Nursing students' perceptions of a child: influence of information on family structure

Sixty-eight undergraduate nursing students from a large university in the mid-western United States volunteered to participate in a study to determine nursing students' perceptions of a preschool-aged child when information about his family structure was presented. Subjects viewed a videotape of a 4-year-old male. Half of the subjects received written information that the child was from a two-parent family; the other half received written information that the child was a member of a single-parent family. Two instruments, the First Impressions Semantic Differential and the Predicted Behaviour of a Hospitalized Child Questionnaire, and a demographic data sheet, were completed by each subject. In general, a child believed to be from a two-parent family tended to be perceived more positively than a child believed to be from a single-parent family structure. However, when viewed as a potential patient on a hospital unit, no significant differences in perceived behaviours were reported.