Comparison of children's fears of medical experiences across two cultures

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Ganga Mahat1, Mary Ann Scoloveno, Barbara Cannella

  • 1Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, College of Nursing, Newark 07102, USA. mahat@nightingale.rutgers.edu

Journal of Pediatric Health Care : Official Publication of National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates & Practitioners
|November 4, 2004
PubMed

Insights

Children in Nepal and the United States share fears of medical procedures like shots, with Nepalese children reporting higher overall medical fears. Girls in Nepal expressed greater fear than boys, unlike in the US.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Psychology
  • Cross-Cultural Psychology
  • Nursing Research

Background:

  • Investigates self-reported fears in school-age children across the United States and Nepal.
  • Highlights cultural variations in childhood anxieties related to medical experiences.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare medical fears between children from the United States and Nepal.
  • To identify specific medical fears and cultural differences in fear expression.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized the revised Child Medical Fear Scale.
  • Included 30 school-age children from each country, matched for age and sex.

Main Results:

  • Getting a shot was the most feared item for both groups.
  • Nepalese children reported higher medical fear scores than American children.
  • Nepalese girls reported significantly higher fear scores than Nepalese boys; no gender difference was found in American children.

Conclusions:

  • Findings are crucial for nurse practitioners to understand cross-cultural pediatric medical fears.
  • Emphasizes the need to consider family, sex, and culture in pediatric nursing care planning.
  • Provides insights for culturally sensitive interventions to manage children's medical fears.
Abstract

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