The Emergence of a Social Problem: Single‐Parent Families in U.S. Popular Magazines and Social Science Journals, 1900–1998*

Abstract

Abundant research investigates the content of public discourse about social problems. Far less is known about the quantity of social problems discourse. This article employs original data to address this gap by examining the emergence of single‐parent families as a social problem within U.S. popular magazines and social science journals. I trace the growth of discourse about single‐parent families in magazines indexed by the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature (N= 3050) and social science journals indexed by JSTOR (N= 1376) between 1900 and 1998 and explore factors associated with this growth. The results indicate that contemporary issues functioned as rival social problems and depressed single‐parent family discourse within magazines but not within journals. Increases in the prevalence of single‐parent families were associated with increases in related discourse in both arenas, but discourse increased earlier in journals. Growing popular concern about single‐parent family formation in the 1960s was associated with a reduction in the quantity of single‐parent family discourse within journals but not within magazines.

Single‐Parent Family Discourse in Popular Magazines and Social Science Journals

“…In a prior article based on the same data, Usdansky underscored that she was studying discourse (see Usdansky, 2008). In the current article, Usdansky also talks about discourse, but whereas the word “discourse” appeared over 100 times in the text of the prior article, it appears only 4 times in the text of the current article.…”

“…In her prior article, however, she gave far greater attention to how and why the discourse was produced. She said, for example, that “the market‐driven focus on attracting a large readership within magazines and the scholarly emphasis on probing the context and causes of social phenomena within journals” influence the discourse packaged within the magazines and journals (Usdansky, 2008, p. 76).…”

“…The degree to which the interests of the actors who create discourse within a given arena are aligned with those of societal elites and of society as a whole—or distinct from them—may be particularly important and may vary across arenas of public discourse. (Usdansky, 2008, pp. 89 – 90)…”

“…We can only speculate on whether the culture of nonmarital childbearing and divorce, viewed through the prism of popular magazines and social science journals, would be similar to the culture of nonmarital childbearing and divorce viewed through the prism of, say, newspapers or novels (cf. Usdansky, 2008). Still, the study throws light on how attitudes toward single‐parent families, and especially divorce, may have changed since the early 1900s and illustrates also how single‐parent family discourse in the media may be driven, in part, by commercial interests.…”

Ambivalent Acceptance of Single‐Parent Families: A Response to Comments

“…Most modes of discourse, including magazines and social science journals, are dominated by elites, which may influence the attitudes conveyed therein as I discuss below. I am also sympathetic to LaRossa’s critique that I should have devoted more attention to the impact of the differing structures of magazine and journal discourse—particularly the commercial orientation of the media (Bourdieu, 2005) and standards of intellectual innovation within academia (Guetzkow, Lamont, & Mallard, 2004)—as I have in previous work on this topic (Usdansky, 2008).…”