Boughton R C, Kenyon Y, Laycock L, Lewin T J, Thomas S P
Med J Aust. 1987 Aug 3;147(3):121-4.
Seven hundred and one 10- to 13-year-old schoolchildren from 20 schools in the Hunter region of New South Wales were asked questions about the future. The questionnaire, which was in two main sections, commenced with general, open-ended questions about the children's expectations, hopes and wishes. It then moved to more specific questions which were designed to assess the children's current level of knowledge about nuclear war. In the unprompted section, 56% of the children mentioned war as one of their concerns, while 33% wrote specifically of nuclear war. In answer to specific questions, the majority (97%) of children reported being aware of the issues of nuclear armaments and nuclear war. Sixty-eight per cent of children considered that nuclear war will or might occur; 31% felt that this would be within their own lifetimes. Most of the children reported the mass media to be their source of information on these issues; very few had heard about them from family or friends. The results challenge a commonly expressed belief that children of this age are not aware of the nuclear arms situation. Awareness of this issue and its implications, which is coupled with a lack of opportunities for discussion, may be detrimental to the well-being of children.
来自新南威尔士州猎人地区20所学校的701名10至13岁学童被问及有关未来的问题。问卷分为两个主要部分，开头是关于孩子们的期望、希望和愿望的一般性开放式问题。接着是更具体的问题，旨在评估孩子们目前对核战争的了解程度。在未受提示的部分，56%的孩子提到战争是他们关心的问题之一，而33%的孩子特别提到了核战争。在回答具体问题时，大多数（97%）孩子表示知道核武器和核战争问题。68%的孩子认为核战争将会或可能发生；31%的孩子觉得这会在他们自己的有生之年发生。大多数孩子表示大众媒体是他们获取这些问题信息的来源；很少有人从家人或朋友那里听说过这些问题。这些结果挑战了一种普遍表达的观点，即这个年龄段的孩子不了解核武器情况。对这个问题及其影响的认识，再加上缺乏讨论的机会，可能对孩子们的幸福有害。
