Talking to young children about health: methods and findings

THIS paper reports the methods and some findings from a study of young children's health-related beliefs and behaviours. The 52 children, aged four to 12 years, are the offspring of a sample of middle-class couples who participated in an in-depth multi-inter view qualitative study: "The social context of the development of health-related beliefs and behav iours, with special reference to the family". The field- work for both of these studies was carried out in Edinburgh from 1987 to 1989. After completion of their parents' study, the children were interviewed privately at home using a variety of innovative meth odological techniques appropriate to their ages. Each mode of questioning elicited different kinds of responses which, taken as a whole, illustrated: that children give both "public" and "private" accounts of health and illness; can hold apparently inconsist ent views about health simultaneously; often show limited knowledge or understanding of parents' health-related behaviours; and may reveal weak links between health-related attitudes and beliefs and behavioural practices.