USF St. Petersburg campus Faculty Publications
An information seeking disposition in child surgery patients: Some preliminary evidence.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1986
ISSN
0278-6133
Abstract
Several studies in the last decade have demonstrated the importance of considering an information seeking versus information avoiding coping dimension in adult medical patients. However, there have been few empirical demonstrations of such a dimension in children. The present study utilized the Coping Strategies Interview to assign an information seeking score to child elective surgery patients. This information seeking score was related to several parent-rated variables, including the child's historical success in coping with medical procedures, the child's typical preference for information acquisition, and the child's typically emitted coping behaviors. In addition, the information seeking score was related to question asking and discussion of medical procedures as rated by an objective observer during the blood test, by the nurse during anesthesia induction, and by the parent during recovery from surgery. It was strongly related to the information acquired prior to hospitalization. Information seeking was also related to stress responses, such that high information seeking scores predicted more adaptive behaviors prior to the blood test. This cross-rater and cross-situation validation suggests the existence of an information seeking dimension in children and the utility of considering this dimension in future research.
Language
en_US
Publisher
American Psychological Association
Recommended Citation
Peterson, L. & Toler, S. (1986). An information seeking disposition in child surgery patients: Some preliminary evidence. Health Psychology, 5, 343-358.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Citation only. Full-text article is available through licensed access provided by the publisher. Published in Health Psychology, 5, 343-358. Members of the USF System may access the full-text of the article through the authenticated link provided.