Using a Storybook Method to Understand Young Children's Narratives of Illness
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Date
2011
DOI
Open Access Location
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Publisher
Massey University
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Abstract
Appreciation of the role that families play in young children’s
meaning-making about the causes of illness could
assist educators and healthcare practitioners to provide
more effective support for young children and their families.
To date, researchers have largely sought to determine
children’s understanding at various stages of cognitive
development rather than exploring how children might
acquire, process, and share their knowledge within particular
social contexts. Adopting a socio-constructivist perspective
and a narrative methodology, I sought to identify
ways in which young children’s illness causality concepts
are embedded within the familial context. Fieldwork included
in-depth interviews with five four-year-old children,
their parents/guardians; sibling/s aged five to nine
years, and two other family members. Participants from
Manukau City, New Zealand, reflected a diversity of cultural
communities, spiritual orientations, and family structure.
To aid the elicitation of young children’s narratives
of illness causality, child participants were invited to construct
a storybook about ‘getting sick’ utilizing art materials
and photographs of children experiencing illness. A
social interactional approach was employed to interpret
participants’ narratives and suggests that young children’s
illness causality constructions are significantly influenced
by the particular illness experiences, illness prevention
messages and behavioural rules within families. Findings
indicate that children’s existing understandings and associated
family practices need to be utilized as the context
for children’s learning about health and well-being.
Description
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
Keywords
Behaviour, Children, Families, Illness causality, Sociocultural context