Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-tj2md Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T10:02:07.868Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Harnessing the power of cultural health narratives when working with parents of young children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2019

Marg Rogers Open the ORCID record for Marg Rogers [Opens in a new window]
Marg Rogers*
Affiliation:
Lecturer Early Childhood Education, University of New England, Armidale, Australia
*
Author for correspondence: Marg Rogers, Email: mbaber@une.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Narratives are a powerful tool for transferring knowledge and culture. They have a profound effect on our psyche and our attitudes to messages and teachings. The transfer of information through traditional teaching and lectures is often less effective in changing a belief or understanding than using narrative. In this discussion paper, I explore this phenomenon and examine the persuasive effect of cultural narratives. The discussion also considers the impacts of cultural narrative as an educative tool on parental attitudes towards childhood immunisation. I explore the changing nature of the way parents with young children communicate and seek information and early childhood educators’ roles in their lives within the Australian context. Understanding the way humans are drawn to narrative may be beneficial to health workers, early childhood educators, family workers and those who plan health education programmes. To effectively target their messages, it would be of benefit to public health officials to have knowledge about how parents with young children inform themselves and develop health beliefs, and the extent to which parents’ ideas become fixed.

Keywords

cultural narrativeshealth narrativeschildhood immunisationearly childhood educatorsvaccination
Type
Practice Commentaries
Information
Children Australia , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 105 - 109
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baber, M. (2016). Narrative, acculturation and ritual: Themes from a socio-ecological study of Australian Defence Force families experiencing parental deployment. Children Australia, 41(2), 141–153. doi: 10.1017/cha.2016.8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baber, M., Fussell, M., & Porter, K. (2015). Liam’s story: So why do I wear Dad’s medals? Mt. Victoria, Australia: Pademelon Press.Google Scholar
Barthes, R., & Duisit, L. (1975). An introduction to the structural analysis of narrative. New Literary History, 6(2), 237–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, L., Nolan, T., & Lester, R. (1998). Home vaccination for children behind in their immunisation schedule: A randomised controlled trial. The Medical Journal of Australia, 168(2), 487–490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brunson, E. K. (2013). How parents make decisions about their children’s vaccinations. Vaccine, 31, 5466–5470.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Department of Health. (2015). Immunise Australia program. Retrieved from http://www.immunise.health.gov.au/Google Scholar
Doherty, C., Shield, P., Patton, W., & Mu, G. M. (2015). The limits to public service: rural communities, professional families and work mobility. Community, Work and Family, 18(1), 100–116. doi: 10.1080/13668803.2014.953446CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fields, B. A. (2016). Children on the move: The social and educational effects of family mobility. Children Australia, 22(3), 4–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gleeson, L. (2012). Writing like a writer: Teaching narrative writing. Sydney, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association of Australia.Google Scholar
Gottschall, J. (2012). The storytelling animal: How stories make us human. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Hak, E., Schonbeck, Y., De Melker, H., Van Esen, G. A., & Sanders, E. A. M. (2005). Negative attitude of highly educated parents and health care workers towards future vaccinations in the Dutch childhood vaccination program. Vaccine, 23, 3103–3107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardy, A. S. B. (1968). Towards a poetics of fiction: An approach through narrative. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction, 2(1), 5–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinyard, L. J., & Kreuter, M. (2007). Using narrative communication as a tool for health behavior change: A conceptual, theoretical, and empirical overview. Health Education and Behaviour, 34(5), 777–792. doi: 10.1177/1090198106291963CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Horne, Z., Powell, D., Hummel, J. E., & Holyoak, K. J. (2015). Countering antivaccination attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(33), 10321–10324.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hull, B. P., & McIntyre, P. (2006). Timeliness of childhood immunisation in Australia. Vaccine, 24, 4403–4408.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kolos, V., Menzies, R., & McIntyre, P. (2006). Higher pertussis hospitalization rates in indigenous Australian infants, and delayed vaccination. Vaccine, 25, 588–590.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lake, M. (2010). What have you done for your country? In Lake, M., & Renyolds, H. (Eds.), What’s wrong with ANZAC? The militarisation of Australian history (pp. 1–23). Sydney, Australia: University of New South Wales Press Ltd.Google Scholar
Landry, B. (2017). Using healthcare narrative methods to improve outcomes. Real Conversations, Actions. Retrieved from http://feedbacklabs.org/blog/using-healthcare-narrative-methods-to-improve-outcomes/Google Scholar
Lawrence, G., Hull, B., MacIntyre, C., & Mcintyre, P. (2004). Reasons for incomplete immunisation among Australian children. Australian Family Physician, 33(7), 568–571.Google ScholarPubMed
Leask, J., Chapman, S., Hawe, P., & Burgess, M. (2006). What maintains parental support for vaccination when challenged by anti-vaccination messages? A qualitative study. Vaccine, 24, 7238–7245.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leask, J., Danchin, M., & Berry, N. J. (2017). Australians’ attitudes to vaccination are more complex than a simple ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ label. The Coversation, March 9(Australian), 1–5.Google Scholar
Lui, B., Guthridge, S., Qin Li, S., Markey, P., Krause, V., McIntyre, P., … Kaldor, J. M. (2012). The end of the Australia antigen? An ecological study of the impact of universal newborn hepatitis B vaccination two decades on. Vaccine, 30, 7309–7314.Google Scholar
Mallan, K. (2014). Picture books then, now and beyond. In Mallan, K. (Ed.), Picture books and beyond (pp. 1–11). Newtown, Australia: Primary English Teaching Association Australia.Google Scholar
McCaffery, K. J., Shepherd, H. L., Trevena, L., Juraskova, I., Barratt, A., Butow, P. N., … Tattersall, M. H. N. (2007). Shared decision-making in Australia. Zeitschrift für ärztliche Fortbildung und Qualität im Gesundheitswesen - German Journal for Quality in Health Care, 101(4), 205–211.Google ScholarPubMed
Mergler, M. J., Omer, S. B., Pan, W. K. Y., Navar-Boggan, A. M., Orenstein, W., Marcuse, E., , K, … Salmon, D. A. (2013). Association of vaccine-related attitudes and beliefs between parents and health care providers. Vaccine, 31, 4951–4595.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moen, T. (2006). Reflections on the narrative approach. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(4), 56–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, E., & Harrison, L. (2017). Interconnections between family, child care and education. In Grace, R., Hodge, K., & McMahon, C. (Eds.), Children, families and communities (pp. 169–194). South Melbourne, Australia: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nardi, P. M. (2006). Doing survey research: A guide to qualitative methods. Boston, MA: Pearson and Allyn and Bacon.Google Scholar
Polkinghorne, D. E. (1986). Narrative knowing and the human sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Rainey, J., J., Watkins, M., Ryman, T. K., & Sandhu, P. (2011). Reasons related to non-vaccination and under-vaccination of children in low and middle income countries: Finding from a systematic review of the published literature, 1999–2009. Vaccine, 29, 8215–8221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogers, M. (2017). Young children’s understanding and experiences of parental deployment within an Australian Defence Force family. (Doctor of Philosophy), University of New England, Armidale, Australia.Google Scholar
Rogers-Baber, M. (2017). Protective factors in families: Themes from a socio-ecological study of Australian Defence Force families experiencing parental deployment. SAGE Open Access, 7(2). doi: 10.1177/2158244017706711Google Scholar
Sadaf, A., Richards, J. L., Glanz, J., Salmon, D. A., & Omer, S. B. (2013). A systematic review of interventions for reducing parental vaccine refusal and vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine, 31, 4293–4304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, C. (2006). Vaccination in Australia. [Correspondence]. The Lancet, 3367(9522), 1575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, R., Hadfield, L., Kehily, M. J., & Sharpe, S. (2012). Acting up and acting out: Encountering children in a longitudinal study of mothering. Qualitative Research, 12(2), 186–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tillermans, D. R. M., Henneman, L., Hirasing, R. A., & van der Wal, G. (2005). Attitudes and risk perception of parents of different ethnic backgrounds regarding meningococcal C vaccination. Vaccine, 23, 3329–3335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willis, O. (2019). A spike in measles cases in Australia has prompted immunisation warnings. Are you at risk? ABC News. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2019-04-10/measles-spikes-prompts-immunisation-warning-are-you-at-risk/10986172Google Scholar
Wilson, T. (2016). Working with parents, carers and families in the early years: The essential guide. Oxon, UK: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. (Producer). (2010). The secret powers of time. RSA Animate. Retrieved from http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-the-secret-powers-of-timeGoogle Scholar