At what age do children most commonly believe they are sick due to being "bad"?

Children most commonly believe they are sick due to being "bad" during the preschool age. This belief stems from their stage of cognitive development, where they are starting to make connections between their actions and consequences. At this age, children often think in very concrete terms and may attribute personal experiences to moral judgments, leading them to believe that if they are feeling unwell, it is a result of having done something wrong.

This is tied to their understanding of right and wrong, as well as their burgeoning sense of self and morality. Preschoolers are beginning to comprehend social norms and the expectations placed upon them by caregivers and society. As they process their experiences emotionally and cognitively, they might infer that sickness is a punishment for deviant behavior, indicating a simple form of magical thinking typical of this developmental stage.

In contrast, infants do not have the cognitive capacity to make such connections; school-age children possess a more sophisticated understanding of health and illness, which generally distances them from the idea that being "bad" directly causes sickness. Adolescents, on the other hand, are beginning to explore complex social and psychological ideas but are less likely to attribute illness to moral failings in the same simplistic manner seen in preschoolers.