Grants and Funded Projects

Exploring What Children Know About Genetics
(American Nurses Foundation)
Principal Investigator: Martha Driessnack, PhD, RN

Nurses increasingly acknowledge that lay beliefs are powerful mediators of public understanding of genetic concepts, risk, family history, decision-making, and health promotion and risk reduction behaviors. This study proposes children’s naïve theories of biology lay the foundation for lay beliefs. Engaging children during the time period in which naïve theories of biology are being formulated (7-10 years) provides a rich opportunity to discover early understandings and misconceptions about genetics, risk, and health promotion and risk reduction behavior. The study uses an innovative exploratory approach to data collection nested in Vygotsky’s competency-based view of children and their active pursuit of knowledge. The primary purpose of the study is to explore healthy children’s knowledge of basic genetic concepts and the sources of information or expertise from which they draw as this knowledge develops. A secondary purpose is the continued development and assessment of a child-centered approach to data collection - the Draw and Tell Conversation - an art-based approach to interviewing using children’s drawings to facilitate communication. Data will be collected in one-on-one interviews with healthy children 7-10 years of age. The resultant descriptions will provide insight into children’s knowledge of basic genetic concepts and technologies, the sources of that knowledge, and the current context in which it is developing. This information will be the first step in a research program exploring both the development of lay beliefs and the impact of those lay beliefs on the translation of genome-based knowledge into public understanding and health benefits.