The task of taking care of children: methodological perspectives and empirical implications

Abstract

A B S T RA C T Methods are not neutral instruments but construct the phenomena under investigation and convey meaning about what is important.This paper explores a methodological framework to investigate parental care for children. As part of the results, the following characteristics of how parents take care of their children are presented: continuous responsibility; predictable routines that are adjusted to the child; and interpretations and negotiations about developmental goals. The argument is that methodological approaches that analyse larger temporal units of contextualized practices as presented by the participants themselves open up for more context-sensitive knowledge about the task of taking care of children. Thus, the understanding of the process of development is widened and specified in a way that may be useful for fields of practice where developmental psychology is 'at work'. bs_bs_banner

Putting the child at the centre of inter‐professional cooperation in out‐of‐home care

“…The research project sought knowledge of how inter‐professional cooperation establishes conditions for children's social participation in their everyday living across contexts (Hansen ; Stokholm ). Andenæs () argues that much of the research into child development consists of studying developmental processes independent of contexts. She proposes putting everyday life, as it is experienced by its participants, into a central knowledge source of psychological research (Andenaes p. 4).…”

“…Andenæs () argues that much of the research into child development consists of studying developmental processes independent of contexts. She proposes putting everyday life, as it is experienced by its participants, into a central knowledge source of psychological research (Andenaes p. 4). In this approach, the researcher does not focus on the isolated child but investigates the social world they take part in, by following social interplay in everyday life activities across contexts.…”

Parental Regulation of Infant Sleep: Round-the-Clock Efforts for Social Synchronization

“…To include the whole 24‐hr day and the parents’ intentions, interviews were structured in accordance with the “life‐mode interview” strategy (Andenaes, ; Haavind, ), in which the previous day serves as the point of departure for detailed descriptions of the organization of everyday life. The parents were encouraged to describe, episode by episode, the social interactions that their child was involved in from yesterday morning until the following morning, to recount what the other family members were doing at the same time, and to provide their reflections on the described practices.…”

“…Development is seen as being driven by social interactions in everyday life that enhance a child's competence to participate in her or his society (Rogoff, ). This motivates an interest in the social interactions children take part in and in parents’ efforts to organize the everyday life of their child (Andenaes, ; Morss, ; Weisner, ). Cultural psychology also calls attention to the intentionality of human beings; that is, the meaning‐making processes behind their practices that are rooted in the challenges and opportunities of everyday life (Bruner, ; Shweder, ; Valsiner, ).…”

Now you see it, now you don't: Explaining inconsistent evidence on gender stereotyping of newborns

“…In this regard, researchers assign vital importance to gender stereotypes—or, in Kite's () words, gender‐associated beliefs—which may already be at work at the time of an infant's birth. Until today, the classical study by Rubin, Provenzano, and Luria () is frequently cited as an example suggesting the power of gender stereotypes for sex role socialization of newborns (e.g., Andenaes, ; Jones, ; McGinnis, Bocknek, Beeghly, Rosenblum, & Muzik, ). In the study of Rubin et al, parents judged newborn daughters to be significantly smaller, softer, finer featured, and more inattentive than newborn sons on bipolar Likert‐format adjective scales.…”