摘要:

Objectives: This study aimed to explore children's understanding of illness and attempted to improve their knowledge throughthe presentation of a factual story and group discussions.Design: Children's responses to questions pertaining to three ailment types (contagious illness, non‐contagious illness and injury), for three process variables (cause, time from cause to effect, and recovery factors), were recorded before and after a training intervention.Method: Children aged 4 (N=30) and 7 years old (N=30) were initially individually interviewed about common ailments(contagious: chickenpox and cold; non‐contagious: asthma and cancer; injury: scraped knee and broken arm). A week later half of the children in each age group (N=30) were included in a small group (N=5) intervention where factual information about three of the ailments was provided and children participated in guided group discussions. The remaining control children received no intervention. All children were subsequently individually interviewed a week later using the initial interview schedule.Results: The 7‐year‐olds exhibited more sophisticated knowledge of illness at pre‐test than the 4‐year‐olds. Comparison of pre‐ to post‐intervention changes showed that children who participated in the intervention condition improved overall in their understanding of the ailments significantly more than controls. However, detailed analyses revealed a large degree of variation across the sample in terms of post‐test change for individual items.Conclusion: Children's understanding of illness is complex and undergoes developmental changes between the ages of4 and 7. Educational interventions that provide age‐appropriate factual information and peer group discussions regarding illness processes might be effective in improving knowledge of illness

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169402

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives: In light of inconsistencies in the reported effects of attention and anxiety on pain tolerance, this study examined the separate and combined effects of attention focus and trait anxiety on tolerance of acute experimental pain.Design: Participants with‘high’ and‘low’ trait anxiety were assigned to three attention‐focus conditions: pain‐focused attention,‘undirected’ (no experimenter‐induced attempts to influence attention focus) and distraction.Methods: Several indices of autonomic arousal (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate and EMG) were measured before and during, and several self‐report inventories were completed before and after, each of two administrations ofthe cold pressor test.Results: In general, pain tolerance was greater when participants were distracted and in low‐ rather than high‐anxiety participants. However, attention and anxiety interacted such that low‐anxiety participants were most pain tolerant, andhigh‐anxiety participants were least pain tolerant, in the undirected condition.Conclusion: The results are consistent with the notion that anxiety fosters attentiveness to possible environmental threats, and might have implications for the clinic

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169411

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objective: This study compared a motivational intervention based on protection motivation theory (PMT, Rogers, 1975, 1983) with the same motivational intervention augmented by a volitional intervention based on implementation intentions (Gollwitzer, 1993).Design: The study had a longitudinal design, involving three waves of data collection over a 2‐week period, incorporating an experimental manipulation of PMT variables at Time 1 and a volitional, implementation intention intervention at Time 2.Method: Participants (N=248) were randomly allocated to a control group or one of two intervention groups. Cognitions and exercise behaviour were measured at three time‐points over a 2‐week period.Results: The motivational intervention significantly increased threat and coping appraisal and intentions to engage in exercise but did not bring about a significant increase in subsequent exercise behaviour. In contrast, the combined protection motivation theory/implementation intention intervention had a dramatic effect on subsequent exercise behaviour. Thisvolitional intervention did not influence behavioural intention or any other motivational variables.Conclusions: It is concluded that supplementing PMT with implementation intentions strengthens the ability of the model to explain behaviour. This has implications for health education programmes, which should aim to increase both participants' motivation and their vol

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169420

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives: This paper explores one possible operationalization of smoking intention to assist development of adolescent smoking intervention programmes. Such programmes usually focus on predictors of current smoking, ignoring predictors of intentions to smoke, or how intentions relate to actual future smoking.Design and method: Respondents took part in two stages of a repeated measures national survey on Australian adolescent smoking behaviour (12‐month interval between administrations). A total ofN=1419 adolescents provided matched data, measuring personal smoking habits, intentions of smoking behaviour, stress (seven subscales), self‐esteem and response to the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ‐12).Results: A comparison of discriminant function predictors showed similarity between the current smoking and intention to smoke, with only one predictor differing between the functions. Non‐smokers were more behaviourally consistent with their stated non‐smoking intention over 12 months (i.e. remain non‐smokers) than smokers (i.e. intention seemed unrelated to actual behaviour).Conclusions: While the predictors give no general indication of whether the processes behind the intention to smoke differ from current smoking, the intention to smoke may be a better focus for intervention with smokers given the apparentinconsistency with stated intention. Intervention for non‐smokers may be usefully focused on maintaining non‐smoking ratherthan pre

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169439

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives: To test the hypothesis that a disease caused by controllable, compared with uncontrollable, factors is more likely to result in negative emotions and less likelihood of disclosure to significant others.Design and methods: A between‐participants design in which students (N=108) imagined they had just been diagnosed with either HIV or hypertension and where the cause for each was described as either controllable or uncontrollable. Anticipated emotional and behavioural responses by self and others were assessed by questionnaire.Results: When the vignette represented a more controllable cause, participants thought they would have more negative feelings and that they would be less likely to disclose information about the disease to their family oran acquaintance than when the vignette represented a less controllable cause. The type of disease, but not the cause, influenced anticipated responses by others.Conclusions: Although greater perceived control over future outcomes is often psychologically adaptive, these findings suggest that the perception that the onset of a disease was controllable may be maladaptive, resulting in more negative feelings and a greater reluctance to disclose the diagnosis to others. In the light of the increasing use of medical technologies aimed at primary prevention of disease, together with a cultural shift toward individual responsibility for health, there is a need for greater understanding of how the perceived controllability of the cause of a disease affects subsequent adjustmen

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169448

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objectives: Individuals with a disfigurement are at risk of experiencing psychological distress, but the level of this distress is only marginally associated with clinical severity. This study examinesthe experience of living with the skin condition vitiligo with a view towards understanding its impact and the ways in which participants deal with this chronic and disfiguring disease.Design: The qualitative method Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used.Methods: In a semi‐structured interview, seven white female vitiligo sufferers were asked to describe their experiences from the time the vitiligo first became apparent to the time of the interview. They were encouraged to elaborate on their own reactions and how they dealt with the reactions of others.Results: Initially, participants felt overwhelmed by their illness but over time they developed several strategies in order to ‘contain’ their difference in appearance within manageable limits. The behavioural strategies of avoidance and concealment had several disadvantages, whereas cognitive strategies were less problematic but difficult to sustain consistently. Social support served to facilitate the development of coping methods associated with acceptance of difference. However, maintaining this acceptance was a struggle and the process fragile.Conclusions: Living with vitiligo was a continuous struggle. The results are consistent with Leventhal's (1970) notion that coping is a problem‐solving process and with Moos and Schaefer's (1984) contention that dealing with a chronic disease involves the development of a variety of strategies in order to regain equilibrium. Further research is needed to examine whether the experiences described here are common to other disfiguring con

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169457

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objective: To categorize and quantify the content of publicly available safer sex promotion leaflets in the UK and Germany and to assess the extent to which this content corresponds to the cognitiveand behavioural correlates of condom use identified by theory‐based research.Methods: A content analysis using a 45 category coding manual was undertaken. The manual included 20‘correlate‐representative’ categories identifying text promoting the strongest cognitive and behavioural correlates of condom use.Results: Overall inter‐coder reliability was high. Few content differences were observed between the German and UK samples. Leaflets from both countries highlighted information on how people become infected with HIV and advice to contact health care professionals. Few mentioned delaying or abstaining from sexual intercourse. Only 25% of leaflets included text that referred to more than 10 of the 20 correlate‐representative categories. Moreover, using one standard deviation above the meanas an indication of frequent inclusion, two‐thirds of leafets failed to target frequently more than two of the 20 correlate‐representative categories.Conclusions: Some safer sex promotion leaflets frequently promote the strongest cognitive and behavioural correlates of condom use. In general, however, the recommendations of researchers investigating psychological correlates of condom use have not shaped the content of safer sex pro

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169466

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Objective: To test the effect of cognitive interventions with information given pre‐operatively on post‐operative outcomes in Chinese women undergoing elective hysterectomies.Design: An experimental design. The experimental group (n=48) received cognitive distraction and cognitive reappraisal with information, the control group (n=48) received information only.Outcome measures: Post‐operative anxiety (Chinese State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory and mean arterial blood pressure), post‐operative requests for analgesia (drug record), post‐operative pain (visual analogue scale) and satisfaction (Chinese Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire).Results: Cognitive distraction and reappraisal with information produced lower post‐operative anxiety and pain scores and higher levels of satisfaction than information only. Post‐operative analgesic requests did not differ between groups.Conclusions: Cognitive distraction and reappraisal with information, when used with women undergoing a hysterectomy may have significant cl

ISSN:1359-107X    

DOI:10.1348/135910702169475

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:2002

数据来源: WILEY