Genetic determinism
How psychiatric thinking influences parents’ approaches to their children's development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/qs.v8i2.140963Keywords:
parental determinism, concerted cultivation, kinship, risk management, diagnostic cultureAbstract
Based on fieldwork in families and a mainstream kindergarten in Denmark, this article discusses how children who are viewed as special and at risk are subjected in new ways to “concerted cultivation” between childhood professionals and parents. The article identifies two forms of parental determinism that are associated with two different views of the good parent: On the one hand, psychologically inspired parental determinism focusing on what parents do; on the other, genetic determinism focusing on who parents are biologically. Genetic determinism dominates the empirical material, suggesting an increasing influence from psychiatry in how parents understand children’s development. This implies that the natural and the cultural interact in new ways and transforms the collaboration between parents and professionals, creating new expectations on both sides. As a result, parenting at-risk children is characterized by less trust in intuition and a greater need for guidance in order to accommodate the child’s special nature.
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