Children's Perceptions of Ill Peers as a Function of Illness Conceptualization and Attributions of Responsibility: AIDS as a Paradigm

Assessed the impact of developmental level of illness conceptualizationand degree of assigned responsibility on children's reactionsto ill peers. Accounts of hypothetical peers were manipulatedin a multivariate design with three levels of Disease Label(AIDS vs. cystic fibrosis vs. no label) and two levels of ResponsibilityInformation (low responsibility vs. no responsibility information),with the children's conceptualizations as a continuous variable.Subjects receiving information that the peer was not responsiblefor the illness tended to endorse higher ratings of acceptancethan those receiving no information about illness responsibility.Accounts of peers with AIDS resulted in lower ratings of acceptancethan those presented with accounts of peers with cystic fibrosisor an unlabeled illness. Subjects obtaining higher illness conceptualizationscores tended to perceive less vulnerability to casual contagion.