ILLNESS BEHAVIOR AND SOMATIZATION IN CHILDREN

该项目关注的是老年人的患病行为和躯体化。 儿童和青少年，即 症状和残疾与医学上的 条件。这项研究是在以下背景下概念化的 家庭健康与疾病行为。学习认识和 对身体的感觉做出适当的反应被认为是正常的 儿童发展和躯体化的过程被视为一种 在正常行为的连续体上是极端的。 这项研究的基础是一个概念模型，该模型确定了 儿童和家庭因素与发展和 维持过多的躯体抱怨和残疾。这个 第一个具体目标是使用一个患者群体来测试该模型 随着时间的推移，纵向设计的背景 儿科症状/残疾的程度和性质 反复腹痛患者无可辨认的器质性 病因学。将使用几个比较组来测试 模型的特殊性，即它在区分 来自健康儿童的功能性躯体症状的儿童 以及那些患有可识别的器质性疾病或情感障碍的人 精神错乱。特定成分的发育差异 并对该模型的整体实用性进行了考察。 第二个具体目标是通过三个实验来检查 研究，链接模型组件的过程。这些 研究将检验以下主要假设：(A)儿童的 症状报告将增加，体能表现将 在鼓励儿童监视的条件下减少 身体的内在感觉，(B)父母对自己的看法 身体状态会影响他们对儿童的理解 身体暗示疾病，以及(C)在 生理唤醒的儿童将报告身体症状 和疲惫的父母，他们之前加强了他们的疾病 行为。

This project focuses on illness behavior and somatization in children and adolescents, i.e., the development of symptomatology and disability disproportionate to the medical condition. The research is conceptualized within the context of family health and illness behavior. Learning to recognize and respond appropriately to bodily sensations is viewed as a normal process in child development and somatization is viewed as an extreme on a continuum of normal behavior. The research is grounded in a conceptual model that identifies child and family factors associated with the development and maintenance of excessive somatic complaints and disability. The first specific aim is to test the model using a patient population in the context of a longitudinal design that traces over time the level and nature of symptomatology/disability in pediatric patients with recurrent abdominal pain of no identifiable organic etiology. Several comparison groups will be used in order to test the specificity of the model, i.e., its utility in distinguishing children with functional somatic complaints from well children and from those with identifiable organic disease or emotional disorders. Developmental differences in the specific components and overall utility of the model also will be examined. The second specific aim is to examine, via three experimental studies, the processes linking the model components. These studies will test the following major hypotheses: (a) a child's symptom-reporting will increase and physical performance will decrease under conditions that encourage the child to monitor internal bodily sensations, (b) parents' perceptions of their own bodily states will influence their interpretation of children's bodily cues as being indicative of illness, and (c) under conditions of physiological arousal children will report physical symptoms and fatigue to a parent who has previously reinforced their illness behavior.