Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 30, 2026
Making MR Imaging Child's Play - Pediatric Neuroimaging Protocol, Guidelines and Procedure
Published on: July 30, 2009
Physician-child interaction: when children answer physicians' questions in routine medical encounters
1UCLA Department of Sociology, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1551, USA. stivers@soc.ucla.edu
Insights
Physicians can encourage children to answer questions during visits by using specific communication strategies. These techniques improve children
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Communication
- Child Health Outcomes
- Physician-Child Interaction
Background:
- Children's participation in pediatric visits is crucial for effective healthcare.
- Understanding factors influencing children's responses to physician questions is limited.
- Socio-demographic and communication variables may impact child engagement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify predictors of children answering questions during primary care pediatric visits.
- To explore the relationship between communication practices and child responsiveness.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of 322 video-taped pediatric encounters.
- Utilized multi-level multivariate regressions to model predictors of children answering questions.
- Examined communication and socio-demographic variables in physician-child interactions.
Main Results:
- Physician selection of children to answer questions was predicted by race and education.
- However, these factors did not influence whether children actually answered.
- Child responsiveness was linked to communication tactics like question type and physician gaze.
Conclusions:
- Children answer fewer questions than parents, but their responsiveness is predictable and improvable.
- Physicians can enhance child participation by asking social, yes-no questions and maintaining eye contact.
- Increased child engagement can lead to better health information gathering and foster proactive patient behaviors.
Objective:
The objective of the study is to examine predictors of children answering questions during primary care pediatric visits.
Methods:
Relying on a sample of 322 video-taped community practice encounters, this study identifies predictors of when children answer physicians' questions. Multi-level multivariate regressions were used to model the relationships among communication and socio-demographic variables and whether or not children answered questions pediatricians asked them.
Results:
Whereas race and education predict whether physicians select children to answer questions, these factors are not associated with whether children answer physicians' questions. Instead, a child's performance is associated with communication practices specific to physician-child interaction such as the grammatical type of question and doctor gaze.
Conclusion:
Children are less responsive to physicians' questions than their parents but their failure to answer is predictable and thus can be improved. By increasing their participation in the visit, physicians may (a) secure more information about children's health and (b) socialize children to be more pro-active patients.
Practice Implications:
Physicians can improve the likelihood that children will answer their questions by (a) asking them social questions early in the visit, (b) phrasing their questions as yes-no questions, and (c) and directing their gaze at the children during each question.
Related Concept Videos
01:23Pharmacokinetics in Pediatric Patients: Overview and Drug Absorption
01:24Pharmacokinetics in Pediatric Patients: Drug Metabolism
01:26Pharmacokinetics in Pediatric Patients: Drug Excretion
01:08Obedience
01:29Drug Dosing: Infants and Children
01:21Factors Affecting Drug Response: Overview