To investigate whether children's understanding of the concept of death varies as a function of death experience and age, 52 children aged 7, 9, and 11 years (26 had a personal death experience), drew a picture reflecting the meaning of the word death and completed the Death Concept Questionnaire for examination of Human and Animal Death. The results showed that the 2 methodological tools used offered complementary information and that children's understanding of death is related both to age and past experience. Children with death experience seem to have a more realistic understanding of death than their inexperienced age-mates. As regards to the effect of age, our findings support the assumption that the different components of death develop through different processes.

This study aimed to explore Greek children's perceptions of scientists and their activities through drawings and semi -structured interviews. Participants were 110 boys and girls aged 9 to 11 years old. They were asked to draw “a scientist in his/her workplace”. In a next step, thirty boys and girls of the initial sample participated in individual, semi-structured interviews attempting to capture a better understanding of children's perceptions of scientists. The analysis of drawings revealed children's fairly stereotypic images of scientists and significant gender differences, while children's interviews showed less stereotypic and more positive perceptions about scientists

Traditionally, studies assessing children’s experiences of bullying and victimization have focused on the use of questionnaires and peer-nominations. The present study aimed to investigate this phenomenon by using two complementary assessment tools, namely self-reported questionnaires and children’s drawings. The sample consisted of 448 boys and girls drawn from the 4th to 6th grade classrooms of ten primary schools in Central Greece. Children were asked to: (a) draw a scene of peer victimization taking place in their school and (b) complete self-reported questionnaires regarding bullying behaviour, victimization and participant roles in bully/victim incidences. Although the results showed that the relation between drawing and self-report measures is not a straightforward one, they do reveal some interesting associations primarily related to gender differences. In other words, it was found that boys outnumbered girls in both bullying behaviour and victimization. Regarding the employed forms of victimization, boys tended to depict themselves in more physical aggression scenes than girls, while girls tended to draw themselves in more verbal victimization scenes than boys.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore possible age differences in children’s perceptions of illness and health and to what extent these differ from adults’ perceptions. Design: Cross-sectional design. Setting: Selected nursery and primary schools in Greece. Method: The sample consisted of 347 children aged 5–11 years and 114 adults – as a comparison group. Each participant was asked to create two drawings, depicting illness and health respectively, and to give an explanatory title for each. Drawings were categorised into three main categories, depending on the aspect of illness or health depicted, namely biomedical, psychosocial and lifestyle. Results: Older children produced more multifaceted depictions of illness and health than their younger counterparts, while the youngest group had difficulty to represent the two concepts clearly. A comparison of children’s perception of illness and health revealed that the first is perceived mainly as a biomedical phenomenon, while the latter as a psychosocial one. Finally, a comparison of adults’ and children’s representations showed that children understand illness mainly through its biomedical dimensions, unlike adults who seem to prefer to stress psychosocial ones. Conclusions: Knowledge of children’s subjective perceptions of illness and health may be useful in designing health prevention programmes and for medical professionals working with children experiencing chronic illness.

It is well acknowledged that most of the modifiable risk factors for Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) can be averted through lifestyle modifications beyond medication adherence. This review aims to critically evaluate the cardiometabolic (CM) patient-related factors that influence the adherence to lifestyle changes studied alone and/or in combination with medication. A comprehensive literature search of PubMed articles from 2000 to 2023 retrieved 379 articles. After removing the articles which were not relevant, a total of 28 cross-sectional studies was chosen (12 qualitative, and 16 quantitative). The findings confirmed that five groups of factors influence patients’ adherence to overall treatment: (1) health beliefs, knowledge, and perceptions regarding the risks and challenges of disease and medication intake along with adherence process perceptions; (2) self-concept; (3) emotions; (4) patient–healthcare providers relationship/communication and (5) social and cultural interactions. It is worth mentioning that cultural issues, such as culinary particularities, ethnic identity, social life as well as patients’ skills and abilities, play a profound role in the effectiveness of the recommended lifestyle modifications beyond the aforementioned common factors. The need for clear-cut culturally adapted guidelines along with personalized advice from physicians is imperative as it could improve patients’ self-efficacy. These socio-psychological factors should be seriously considered as a means to increase the effectiveness of future community prevention programs.