What Do Minority Elementary Students Understand about the Causes of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Colds, and Obesity?

Johnson, S. R.; Schonfeld, David J.; Siegel, David; Krasnovsky, Flora; Boyce, Jill Chamberlain; Saliba, Patricia; Boyce, W. Thomas; Perrin, Ethel

doi:10.1097/00004703-199408000-00004

Cited by 10 publications

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“…Despite this, it appears that the only aspects of children's views of obesity that have been investigated are perceived causes In a rare study examining childhood conceptions of the cause of obesity, Johnson et al (1994) found that elementary school-aged children (in grades 1, 3 and 5) lacked much factual knowledge and held many misconceptions. For example, although children could identify "junk" foods as a cause, their definition of junk food included items like bread, pasta, potatoes, bananas and chicken.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's perceptions of obesity as explained by the common sense model of illness representation

Babooram

Mullan

Sharpe

2011

British Food Journal

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Purpose -The aim of this paper is to qualitatively examine the ways in which primary school children, aged between 7 and 12, perceive various facets of obesity as defined by the common sense model of illness representation (CCM). Design/methodology/approach -The study was qualitative in nature. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 33 children on all dimensions of the CSM. Twenty four children were normal weight and nine were overweight. A drawing task formed the methodology for the "identity" section of the interview. Findings -Although children identified food intake as a main cause of obesity, almost half did not name sedentary behaviours as a cause of obesity. Duration (timeline) of obesity was regarded by most children as reliant on a person's undertaking of positive health behaviours. Normal weight children were found to list more severe consequences of obesity than the overweight group. It was found that experience contributed to the detailed knowledge of overweight children's perceptions of cures of obesity. Overweight children also spoke of personal incidents of barriers to cures. Practical imlications -The findings suggest that the CSMs can be used to classify children's perceptions of obesity. Future childhood obesity interventions can utilise these findings to create campaigns and strategies that are more consistent with children's understandings of this condition. Originality/value -To the authors' knowledge, no previous study has examined children's perceptions of obesity beyond perceived causes.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's perceptions of obesity as explained by the common sense model of illness representation

Babooram

Mullan

Sharpe

2011

British Food Journal

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“…Previous research has focused on disease causality in general (Schonfeld et al, 1993;Kister and Patterson, 1980;Wilkinson, 1987;Siegal, 1988;Crisp et al, 1996;Solomon and Cassimatis, 1999) and only a few studies have included questions about colds (Kister and Patterson, 1980;Siegal, 1988;Crisp et al, 1996;Bibace and Walsh, 1980;Banks, 1990;Kury and Rodrigue, 1995). Fewer still have focused their reports on the common cold (Sigelman et al, 1993;Johnson et al, 1994). However, the authors would propose that because this illness is the one with which children are most likely to be familiar, their understanding of colds is the best measure of their full potential to understand basic health and illness concepts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Elementary school students’ understanding of the common cold

Badani

Schonfeld²

2002

Health Education

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This study examines children’s understanding of the causality, treatment, and prevention of the common cold. Using a standardized, developmentally‐based, semi‐structured interview (ASK), 800 children (43 per cent black, 38 per cent white, 18 per cent Hispanic; 48 per cent female) in kindergarten through sixth grade attending six public elementary/middle schools in New Haven, Connecticut, USA were asked open‐ended questions about the causality, treatment, and prevention of the common cold. Responses were scored for factual content. The study found that with increasing grade level, a greater percentage of students mentioned contagion and germs as causes of the cold, medicine as a means of treatment, and avoidance of casual contact as a means of prevention. Common misconceptions were identified across all grade levels. These misconceptions did not decrease as children acquired more factual information about colds. Additionally, these misconceptions did not appear to stem from developmental constraints in children’s ability to comprehend illness concepts, indicating that health education can and should begin early in school.

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“…For example, Gratz and Piliavin (1984) found that more than 90% of both kindergartners/ first graders and fourth/fifth graders agreed that weather could make you sick whereas the percentage agreeing that other people could make you sick was lower and increased with age. Johnson et al (1994), interviewing disadvantaged, African American children in first, third, and fifth grade, observed that more of these children cited cold weather than cited contact with infected people as the cause of colds, and that only 17% mentioned germs. As Bibace, Sagarin, and Dyl (1998) have argued, early-developing concepts and modes of thinking about illness may continue to be available and to be invoked under certain conditions even as later-developing thinking becomes the dominant response.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Oblivious to such evidence, many parents continue to believe that exposure to cold weather or extreme temperature changes causes illness (Crocetti, Sabath, Cranmer, Gubser, & Dooley, 2009; Taveras, Durousseau, & Flores, 2004), and many children blame cold weather when they are asked to explain how colds are caught or how people get sick (Goldman, Whitney-Saltiel, Granger, & Rodin, 1991; Gratz & Piliavin, 1984; Johnson et al, 1994; Perrin & Gerrity, 1981). Because a cold weather theory of disease seems to be so tenacious among both children and adults, and because it competes with the scientifically based theory that germs cause infectious disease and leads to quite different conclusions about how to prevent illness, it deserves our attention.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…We know far less about the development of cold weather thinking about illness. It appears to be common among young children but it is not entirely supplanted by the germ theory as the latter takes hold (Gratz & Piliavin, 1984; Johnson et al, 1994; Raman & Winer, 2002). For example, Gratz and Piliavin (1984) found that more than 90% of both kindergartners/first graders and fourth/fifth graders agreed that weather could make you sick whereas the percentage agreeing that other people could make you sick was lower and increased with age.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Age and Ethnic Differences in Cold Weather and Contagion Theories of Colds and Flu

Sigelman

2011

Health Educ Behav

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Age and ethnic group differences in cold weather and contagion or germ theories of infectious disease were explored in two studies. A cold weather theory was frequently invoked to explain colds and to a lesser extent flu but became less prominent with age as children gained command of a germ theory of disease. Explanations of how contact with other people causes disease were more causally sophisticated than explanations of how cold weather causes it. Finally, Mexican American and other minority children were more likely than European American children to subscribe to cold weather theories, a difference partially but not wholly attributable to ethnic group differences in parent education. Findings support the value of an intuitive or naïve theories perspective in understanding developmental and sociocultural differences in concepts of disease and in planning health education to help both children and their parents shed misconceptions so that they can focus on effective preventive actions.

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What Do Minority Elementary Students Understand about the Causes of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, Colds, and Obesity?

Cited by 10 publications

References 0 publications

Children's perceptions of obesity as explained by the common sense model of illness representation

Children's perceptions of obesity as explained by the common sense model of illness representation

Elementary school students’ understanding of the common cold

Age and Ethnic Differences in Cold Weather and Contagion Theories of Colds and Flu

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