Illness Is a Point of View: The Development of Children's Concepts of Illness

CAMPBELL, JOHN D. Illness Is a Point of View: The Development of Children's Concepts of Illness. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1975, 46, 92-100. To study development of concepts of illness, 264 children (6 to 12-11) and their mothers were interviewed. Comparison of group profiles showed that the typical definition given by children was similar to that of mothers: themes used by many mothers were often used by children; those rare in mothers' definitions infrequently occurred in children's. Yet comparison of mother-child pairs revealed that the illness concept of any specific child was not likely to resemble that 'of his parent. With increasing maturity, children defined illness more precisely and placed greater emphasis on role performance and psychosocial dispositional states. Age-linked intellectual development and health experiences as moderated by age contributed to more adult-like, qualitatively more sophisticated definitions of illness.