To explore dominant theoretical influences on parent education, emerging views of child nature and development, and implicit strategies for recruiting parental agreement and participation, this study analyzed "Radio Talk," a 1920s parent education program produced by child psychologists in Minnesota. A qualitative analysis of the transcripts revealed that in the 1920s, parental induction into the new scientific view of childhood was facilitated by heightening self-doubt and self-evaluation, by undermining confidence in intuitive modes of knowing, and by encouraging parents to adopt a scientific epistemological stance. The new view of childhood emphasized its unique and distinct needs, thus polarizing childhood and adulthood. Parents were encouraged to shift attention from physical aspects of the home environment to intangible emotional and relational aspects. Unlike other forms of popular child-rearing advice in the 1920s, Radio Talks were written and delivered by academic psychologists, and thus demonstrate more vividly early attempts to ground expert child-rearing advice in particular scientific ideas, as seen in the incorporation of well-known research, emerging scientific constructs, and an emphasis on cause-and-effect relationships. (MM)
Authors
- Peer Reviewed
- F
- Publication Type
- ['Speeches/Meeting Papers', 'Reports - Research']
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- Rcidio Programs for Parents 2
- University of St. Thomas 2
- Avyi-- 2
- March 1993. 2
- .2-17-28 p. 103. The 4
- Interiorization and focus on psychological processes. 5
- .and see his present behavior and our 7
- 5-25-28 p. 177 7
- Attention to the emotional environment of the home. Parents were 7
- 1-27-28 p. 85 7
- Expanding vigilance toward psychological needs. Parents were 8
- Perhaps. 8
- What the parent. 9
- Redirecting parental attention 9
- Brim 0. 1959. Education for child rearing. New York Free Press. 11
- Cravens H. 1985. Child-saving in the age of professionalism 1915-1930. In J. M. Hawes 11
- Rose N. 1990. Governing the soul The shaping of the private self. London Routledge. 11
