Children's Perceptions of Ill Peers as a Function of Illness Conceptualization and Attributions of Responsibility: AIDS as a Paradigm

Assessed the impact of developmental level of illness conceptualization and degree of assigned responsibility on children's reactions to ill peers. Accounts of hypothetical peers were manipulated in a multivariate design with three levels of Disease Label (AIDS vs. cystic fibrosis vs. no label) and two levels of Responsibility Information (low responsibility vs. no responsibility information), with the children's conceptualizations as a continuous variable. Subjects receiving information that the peer was not responsible for the illness tended to endorse higher ratings of acceptance than those receiving no information about illness responsibility. Accounts of peers with AIDS resulted in lower ratings of acceptance than those presented with accounts of peers with cystic fibrosis or an unlabeled illness. Subjects obtaining higher illness conceptualization scores tended to perceive less vulnerability to casual contagion.