Events

10th Congress of the French Association of Sociology, July 4-7th 2023 in Lyon:

RT 33: Thinking circulations and intersections in the field of family and private life / Axis 2. Circulation of ideas and goods in families and private life

Christine Hamelin, Agnès Pélage and Alexia Ricard are presenting "Recourir à la tétine puis s’en défaire : une pratique parentale socialement différenciée".

In France, giving a pacifier to a child is a very common practice. Subject to medico-psychological recommendations and parenting norms, the use of this childcare item, which plays an important role in parenting practices in order to meet the child’s needs, is however little explored by the social sciences.

In this paper, we will present an ongoing research on the use of pacifiers from birth to 3.5 years old, approaching this object as a vector of parental practices that unfold during early childhood and that, as such, can be observed as dynamic practices, socially situated and bordered by psycho-medical and social norms, more or less distanced kept at a distance. This work is part of a more global collective sociological research on parental practices of socialisation of the very young.

Our research is based on the exploitation of statistical data from the French longitudinal survey on childhood (ELFE) (data at 2 months old, 1 year old, 2 years old, 3.5 years old). For the first time in France, Elfe allows us to explore the care and education practices of infants and very young children in a sample representative of the general population. The link between the use of pacifiers over time and a series of social and family characteristics is studied using bi-variate analyses and logistic regressions.

Our results confirm that there is a very strong relationship between pacifier use and breastfeeding mode. However, this link does not exhaust the issues surrounding a practice that is widespread in France at 2 months of age and still relatively prevalent at 3.5 years of age. 

While the pacifier is essentially perceived as a response to the child’s need for sucking or comfort, its use appears to be strongly structured by certain social and family characteristics: mother’s age, child’s birth rank, social class, and the working status of women. Similarly, the use of pacifiers is very culturally marked: mothers of immigrant origin are distinguished by their relatively infrequent use of pacifiers, at all ages of the child. Finally, practices differ according to the child’s sex. But as the child grows, these social variations do not operate in a uniform manner.

The use of the pacifier participates in the early construction of the social differentiation of models and educational practices for the very young. It expresses family, medical or institutional norms implemented or distanced in the daily relations of parents with their children very soon after birth.

 

Children of the noughties: a conference to celebrate 21 years of the Millennium Cohort Study, June 13th-14th 2023 in London:

Yoann Demoli, Christine Hamelin, Carole Brugeilles, Olivia Samuel and Alex Sheridan are presenting "Parental care during the first year of life: gender and social variations in practices and tastes (ELFE)".

Since the 1970s, important changes have occurred in the parenting norms and there is an increasingly strong injunction to better share parental work between the two parents. This has indeed resulted in an increased, though still unequal, involvement of fathers in child care. What is less known is the relationship that fathers and mothers have with parental tasks. Do they enjoy caring for their infants in line with a norm of "good" parenting, or do they feel obligated to do it? Do they avoid some tasks altogether?

Based on two waves of the French Longitudinal Survey on Childhood (ELFE), this presentation seeks to analyze the evolution, as well as social variations, in the tastes of mothers and fathers for six common types of care provided to infants at two months and one year of age. More specifically, we know for about 10,000 infants at both periods the declared tastes of mothers and fathers for six tasks: changing diapers; feeding; bathing; clipping nails; blowing the nose; treating irritations. Each of these tasks can be declared in four ways by each parent: appreciated task; constrained task; avoided task; not concerned.

The aim of this sociological analysis of parental relationships to infant care is threefold: a) First, to describe the variations in tastes according to the tasks, depending on the child’s age. Some tasks are better liked than others, such as bathing, whereas others, like clipping nails, are less widely appreciated; and the same care is more or less appreciated depending on the age of the child: for example, bathing at two months is more appreciated than at one year. b) This heterogeneity of tastes also responds to a gendered logic as well as to a social gradient that we explore: if mothers are more inclined to appreciate all care than fathers, social variations (e.g. according to the parents’ level of education) are also highlighted, in interaction with gender: c) Finally, we want to understand the evolution of tastes for these different types of care at different levels: first, at the individual level, for each parent; then, at the level of couples, to understand how such tastes are articulated among the parents: do we detect a logic of complementarity, accumulation or substitutability?

In order to answer these three research questions, we carry out multivariate analyses, based on logistic modelling and geometric data analysis methods.

 

3rd international convention, de l’Institut du Genre, July 4th-7th 2023 in Toulouse:

Anne Paillet, Carole Brugeilles and Olivia Samuel are presenting "Qui s’occupe des nourrissons ? Cumuls de charges et pouvoirs d’évitement chez les mères et les pères de la cohorte Elfe".

This paper focuses on the marital division of labour regarding infants. It highlights the importance of this period in the production and reproduction of gender inequalities. Who does what? Who changes the nappies? Gets up at night? Gives baths? But also who enjoys looking after the infant for this or that care - and who doesn’t? And who has, or does not have, the power to escape unappreciated care? These questions, which relate to the ordinary experience of mothers and fathers, are worth examining when considering the gender system in which an accumulation of burdens falls on women and exploring its social variations. 

Data: We use statistical data from the French Longitudinal Study of Childhood (Elfe) from questionnaires answered by mothers and fathers when their child was 2 months old (in 2011). The population analysed is that of cohabiting heteroparental couples. We use two sets of questions: one on the distribution of infant care within couples, the other on tastes and attitudes towards this care. 

Provisional results: Inequalities in the distribution of parental tasks and the accumulation of family responsibilities are massive in all environments, for all levels of education, but are expressed slightly differently, particularly according to the tasks. The most highly educated women are slightly less likely to carry out childcare work alone, but the accumulation of burdens (breastfeeding, presence of older children, household chores) and the constraints are just as great for them as for women with few qualifications. Men’s investment is limited and targeted, and is marked by the power to escape unappreciated care. Women do not have this room for manoeuvre and accumulate burdens: those who breastfeed, or do the housework alone, or have several children, take on all the more responsibility for caring for their infants. The division of labour, the accumulation of burdens and the powers of avoidance form a system; they structure and are structured by massive, generalised but socially situated gender inequalities.