CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF THE SYMPTOMS OF AIDS

Symptoms are the outward manifestations that allow children to identif y and recognize illness; children's understanding of the symptoms of a n illness may be directly related to their understanding of its cause or means of transmission. This study is the first empirical investigat ion of children's conceptual understanding and factual knowledge of th e symptoms of AIDS. Children (N = 361; grades K to 6; 57% black, 24% H ispanic, 19% white; 52% female) attending four public schools in New H aven, Connecticut, were interviewed using a standardized semistructure d interview (ASK, AIDS Survey for Kids) that included open-ended quest ions about the symptoms of AIDS and, for comparison, cancer and colds. Responses were scored for level of conceptual understanding and coded for factual content. For each illness, grade level was the variable m ost strongly correlated with symptomatology concept score (R = .42-.48 , p < .0001) and contributed significantly (p < .0001) to the variance observed in concept score even after controlling for race, gender, ve rbal fluency, and socioeconomic status. The mean concept score was low er (p < .01) for symptomatology of AIDS (2.8 of possible 5) than for c ancer (3.1) or colds (3.9). In addition, far more symptoms were named for colds than for either cancer or AIDS. Children who believed that H IV is spread via each of five potential means of transmission by casua l contact were more likely (p < .01) to cite cold symptoms as symptoms of AIDS. We conclude that there exists a developmental progression in children's understanding of the symptomatology of AIDS. Children have a less sophisticated conceptual understanding and narrower factual kn owledge base for AIDS than for colds and therefore have the capability to increase their understanding and knowledge about AIDS. Furthermore , improving children's understanding of the symptoms of AIDS may dimin ish misconceptions about transmission of HIV via casual contact.