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“Don't worry” : Figurations of the child in a Swedish parenting advice column.
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Materials such as popular books, magazines, and newspapers have historically been important for the circulation of psychologists’ and psychiatrists’ expertise in the public sphere. In this article, I analyze an advice column published in the Swedish parenting magazine Vi Föräldrar [Us Parents], featuring the child psychologist Malin Alfvén. Drawing on the concept of figurations (Castañeda, 2002), denoting the process of outlining and defining an entity, I show how the expert framed the child-related problems brought up in the submitted letters as transient and a normal part of children’s development. In fact, most problems were considered beneficial for both parents and the child. Instead of interpreting children’s behavior through a medical framework, Alfvén’s explanations drew on 3 naturalizing figurations of the child: as being one of several kinds of children; as going through phases and ages; and as being a unique individual. For instance, a child could be rowdy and temperamental because he was a willful kind of child, not because, as suggested by some parents, he suffered from a neuropsychiatric disorder. I conclude by contrasting these findings to the claims made by some scholars that “psy” experts have contributed to an increasing medicalization of childhood as well as to a framing of children’s development as overwhelmingly determined by parents’ care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)
Details
- Database :
- OAIster
- Notes :
- application/pdf, English
- Publication Type :
- Electronic Resource
- Accession number :
- edsoai.on1234587588
- Document Type :
- Electronic Resource
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1037.hop0000138