The purpose of this work is to prepare a critical literature review and to begin data collection, coding, and analysis for a project entitled """"""""The Hospitalization Experience: Children's Coping with the Stress of Surgery."""""""" This research is designed to examine age differences in children's understanding of and reactions to a brief stay in the hospital for elective surgery and is based on an integration of the adult stress and coping literature with that on changes in children's cognitive capabilities as they mature.
