The Concept of Illness in Children from 3 to undergraduate students: A Domain-specific Approach
AUTHOR : 유윤영
INFORMATION : page. 21~35 / 2009 Vol.16 No.4
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to investigate concept development of illness amongst the following age group;. 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year-olds, second year students of elementary school and undergraduate students. The study subjects totaled 180, with 30 people in each group. The instruments for studying the degree of conceptual understanding of illness by children and adults are the causes of illness (by Springer and Ruckel(1992)), and the contagion of illness (Kister and Patterson(1980)) The author used all of them following some revision. The reactions of children and adults gathered to illness conception was estimated by the distinct base, was decided upon following discussions by the current investigator and a number of experts. Two-way ANOVA was used for analysis, multiply age(5) by sex(2) was used for investigating the difference by age and sex, and this was found to be dependent on the data estimated for investigating the biological conception of illness in children and adults, and Scheffe' was used for post-hoc test of each level of biological conception. The results showed that 3-year-olds did not construct a concept of illness, but 4-, 5-, 6- year olds and 2nd grade, had by this age, already formed a concept. There were differences in concept construction according to age, but there was no difference discernable by sex. Child conceptions of illness appear from age five. The undergraduate student group, representing a formal stage in this study, appeared to show an inclination, which seemed to depend upon direct experience more than logic and this is what constitutes their concepts. Therefore, these findings supported a domain-specific approach of knowledge construction.