RAPID: Children's Biological Beliefs Concerning COVID-19 Disease Transmission

在当前的COVID-19危机中，制定有效的手段对儿童进行疾病传播教育，不仅对科学素养，而且对公共卫生都是至关重要的问题。儿童在传染病传播中发挥着重要作用，因为他们经常从事危险行为，如触摸自己的脸或与照顾者进行身体接触。公共卫生建议包括向儿童传授减少疾病传播的最佳做法，但先前的研究表明，如果儿童对疾病传播的基本过程没有牢固的了解，他们不太可能参与这些做法。这项RAPID奖授予了密歇根大学的一组研究人员，他们将评估儿童对COVID-19传播的了解、不了解以及自认为了解（但在科学上不准确）的情况。在对5-12岁儿童及其父母进行全面评估时，研究人员将解决以下问题：儿童在什么年龄才能理解病毒传播的非明显或不可见方面，例如无症状携带者，或物体和表面携带感染的可能性？在什么年龄的孩子可以超越孤立的事实，他们学会弄清楚在新的情况下该怎么做？儿童的生物学推理是如何受到非生物学因素的影响的，比如潜在的携带者是朋友还是陌生人？孩子们对一场已经严重扰乱他们日常生活的大流行（COVID-19）的推理，与他们对一种更普通、无害的疾病（普通感冒）的推理相比，有什么不同？该项目的调查结果将使家长、教育工作者、研究人员和公共卫生专业人员了解儿童对疾病传播的了解，特别是对COVID-19的了解。它将为迅速发展以证据为基础的教育干预措施奠定基础，针对儿童理解方面的差距和误解，从而提高科学素养和对公共卫生准则的遵守。该RAPID奖由DRL的EHR核心研究（ECR）项目提供，资金来自《冠状病毒援助、救济和经济安全（CARES）法案》。ECR支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。研究小组将采访5-12岁的儿童及其父母，采用一系列措施评估儿童对病毒传播生物学过程的理解，并将COVID-19与普通感冒进行比较。研究1将通过一系列儿童友好型任务来评估：潜伏期（感染和发病之间的时间差）、无症状宿主、病毒可以在表面或物体（如门把手）上存活，以及病毒可以通过眼睛、鼻子和嘴巴进入人体，从而解决儿童对病毒如何以及为何起作用和传播的理解。研究2将侧重于谁可能感染、传播或遭受病毒性疾病的后果，以及生物和非生物因素（如一个人的国籍、语言或熟悉程度）在这些判断中的作用。例如，孩子们会收到一系列的小插曲，每个小插曲都涉及两个不同社会身份的假设角色，其中疾病传播是一种可能性，并将被要求评估角色感染疾病的可能性，角色会生病到什么程度，以及角色是否会将疾病传播给另一个人。虽然面对面的接触是限制的，但孩子们将通过面对面的远程视频和发送给父母/监护人的质量调查链接进行访谈。采访将被记录、转录和编码。儿童在不同任务中的表现之间的相互关系将评估理解是否由零碎的事实组成，而不是连贯的理解。在这次全球大流行期间，确定儿童对疾病传播的理解提供了一个前所未有的机会，可以确定儿童对病毒传播的理解方面的差距和误解，为在小学和中学阶段制定有效的生物学教育方案奠定基础。它还将成为STEM教育关于儿童生物学理论在发展时期的一致性以及儿童非正式生物学理论如何在持续的健康危机背景下发生变化的核心兴趣的理论重要数据的来源。该项目将为改进生物教育以及公共卫生和儿童对他人疾病的了解和反应提供基础。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

In the current COVID-19 crisis, developing effective means of educating children about disease transmission is a matter of vital concern, not only for scientific literacy, but also for public health. Children play an important role in the transmission of contagious illness, given how frequently they engage in risky behaviors such as touching their faces or making physical contact with caregivers. Public health recommendations include teaching best practice to children to reduce disease spread, but prior research shows that children are unlikely to engage in these practices without a firm understanding of the underlying process of disease transmission. This RAPID award to a team of researchers at the University of Michigan will assess what children know, what they don't know, and what they think they know (but is scientifically inaccurate) about the transmission of COVID-19. In conducting a comprehensive assessment with children aged 5-12 years and their parents, the researchers will address such questions as: At what ages do children understand aspects of viral transmission that are non-obvious or invisible, such as asymptomatic carriers, or the potential for objects and surfaces to carry infection? At what ages can children go beyond isolated facts they have learned to figure out what to do in new situations? How is children's biological reasoning influenced by non-biological factors, such whether a potential carrier is a friend or a stranger? How does children's reasoning about a pandemic that has already massively disrupted their daily lives (COVID-19) compare with their reasoning about a more ordinary and innocuous illness (the common cold)? Findings from the project will inform parents, educators, researchers, and public health professionals about children's understanding of the transmission of disease in general, and COVID-19 in particular. It will lay the foundation for the rapid development of evidence-based educational interventions that target gaps and misconceptions in children’s understanding, thereby improving both scientific literacy and adherence to public health guidelines. This RAPID award is made by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program in DRL, using funds from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. ECR supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning. The research team will interview children age 5-12 years and their parents, employing a battery of measures to assess children's understanding of the biological processes of viral transmission, comparing COVID-19 with the common cold. Study 1 will address children's understanding of how and why viruses work and spread, with a battery of child-friendly tasks that assess: incubation periods (lag between infection and disease onset), asymptomatic hosts, that viruses can survive on a surface or object (such as a doorknob), and that viruses can gain access to the body through the eyes, nose, and mouth. Study 2 will focus on who may contract, transmit, or suffer the consequences of viral disease, and the role of both biological and non-biological factors (such as a person's nationality, language, or familiarity) in these judgments. For example, children will receive a series of vignettes, each involving two hypothetical characters of different social identities, where disease transmission is a possibility, and will be asked to assess the likelihood that the character will contract the illness, how sick the character will get, and whether or not the character will transmit the illness to another person. While in-person contact is restricted, children will be interviewed via face-to-face remote video and a Qualtrics survey link sent to the parent/guardian. Interviews will be recorded, transcribed, and coded. Intercorrelations among children's performance across the different tasks will assess whether understanding consists of piecemeal facts as opposed to coherent understandings. Determining children's understanding of disease transmission during this global pandemic provides an unprecedented opportunity to identify gaps and misconceptions in children's understanding of viral transmission, to provide a foundation for developing effective educational programming about biology in the elementary and middle school years. It will also be a source of theoretically significant data of central interest to STEM education regarding the coherence of children's biological theories over developmental time, and how children's informal biological theories may shift in the context of an ongoing health crisis. The project will provide a foundation for improving biological education, as well as for public health and children's understanding of and reactions to illness in others.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.