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Investigating Children's Knowledge and Understanding of AIDS
Author(s) -
Obeidallah Dawn,
Turner Patricia,
Iannotti Ronald J.,
O'Brien Robert W.,
Haynie Denise,
Galper Daniel
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
journal of school health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.851
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1746-1561
pISSN - 0022-4391
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1561.1993.tb06097.x
Subject(s) - disease , cognition , developmental psychology , psychology , human immunodeficiency virus (hiv) , medicine , family medicine , psychiatry , pathology
Though AIDS education in schools reaches many adolescents, the incidnce of adolescent HIV infection has risen dramatically. Reasons for failure to properly educate adolescents include not educating children prior to adolescence and neglecting to assess and address children's varying levels of cognitive development when designing AIDS education programs. Citing examples from a study of more than 600 elementary‐age schoolchildren, this paper focuses on the importance of assessing children's understanding of disease processes rather than accepting their use of key phrases in appropriate contexts as reflecting knowledge, and using the level at which they understand disease processes rather than age as the primary determinant of students' readiness for comprehending AIDS‐related concepts. Guidelines for assessing how well children understand disease processes, including use of nonleading probes, are presented.