What Children and Adolescents Know and Need to Learn about Cancer

Abstract

Despite cancer’s devastating effects on health and longevity, and the critical role of health habits formed during childhood and adolescence in its prevention, children’s knowledge of contributors to cancer is understudied. In this paper, the first developmental analysis of the literature, we outline relevant theoretical perspectives and three early emerging intuitions about illness evident among preschool children—contagion/germ, contamination, and unhealthy lifestyle theories—and then review research on elementary and secondary school students’ awareness of risk factors for cancer in light of these early intuitive theories. Our analysis centers on the 16 studies we could locate, done in seven countries, that allowed calculating the percentages of children of different age groups who mentioned various risk factors in response to open-ended questions or endorsed them in response to structured questions. Awareness of primary known risk factors (led by smoking), lifestyle contributors, and personal factors (genetics and old age) increased with age, while contact myths decreased with age until adolescents began to show awareness of sexual contact as a contributor to certain cancers. In addition, the analysis revealed higher levels of awareness in response to structured questions than in response to open-ended questions; a glaring need for research asking young school-aged children about key risk factors and exploring not only their knowledge but their causal understanding; a need for attention to sociocultural influences; and connections between preschool children’s intuitive theories of disease and older children’s patterns of belief about cancer that can help guide school-based cancer education.

Keywords:

• Cancer risk factors
• child development
• disease causality
• health
• intuitive theories

Acknowledgment

Portions of the findings were presented at the 2021 virtual biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carol Sigelman

Carol Sigelman is Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, George Washington University. She is a developmental psychologist with life-span developmental interests who studies the development of children’s intuitive theories of diseases and disorders and their implications, as well as the role of parent-child communication in their development. Email: [email protected]

Imani Jami

Imani Jami was completing her B.S. in neuroscience and minor in psychological and brain sciences at George Washington University when the present research was conducted. She is currently a medical assistant with the Allergy and Asthma Care Center, Alexandria, VA, preparing for medical school. Email: [email protected]

Eleanor D’Andria

Eleanor D’Andria is a senior major in psychological and brain sciences and member of the University Honors Program at George Washington University. Email: [email protected]