Debating Early Child Care
The Relationship between Developmental Science and the Media

Demonstrates how research on child care can become used as ammunition in fierce media public debates.

Robert Crosnoe (Author), Tama Leventhal (Author)

9781107093294, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 11 March 2016

186 pages, 12 b/w illus. 6 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.3 cm, 0.42 kg

Throughout distressing cultural battles and disputes over child care, each side claims to have the best interests of children at heart. While developmental scientists have concrete evidence for this debate, their message is often lost or muddied by the media. To demonstrate why this problem matters, this book examines the extensive media coverage of the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development – a long-running government-funded study that provides the most comprehensive look at the effects of early child care on American children. Analyses of newspaper articles and interviews with scientists and journalists reveal what happens to science in the public sphere and how children's issues can be used to question parents' choices. By shining light on these issues, the authors bring clarity to the enduring child care wars while providing recommendations for how scientists and the media can talk to – rather than past – each other.

1. The child care wars
2. Translating science for public consumption
3. Media coverage of early child care research
4. Mothers, children, and messages
5. Gaining perspective on early child care research in the media
6. Lessons learned for scientists, journalists, and parents
7. Moving forward with developmental science in the media.

Subject Areas: Pre-school & kindergarten [JNLA], Child & developmental psychology [JMC], Sociology: family & relationships [JHBK], Social issues & processes [JFF], Media studies [JFD], Development studies [GTF], Communication studies [GTC]