and grade level in a Brazilian sample of 96 elementary and junior high school students. METHODS: Subjects were interviewed individually and their ideas of health and illness were assessed through open-ended questions. Participants' answers were transcribed verbatim and subjected to content analysis. RESULTS: Chi-square analyses revealed significant age, school grade and SES-related differences in participants' concepts of health and illness. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The themes employed by subjects to define both health and illness were broadly consistent with those found by previous research. The study showed a predictable relationship between subject's age and school grade level and increasingly more highly differentiated and multidimensional concepts of health and illness. This investigation suggests that, for the most part, cross-cultural similarities in children's concepts of health and illness may be more striking than the differences.

Tabagismo em amostra de adolescentes escolares de Salvador-Bahia

“…Este comportamento pode ser confirmado por outros estudos realizados nos Estados Unidos, (36) Europa (13) e América Latina, (29,37) havendo aumento da prevalência conforme a idade, porém com variação da diferença entre os sexos. Surpreende que à medida que o adolescente cresce, e tem mais noções de comportamento de risco e de prevenção, (38) além de ter consciência dos males do tabaco, (36) passa a fumar com maior freqüência. Isso pode ser explicado pelo fato de que o início e a manutenção do hábito de fumar são multifatoriais, e têm influência da própria característica da idade e sua vulnerabilidade, dos seus pares, dos pais e da conduta deles, e da alta prevalência do tabagismo no meio.…”

The Importance of the Instructions in the Use of Draw-and-Write Techniques for Understanding Children’s Health and Illness Concepts

“…The decision to select children within a small age range derived from the need to have a homogeneous sample, since the literature usually identifies age differences in children's concepts of health and illness (Myant & Williams, 2005), in part related to cognitive development, and in part related to the experiences and information provided by the school curricula at different grade levels (Boruchovitch & Mednick, 1997). Children were recruited from three different schools in the District of Porto, with a roughly equal number of students from each school.…”

The meaning of health and illness: some considerations for health psychology

“…Some studies have attempted to describe how children, adolescents and adults define the meaning of illness. Studies with children and adolescents were predominantly targeted at identifying qualitative differences in illness concepts as a function of age and of other predictor variables (Apple, 1960;Campbell, 1975;Natapoff, 1978;Millstein, Adler & Irwin, 1981;Redpath and Rogers;1984;Millstein & Irwin, 1987;Boruchovitch, Felix-Sousa, & Schall, 1991;Boruchovitch, 1993;Boruchovitch & Mednick, 1997).…”

“…Moreover, it appears that with age, subjects conceive of health and of illness as distinct and multidimensional constructs (Millstein & Irwin, 1987;Boruchovitch, 1993;Boruchovitch & Mednick, 1997). No gender, no SES or ethnicity orientations emerged.…”

“…In fact, health promotion efforts should not only take into account health and illness dimensions of children, adolescents and adults possess, but also should go beyond these dimensions in order to help individuals develop a more complete view of health, enhancing self-actualization, self-fulfilment and quality of life (Boruchovitch & Mednick, 1997). No doubts exit that such a concept can only be achieved by improving the level of development of society as a whole (RamosCerqueira, 1994).…”