| Abstract: | A review of the professional opinions in the literature reveals both the honest concern of the authors for the parents, nurses, and physicians of the dying child and the lack of objective data on what the child actually knows about his illness or what his psychological reactions are to it. The result has been the accumulation of a set of contradictory attitudes often based on nothing more than the authors' personal reactions and unsubstantiated observations. 2 controlled studies directly measuring the child's concerns pointed to a very real awareness by a child as young as 6 yrs of the seriousness of his illness. Implications for designing future research in this area are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
