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Created: July 17, 2003
Latest Update: July 17, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Media, Dominant Discourse, and Child Care

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, July 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

This essay is based on an article in the New York Times by Susan Gilbert on July 16, 2003: Two Studies Link Child Care to Behavior Problems at p. A 12.

Child Care Linked To Assertive, Noncompliant, and Aggressive Behaviors Vast Majority of Children Within Normal Range Color added for emphasis. National Institute of Health Press Release on July 16, 2003.

"However, the researchers cautioned that for the vast majority of children, the levels of the behaviors reported were well within the normal range.

"In fact, a mother's sensitivity to her child was a better indicator of reported problem behaviors than was time in child care, with more sensitive mothering being linked to less problem behaviors. Higher maternal education and family income also predicted lower levels of children's problem behaviors.

"The findings are from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development.

And so it goes in social science research. The media are unlikely to contradict dominant discourse easily. We learned from Edward T. Hall's Silent Language that we have the most affect with respect to things we have learned informally, like through dominant discourse. And through dominant discourse we have learned that child care is socially acceptable. We may need TV spy cameras to protect our kids from violence and sex abuse, but if we are alert and careful, child care is not only good it's economically necessary for many two-parent and almost all single-parent families. So when the two studies reported on July 16, 2003, suggested that some children react negatively to the stress of group care (some of us are "loners," the same way that some of us are "night people"), the agencies actually delayed the reports to get child care experts opinions before they released the news. Part of the reason for that is that we tend to get frustrated and angry when we are told that things we "know" are true may not be so "true" after all. It leads to ambiguity, which lots of us don't tolerate so well.

References:

Child Care Linked To Assertive, Noncompliant, and Aggressive Behaviors Vast Majority of Children Within Normal Range Color added for emphasis. National Institute of Health Press Release on July 16, 2003.