Developmental stages of Chinese children's concepts of health and illness in Taiwan.

This research showed that conceptual development of health and illness of Chinese children in Taiwan follows the general pattern of Piaget's levels of development. But Reichenbach's hypotheses of social influence explained the incongruencies in the data. Questionnaire and unstructured interview were used to explore the conceptual development of 468 children who were grouped according to their educational level: kindergarten, first and second grades, third and fourth grades, as well as fifth and sixth grades. Results showed that children in general defined illness and health based on physiological dysfunction. The older school children attributed "inappropriate behaviors" as the cause of illness more than young school children did. Nearly a quarter of the kindergarten group appeared to be at Piaget's level of "phenomenism" when asked to explain the cause of illness. Children also relied on "external resources" as the method to treat illness; younger school children emphasized "medicine treatment". In addition, all children believed "appropriate behaviors" can promote health, but awareness of psychological health did not appear until third and fourth grades.