'Let Mum have her say': turntaking in doctor-parent-child communication

Recent legislation in the Netherlands requires that children should play a part in decision making regarding their own health care. So far, however, l ittle attention has been given to the child's participation in medical inte rviews. In order to get a grip on aspects of asymmetry and control in docto r-parent-child communication, the present study explores the turntaking pat terns in this triad at the general practitioner's surgery, and makes a comp arison over the years. Videotaped observations of 106 medical interviews ta ken over a period of almost 20 years have been analyzed by means of the Tur n Allocation System. The results show that the child's control in the medic al consultation is rather limited, though, over the years, the child partic ipates more actively. The child's conversational contribution appears to be strongly related to the age of the child. An important finding is the diff erence in the way GP and parent accommodate their turntaking patterns to th e child; parental control appears to be constant over the years, and is not related to the age of the child, whereas the GP is considering the child's age. The results are discussed in terms of implications for medical practi ce and health education. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.