Representing Anxious Parents in China: a study of ‘Parenting Science’ magazine 1980- 2016

• In Event: ICA Interactive Paper/Poster Session II
  In Interactive Poster Session: Popular Communication Interactive Poster Session

Abstract

This paper analyses the representation of parental practices in Parenting Science, the first and longest running parenting magazine published in China since 1980. Drawing on Foucault’s work on governmentality and biopolitics, this paper critically investigates the discourses that surround parental practices relating to the health and development of young children, exploring issues of medicalisation, intensive parenting, responsibility and self-management. Based on a qualitative content analysis of 2,295 items from 37 issues of the magazine (1980-2016), including editorials, feature stories, standard articles, Q&As, adverts and other short items, this paper has identified three major discourses of parental practices in monitoring and facilitating children’s health, development and wellbeing: 1) the medicalisation of children’s health problems, 2) the rise of expert authority, 3) and the responsibilisation of parents. This paper argues that these discourses underpin the construction of an intensive and anxious parenting culture in China, a country characterised by rapid socioeconomic and cultural changes.

Author

• Qian Sarah Gong, U of Leicester