Understanding Of Contagion Research Articles

How Children Develop Healthy Behavioral Choices to Promote Illness Prevention

Children’s understanding of contagion has been a fruitful area for studying children’s learning. However, despite a large literature on children’s conceptual understanding of illness, there is very little research on the impact of children’s knowledge about illness transmission on adaptive behavior. This is important because how children behave when faced with a sick individual or a contaminated object is what is most relevant to whether children get sick and pass along that illness to other people. Here, we will bring together various theories of how children learn to behave adaptively when faced with the possibility of getting sick (a) to better illuminate the different ways by which children might acquire health-related behaviors and (b) to help develop recommendations for designing interventions aimed at teaching children about contagion and illness prevention in a way that produces the most adaptive health behaviors.

Quarantine: Concept, Origin and Impact on COVID-19 Pandemic

Although, the story of the beginnings of quarantine is associated particularly with the epidemiology of pest (pestilence or plague), the concept is deeply rooted in religious scriptures. Whereas the Holy Bible commands the separation of people with leprosy from other people as early as 1513 BC, the Hadees (Reported Sayings of the Last Messenger Muhammad (AD 570-632) ordains “If you hear of an outbreak of plague in a land, do not enter it; but if the plague breaks out in a place while you are in it, do not leave that place." This dictate seems to have its influence to the main tenets of the Law of Ragusa dated July 27, 1377 which stipulate: -Visitors from areas where plague was endemic were not being admitted into Ragusa until they had remained in isolation for a month. No one from Ragusa was allowed to go to the isolation area. The quarantine is much modified in modern practice because of the better understanding of contagion and introduction of new terminology. Social distancing and self -isolation have proved their worth in the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic. Shielding of clinically extremely vulnerable individuals has been implicated with remarkable success in UK. However, public health practices including quarantine have always been much debated and economic, cultural, ethical and political issues have been raised. Today, many countries have the legal authority to impose quarantine. However, the WHO advises that it must be fully respectful of the dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms of persons, in accordance with Article 3 of the International Health Regulations -2005.

Learning about germs in a global pandemic: Children’s knowledge and avoidance of contagious illness before and after COVID-19

The present research investigates how a global pandemic may be affecting children’s understanding of contagion. In Study 1, 130 parents (85.4 % White, 6.9 % Hispanic, 3.8 % Asian, 3.8 % Black) of children ages 3–9 described discussions surrounding contagion pre- and post-pandemic. Content of these discussions focused on risks and preventative behaviors rather than causal mechanisms of contagion. In Study 2, US children tested during the pandemic (ages 4−7, N = 60, 51.7 % males) were compared to a sample tested before the pandemic (ages 4−5, N = 30, 50 % males) on tasks of contagion-related declarative knowledge and causal reasoning. Greater declarative knowledge and causal reasoning in the pandemic sample suggests the effectiveness of informal learning experiences in young children.

Contagion in CDS, banking and equity markets

We develop a strategy for testing endogenously contagion within banking sector, stock market indices and Credit Default Swap Spreads. We present evidence of strong contagion in several cases and markets. Contagion seems to be widespread during the Global Financial Crisis and the recent European Sovereign Debt Crisis. Our results are important for a better understanding of contagion and the development of macroprudential tools for financial stability surveillance.

Children's Conceptions of the Causes of Illness: Understanding of Contagion and Use of Immanent Justice

15 healthy children at each of 4 grade levels (preschool, kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade) were interviewed to assess their understanding of contagion and their use of immanent justice explanations for illness and accident. Compared to older children, younger ones were more likely to overextend the concept of contagion to inappropriate ailments (i.e., to noncontagious illness and to accident), and were less likely to understand the effect of distance between people on the likelihood of transmitting contagious ailments. Younger children were far more likely than older ones to invoke immanent justice explanations for events. Children at all ages employed immanent justice explanations with greater frequency for illness than for accident or misfortune. Finally, use of immanent justice was inversely related to understanding of the rational causes of illness. Even after the effects of age had been partialed out, children's use of immanent justice explanations for contagious illness was negatively correlated with their understanding of contagion.