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Worries of school-age children
Purpose:
To determine how worrisome some situations are for school-age children and if parents can identify how worrisome the situation would be for their child.
Design:
Descriptive.
Setting:
Families' homes.
Participants:
48 school age-children (7-11 years old), 40 mothers, 8 fathers.
Main Outcome Measures:
The 27-item "What Worries You (Your Child) the Most" questionnaire.
Results:
For the most part, parents were able to ascertain what would worry their child the most. However, they did underestimate the importance of pets to children as well as adequate family income. There were significant differences in child and parent perceptions of three items ranked among the most worrisome: "being asked to take drugs," being in a war," and "hearing parents quarrel." Age and gender of children were not significant factors in the distribution of scores.
Conclusions:
Findings indicate that considerable discrepancies can exist between what the parent and the child perceive as worrisome.