Medical students' perceptions of children: modifying a childhood cancer stereotype

To assess whether an educationally based intervention could mitigate the negative effects of a childhood cancer stereotype, 168 first-year and fourth-year medical students were randomly assigned to view a healthy child described with either a healthy label (HL) or an in remission from leukemia label (RLL). One half of the 1st-year students also were given information summarizing the psychosocial sequelae of child survivors of cancer and one half were not given information. MANOVAs revealed that medical students in the information condition did not evidence any biases toward RLL children. However, RLL children were rated more negatively than HL children on several dimensions by 1st- and 4th-year students who did not participate in the intervention. The results suggest that a childhood cancer stereotype can be eliminated; however, standard medical training does not reduce the negative expectations health care providers hold toward children diagnosed with cancer.