The overall goal of the proposed research is to determine how children conceive of health-related issues and how their conceptions change with development. Children's understanding of health-related issues such as illness, risk behaviors, and sexuality will be probed through direct interviews and a more indirect peer-teaching analog. Parents will be interviewed about their own knowledge and their perceptions of their child's knowledge and attitudes. Parent-child communication about affectively laden information related to health will also be observed. Finally, the information derived from these studies will be used to formulate a questionnaire to be administered to a large sample of 8-12 year old children.
Henker, B; Whalen, C K; O'Neil, R (1995) Worldly and workday worries: contemporary concerns of children and young adolescents. J Abnorm Child Psychol 23:685-702 |
Whalen, C K; Henker, B; O'Neil, R et al. (1994) Optimism in children's judgments of health and environmental risks. Health Psychol 13:319-25 |
Whalen, C K; Henker, B; O'Neil, R et al. (1994) Preadolescents' perceptions of AIDS before and after Earvin Magic Johnson's announcement. J Pediatr Psychol 19:3-17;discussion 19-26 |