Medicalization as professional process: postwar trends in pediatrics

Area of Science:

• Medical Sociology
• Pediatric History
• Behavioral Pediatrics

Background:

• In the late 1950s, American pediatricians increased focus on psychosocial and behavioral issues in training and research.
• An intraprofessional movement aimed to expand the scope of pediatric practice to include these areas.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the origins and consequences of the psychosocial pediatrics movement.
• To challenge the market decline explanation for the movement's emergence.

Main Methods:

• Historical analysis of the development of psychosocial pediatrics.
• Examination of the roles of academicians versus community practitioners.

Main Results:

• Routinization of work, not a decline in demand for sick children, preceded the rise of psychosocial pediatrics.
• Academic pediatricians, rather than community practitioners, initiated the expansion of the specialty's boundaries.
• The movement resulted in a redefined division of labor between pediatricians and other healthcare professionals.

Conclusions:

• The expansion of psychosocial pediatrics was driven by internal academic shifts and work routinization.
• The movement primarily altered professional roles rather than significantly increasing pediatric treatment for psychosocial disorders.