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.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD027035-04
Application #
3328593
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (SRC (07))
Project Start
1990-09-01
Project End
1995-04-30
Budget Start
1993-05-01
Budget End
1994-04-30
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California Los Angeles
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
119132785
City
Los Angeles
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
90095
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