Concepts of illness and perception of control in healthy children and in children with chronic illnesses.

Healthy children, children with seizure disorders, and children with orthopedic conditions, ranging in age from 5 to 16 years old, were questioned about their knowledge of disease etiology, treatment, and prevention, and their health locus of control beliefs, to explore the relationship between illness-related concept attainment and perceived control over health. Children who perceived greater personal control over health demonstrated a more sophisticated conceptual understanding of disease than did children with a more external orientation. Healthy children scored significantly higher on the illness concepts questions and expressed significantly more internal health locus of control beliefs than did their peers with a chronic physical illness. Perceived control over health appears to be one factor that mediates the relationship between illness experience and understanding.