Innocent and Vulnerable: Constructions of Childhood and Social Justice in Pediatric Medicine

• In Event: 4340 - Children, Youth and Institutions

Abstract

Pediatric practitioners are America’s foremost medico-scientific authorities on children and childhood. Yet, few studies have investigated how pediatric providers define childhood and describe the natures of children. Based on a large ethnographic study at a top-ranked children’s hospital on the West Coast of the United States, which included semi-structured interviews with twenty-five medical doctors and nurse practitioners, this paper examines how pediatric providers construct childhood. Drawing on two robust, but disparate, literatures – childhood studies and medical sociology – this paper poses a theoretical question: how does the authority of children measure up to medical authority? Interview data show that pediatric providers subscribe to popular sociocultural beliefs that children are innocent, vulnerable, emotional, optimistic, energetic, and resilient and that childhood should be a time of exploration, learning, and fun. Providers cite children’s perceived helplessness, lack of logic, reason, and cognitive understanding as they advocate for quality healthcare for all children. I argue that how practitioners define childhood is central to how they construct pediatric medicine as a medical specialty. What pediatricians tell us about children reflects how they perceive themselves as medical authorities and caretakers of children. How practitioners construct childhood is central to their call for social justice and healthcare access, but, ultimately and ironically, undermines childhood agency, autonomy, and authority.

Author

• Liberty Barnes, University of Oregon