Understanding disease transmission is a complex problem highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies test whether 3- to 6-year-old children in the United States use information about social interactions to predict disease transmission. Before and during COVID-19, children predicted illness would spread through close interactions. Older children outperformed younger children with no associations between task performance and pandemic experience. Children did not predict that being hungry or tired would similarly spread through close interactions. Participants include 196 three- to six-year-olds (53% girls, 47% boys; 68% White, 9% Black, 7% Asian, 6% Hispanic or Latinx), with medium-sized effects (d = .6,  = .3). These findings suggest that thinking about social interaction supports young children's predictions about illness, with noted limitations regarding children's real-world avoidance of disease-spreading behaviors.

中文翻译：

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幼儿预测新疾病的能力

了解疾病传播是 COVID-19 大流行突出的一个复杂问题。这些研究测试了美国 3 至 6 岁的儿童是否使用有关社会互动的信息来预测疾病传播。在 COVID-19 之前和期间，儿童预测疾病会通过密切的互动传播。在任务表现与流行病经历之间没有关联的情况下，年长儿童的表现优于年幼儿童。孩子们没有预料到饥饿或疲倦同样会通过密切的互动传播。参与者包括 196 名 3 至 6 岁的儿童（53% 的女孩，47% 的男孩；68% 的白人，9% 的黑人，7% 的亚洲人，6% 的西班牙裔或拉丁裔），影响中等（d  = .6， = .3)。这些研究结果表明，考虑社交互动支持幼儿对疾病的预测，但在儿童在现实世界中避免疾病传播行为方面存在明显的局限性。