Mothers' understanding of their children's bodies.
Children under 6 months, brought to the accident and emergency department (A&E) are distressed by problems often related to digestion. Parental knowledge of their children's bodies showed relatively little differentiation between structures. They made clear distinctions between the quality of their baby's crying and the problem. Parents made decisions to seek help on the basis of the quality of their child's crying and thereby its associated disorder. Telephone advice for parents may be the way forward in service provision, and will therefore require more exacting knowledge from the parents. The research approach used in the study--cognitive mapping--appeared to be acceptable to the mothers, as a way of eliciting representations.
Littlewood
J
J
Faculty of Health, South Bank University, London.
D000328:Adult; D001828:Body Image; D002669:Child Welfare; D003657:Decision Making; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires