Chinese children’s explanations for illness

Abstract

The study explored how Chinese children spontaneously explained the causes of illness. Two groups of 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children from different socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds were recruited, with 30 children in each age group. A group of 30 college students were also recruited and their responses compared to those produced by the children. Participants’ responses were coded as belonging to one of five mutually exclusive categories: psychogenic, biological, behavioral, symptomatic, or other. Results indicated that children’s causal explanations were mostly behavioral and symptomatic, with more biological explanations for older children than for younger. In contrast, adults’ explanations were mostly biological and psychogenic. Although adults were influenced by concepts in Chinese traditional medicine that tie negative emotions to illness, Chinese children did not mention emotional causes for illness. Nonetheless, Chinese children also offered some explanations based on concepts of “wind” and “cold,” which may be a result of cultural experience with some aspects of traditional Chinese medicine.

Keywords

Chinese traditional medicine culture illness naive biology

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