Factors Mediating Children's Health Care Attitudes

Abstract

Children (N = 55; ages 6 to 15.5 years) and their mothers participated in a study to gather psychometric data for the Children's Health Care Attitudes Questionnaire (CHCAQ), and to explore how several variables (child's age, sex, cognitive-developmental level, experience with illness and health care, and health locus of control; maternal health care attitudes and health locus of control; and family socioeconomic status) might mediate children's differential responding to this measure. Additional support was obtained for satisfactory internal consistency and construct validity of the CHCAQ. Patterns of intercorrelations of CHCAQ scales were generally consistent with previous findings. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that those factors mediating children's health care attitudes differ for each CHCAQ scale. Findings suggest that a modified CHCAQ may be a useful instrument for assessing adults' health care attitudes.