Article

Kharkovskiy A.N. (2015). Disease representation in children and its mediating role in the therapeutic work with patient children. National Psychological Journal. 3, 105-116.

Abstract

In the course of treating a serious illness, a person is faced with questions related not only to the medical side of treatment, but also with the realizing the sense of the events. This is equally true for both oncology adults and for children.

The paper researches the disease representation in children who suffer from severe diseases. General psychological aspects of the disease situation and the understanding of patient children and the ability to use these concepts in practical psychological help are considered.

The study hypothesizes, first of all, the semantic structure of representation in this group of children having specific characteristics that distinguish them from healthy children. Secondly, data representation having a therapeutic potential can be used as a psychological tool. Mediating function of the psychological tools mentioned is justified in this paper from the perspective of cultural historical approach and the concept of mental health levels. The experimental study was conducted in the specialized pediatric clinics in Moscow, Russia. Control group include students of one of Moscow schools. The study included organization of the experimental situation, criteria for obtaining data, comparative analysis and evaluation.

The hypothesis is confirmed. The characteristic structure of disease representations in patient children reflecting some vector of the disease course is outlined. This makes the study an important practical value as the results may provide a solution to practical issues of medical psychology in assisting patient children. The research offers further studying the semantic sphere of patient children.

Received: 06/14/2015
Accepted: 08/20/2015
Pages: 105-116
DOI: 10.11621/npj.2015.0311

PDF: Download

Keywords: disease; pediatric oncology; image of the disease; psychological tool; meaning;

Available Online 15.11.2015

Table 1.

Participant Group

Number of Participants

Number of Comparisons

Mean number of comparisons in the group

Patient Children

1,8

School Students

1,0

Table 2. Factor of Individual Significance.

	Patient Children		Healthy Children
Answer Category	Number of Answers	% of the Total Amount	Answer Category	Number of Answers
Formal Answer (F)	43	46,2	10	22,7
Answer of Individual Significance (I)	50	53,8	34	77,3
Total:	93	100,0	44	100,0
Average	46,5		22
Regular Deviation	4,9		17

Table 3. Abstractness Factor

	Patient Children		Healthy Children
Answer Category	Number of Answers	% of the Total Amount	Number of Answers	% of the Total Amount
Exact Answer (E)	6	6,3	23	52,3
Attributive Answer (А)	19	20,0	15	34,1
Definition(D)	6	6,3	3	6,8
Metaphor (М)	64	67,4	3	6,8
Total:	95	100,00	44	100,0
Average	23,8		11
Regular Deviation	27,5		10

Table 4. Levels of disease awareness

	Patient Children		Healthy Children
Issues to Describe	Number of Answers	% of the Total Amount	Number of Answers	% of the Total Amount
Symptoms (P)	14	16,3	15	25,0
Names of Diseases (D)	11	12,6	8	13,3
Personal Issue (P)	44	50,6	23	38,3
Family Issue (Fam)	0	0,0	0	0,0
Social Relations (Soc)	2	2,3	7	11,7
Professional Issue (Ac)	0	0,0	3	5,0
Highest Sense Issue (HS)	16	18,4	4	6,7
Total:	87	100,0	60	100,0
Average	12,4		9
Regular Deviation	15,5		7,6

Graph 1. Abstractness Factor

Graph 2. Levels of disease awareness

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For citing this article:

Kharkovskiy A.N. (2015). Disease representation in children and its mediating role in the therapeutic work with patient children. National Psychological Journal. 3, 105-116.