The Child's World of Illness: The Development of Health and Illness Behaviour

by Simon R. Wilkinson

• ISBN13: 9780521029049
• ISBN10: 052102904X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-11-02
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

How do I decide I am ill; how do I decide that my children are ill? How do I learn effective ways of conveying to others that I am ill? This book discusses the languages of illness which we use to present our discomforts to others through an exploration of the child's world of illness. It looks at how illness concepts are introduced to children, how the causes of illness and 'germ' rationales are incorporated into the socialisation of children, and how a particular morality about health and illness is expressed. Besides the analysis of the social context within which the children's views are developing, the book presents the children's own views from three years old up to thirteen. How we talk about illness can have as important consequences as the methods we use to cure it. This book persuades the reader to look more closely at the language of illness, allowing a reappraisal to medical practice, school health programmes and class teaching, health education and even the differences in health between the social classes. In this way it forges a link between physical medicine and psychotherapy, providing the developmental perspective of illness behaviour which has long been lacking.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	viii
Glossary	ix
1. Presenting a problem	1	(9)
2. The form of dialogue	10	(23)
An interactional framework	10	(3)
Development of communicative competence	13	(2)
From competence to sharing meaning	15	(3)
Words	18	(3)
Play	21	(1)
Learning from problems	22	(2)
The setting	24	(3)
Children's games	27	(1)
From forms of dialogue to a research method	28	(5)
3. What has gone before: some background information	33	(30)
The pragmatic and the mathetic	34	(3)
Sickness, illness and disease	37	(2)
The adult world of illness and its causality	39	(11)
Children's views on the causality of illness	50	(11)
Summary	61	(2)
4. The primary structure to the child's world of illness	63	(47)
The family and the nursery school age child	63	(18)
Developmental changes in the family microsystem	81	(14)
The schools and nursery schools	95	(10)
The framework of social explanations and rules	105	(5)
5. Germs and bugs: causal agents	110	(21)
Germs and bugs	111	(7)
What are germs?	118	(4)
How germs act	122	(7)
Germs and spirits	129	(2)
6. Dirt and fresh air: the exogenous system	131	(26)
Dirt and cleanliness	133	(11)
Fresh air and exercise	144	(6)
Personal responsibility in a 'hostile' world	150	(4)
Sleep and helplessness	154	(2)
Giving the problem an airing: a summary	156	(1)
7. My castle and the good germs: the endogenous system and its boundary	157	(18)
The castle walls	157	(15)
Good germs	172	(1)
The illness routine	173	(2)
8. 'Pretend illness': An analysis of how communication patterns can foster particular forms of complaints	175	(26)
Play and pretend	178	(3)
'I have a tummy ache'	181	(7)
Somatoform disorders and somatoform relationships	188	(7)
Naturalistic systems, psychological causes and the role of doctors	195	(3)
The advantages of pretending illness	198	(1)
Summary	199	(2)
9. The consultation: a form of dialogue	201	(36)
Consulting	203	(24)
Responsibility	227	(6)
The relationship between the physical and the psychological	233	(4)
10. Health education and health promotion	237	(30)
The education system	239	(14)
The family	253	(6)
The Government and the community	259	(4)
The medical profession	263	(2)
Summary	265	(2)
Appendixes
1. Themes for the family interviews	267	(1)
2. Open-ended questionnaire	268	(1)
3. Themes for the group discussions	269	(1)
References	270	(15)
Index	285