Focus on qualitative methods - Interviewing children

The focus in health-related research on children has shifted from seeking i nformation about children to seeking information directly from them. Childr en, even as young as three years old, can give graphic descriptions and hav e excellent recall of experiences related to adverse events, such as illnes s and hospitalization. Children use scripts as the primary means of anticip ating, comprehending, and re-creating real-life experience. The content, ti ming, number, and structure of interviews will influence the completeness, accuracy, and consistency of children's recall of events. Although at times conflicting, the findings from recent scholarship on children's narrative competence will assist researchers to select the interviewing strategies mo st likely to yield faithful representations of experience. (C) 1999 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc.