Parents' Contributions to Children's Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding AIDS: Another Look

Abstract

Attempted to determine, using a sample of students in Grades 3, 5, and 7, whether parent-child communication about AIDS and parent knowledge of AIDS predict children's knowledge, social attitudes, and worry regarding AIDS, partially replicating tests by Sigelman, Derenowski, Mullaney, and Siders (1993) of main effects, interaction, and potentiation models of parent-child socialization. Most parents had talked to their children about AIDS but many were susceptible to myths about HIV transmission. Child age was the strongest predictor of accurate knowledge and positive attitudes, but gender, ethnicity, and parent education also made modest contributions. Consistent with the potentiation model, parent knowledge of common transmission myths predicted child knowledge of those same myths (and willingness to interact with individuals who have AIDS as well) only when parent-child communication about AIDS was relatively extensively (and only when child rather than parent reported it). Findings suggest that both the quantity and quality of parental messages must be considered by socialization researchers but that parents may not be the primary socializers of knowledge and attitudes regarding AIDS and other health issues.

Parent-adolescent communication about sex and birth control: A conceptual framework

“…For example, Whitaker and Miller (2000) found that peer norms were associated more strongly with behavior for those adolescents who had not discussed sex or condoms with a parent than for those who had engaged in such discussions. Studies also have observed relationships between parent-adolescent communication and other important outcome variables that have been linked to sexual activity, such as communication with sex partners (Shoop and Davidson, 1994;Hutchinson and Cooney, 1998;Whitaker, Miller, May, and Levin, 1999), knowledge and attitudes about HIV (Seligman, Mukai, Woods, and Alfeld, 1995), and abstinence values and intentions (Miller, Norton, Fan, and Christopherson, 1998).…”

Parents' Heterosexism and Children's Attitudes Toward People With Aids

“…In 1993 and, again in 1995, Sigelman and her colleagues reported a significant parental influence only when parents and children talked regularly about AIDS. The importance of quantity and quality of family communication was stressed in this research (Sigelman et al 1995). Both parents and children must internalize the conversation for the transfer of information to be effective (Sigelman et al 1995).…”

“…The types of information that are transmitted to the children vary by the age of the child (Sigelman et al 1995). Parents are likely to share rote information with their younger children while providing older children with more insight to attitudes and feelings toward PWA (Sigelman et al 1995).…”

“…The children were asked for sources of HIV/AIDS information. Any child that lists a parent as a source of HIV/AIDS information can be considered as remembering the parent's discussions with the child about HIV/AIDS (Sigelman et al 1993(Sigelman et al , 1995. In sum, communication in the family, as an informal form of socialization, is important for children's development of attitudes.…”

The Impact of Experience on Children’s Understanding of ADHD

“…Developmental psychologists acknowledge that children's understanding of illness emerges from an interaction among experiences with a particular condition, the development of general reasoning abilities, and external influences (e.g., school, parental beliefs). [33][34][35] Limited research in this area provides conflicting results about the relationship between experience with a condition and children's illness understanding. 36 -42 The present study contributes to the ongoing debate about the relationship between experience with a condition and children's understanding of illness in 2 ways.…”