Parents' Perceptions on the Debated Parenting Practice of Cognitive Enhancement in Healthy Children and Adolescents.

Kati Hiltrop, Sebastian Sattler
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引用次数: 1

Abstract

First evidence shows that some parents engage in the health-endangering practice of (mis-)using prescription drugs to boost their children's school performance. But little is known about parental perspectives on this phenomenon. This study aims to better understand parents' perspectives on the non-medical use of prescription drugs to improve healthy children's cognitive functioning. We conducted twelve semi-structured face-to-face interviews with a diverse sample of parents in Germany, and applied qualitative content analysis to explore their perspectives on instrumentalizing prescription drugs for improving the performance of healthy children, including their underlying knowledge (gaps), moral evaluations, evaluations of accompanied risks and benefits, opinions on potential motivators, and wishes regarding policy-making. The results show that parents typically believed themselves knowledgeable about such prescription drug (mis-)use, although they were not aware of anyone in their social environment taking them for enhancement. Parents generally considered such behavior to be morally reprehensible, cheating, and similar to doping in sports, and they typically claimed that no situation or occasion could motivate them to administer prescription drugs to their healthy children. Health risks (including side effects or addiction) were a typical expectation of drug use. That doctors should give such drugs to healthy young people was seen as unjustifiable. The results suggest that morality and risk-benefit evaluations of parents play a major role in their decision-making concerning this potentially risky instrumentalization of non-medical drugs. These insights are of distinct importance, especially for future research and further discussions on this topic, such as an evidence-based public dialog and ethics debates.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41465-022-00243-w.

父母对健康儿童和青少年认知增强有争议的育儿实践的看法
第一个证据表明,一些家长(错误地)使用处方药来提高孩子的学习成绩,这是危害健康的做法。但父母对这一现象的看法却鲜为人知。本研究旨在更好地了解家长对非医疗使用处方药以改善健康儿童认知功能的看法。我们对德国不同样本的父母进行了12次半结构化的面对面访谈,并应用定性内容分析来探讨他们对将处方药用作工具以提高健康儿童表现的看法,包括他们的潜在知识(差距)、道德评价、对相关风险和收益的评价、对潜在激励因素的看法以及对政策制定的愿望。结果表明,父母通常认为自己对这类处方药(误用)很了解,尽管他们不知道他们的社会环境中有人为了增强记忆力而服用这些药物。家长们普遍认为这种行为在道德上应该受到谴责,是一种欺骗行为,类似于在体育运动中使用兴奋剂,他们通常声称,没有任何情况或场合能促使他们给健康的孩子服用处方药。健康风险(包括副作用或成瘾)是吸毒的典型预期。医生给健康的年轻人开这种药被认为是没有道理的。结果表明,父母的道德和风险效益评估在他们对这种潜在风险的非医疗药物工具化的决策中起着重要作用。这些见解非常重要,特别是对于未来的研究和关于这一主题的进一步讨论,例如基于证据的公共对话和伦理辩论。补充信息:在线版本包含补充资料,提供地址为10.1007/s41465-022-00243-w。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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