What Children and Adolescents Know and Need to Learn about Cancer.

Despite cancer's devastating effects on health and longevity, and the critical role of health habits formed during childhood and adolescence in its prevention, children's knowledge of contributors to cancer is understudied. In this paper, the first developmental analysis of the literature, we outline relevant theoretical perspectives and three early emerging intuitions about illness evident among preschool children-contagion/germ, contamination, and unhealthy lifestyle theories-and then review research on elementary and secondary school students' awareness of risk factors for cancer in light of these early intuitive theories. Our analysis centers on the 16 studies we could locate, done in seven countries, that allowed calculating the percentages of children of different age groups who mentioned various risk factors in response to open-ended questions or endorsed them in response to structured questions.

Characterizing Children's Intuitive Theories of Disease: The Case of Flu.

To advance the study of children's knowledge and understanding of disease, we devised a methodology for assessing key features of intuitive theories laid out by Wellman and Gelman (1998). We then assessed a disease-relevant biological ontology, causal propositions involving unobservables, and coherence in explanations of influenza offered by children aged 8 to 13. Use of disease-relevant terms and mention of propositions in a biological theory of flu causality, although not coherence or connectedness of ideas, increased with age.

Development and Coherence of Beliefs About Disease Causality and Prevention.

Guided by a naïve theories perspective on the development of thinking about disease, this study of 188 children aged 6 to 18 examined knowledge of HIV/AIDS causality and prevention using parallel measures derived from open-ended and structured interviews. Knowledge of both risk factors and prevention rules, as well as conceptual understanding of AIDS causality, increased with age. Younger children displayed more advanced knowledge in response to structured questions than in response to open-ended questions.

Gender differences in preschool children's commentary on self and other.

To examine gender differences in commentary about self and others in same- and mixed-gender contexts, the authors analyzed dyadic conversations involving 78 children in 5 preschool facilities. Compared to girls talking to girls, boy talking to boys made more statements with negative connotations for others and less often pointed out self-other similarities. No gender differences were observed in mixed-gender contexts.