Pre-school children’s understanding of cancer: the impact of parental teaching and life experience

Abstract

This study examined pre-school children’s understanding of the concept of cancer and their parent’s perceptions of their child’s understanding of cancer. Parents completed a questionnaire and pre-school children were administered an interview. The results showed that when children indicated that they knew something about cancer, their responses associated cancer with something medical, bad or harmful, or sickness or an illness. Parents correctly estimated their child’s understanding of cancer if they had talked previously with their child about cancer. Children whose parents reported discussing cancer were more likely to give responses indicating some knowledge about cancer. Some children reported knowing about cancer in the absence of parent teaching.