Cross-cultural differences in children's concepts of health and illness

Revista de Saúde Pública

Evely Boruchovitch²  Birgitte R. Mednick¹ 

[1] ,Universidade Estadual de Campinas

关键词: Research;    Disease;    Cross-cultural comparison;    Health-disease process;    Health education;    Pesquisa;    Doença;    Comparação transcultural;    Processo saúde-doença;    Educação em saúde;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0034-89101997000600002

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

INTRODUCTION: In spite of general agreement that cross-cultural research is needed in the health area, most existing investigations of children's development of health and illness-related concepts have involved samples from developed countries. The study examined the development of the concepts of health and illness as a function of subject's age, socio-economic status (SES), gender and grade level in a Brazilian sample of 96 elementary and junior high school students. METHODS: Subjects were interviewed individually and their ideas of health and illness were assessed through open-ended questions. Participants' answers were transcribed verbatim and subjected to content analysis. RESULTS: Chi-square analyses revealed significant age, school grade and SES-related differences in participants' concepts of health and illness. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The themes employed by subjects to define both health and illness were broadly consistent with those found by previous research. The study showed a predictable relationship between subject's age and school grade level and increasingly more highly differentiated and multidimensional concepts of health and illness. This investigation suggests that, for the most part, cross-cultural similarities in children's concepts of health and illness may be more striking than the differences.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
 All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License