‘Disturbing’ children’s YouTube genres and the algorithmic uncanny

Since late 2017, journalists, advocacy groups, and policy-makers have expressed serious concerns about popular genres of video content on YouTube that target child viewers but which are not child-appropriate according to extant definitions and cultural expectations. This article combines a discourse and thematic analysis of 54 news articles and opinion pieces about ‘disturbing’ children’s genres on YouTube with textual analysis of the two genres at the centre of this reportage. The analysis illuminates why the formal, aesthetic, and thematic qualities of these particular child-oriented YouTube genres trouble existing cultural expectations around children’s media. I argue that the genres addressed in the reportage share a key quality that I refer to as the ‘algorithmic uncanny’: common semantic and syntactic features that foster among reporters a perception that algorithms have played a key role in not only distributing the content but in shaping its aesthetic and thematic agendas.

The Association Between Maternal Reminiscing and Maternal Perpetration of Neglect

The elaborative and sensitive guidance of maternal reminiscing are robust facilitators of children’s cognitive and socioemotional development. Maternal reminiscing has been identified as impaired among maltreating mothers and as a mechanism linking maltreatment with poor developmental outcomes. Few studies, however, have examined associations between maternal reminiscing and the severity of abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment perpetrated by mothers. In the current study, 156 maltreated and 80 nonmaltreated preschoolers (3–6-year-olds) and their mothers reminisced about four emotional events. Maternal reminiscing was coded for elaboration and sensitive guidance. Department of Child Service records were coded for the severity of each maltreatment subtype perpetrated by the mother against the child that reminisced in the study (i.e., target child level) and against any children within the family (i.e., family level). Neglect severity at both target and family levels was negatively associated with maternal sensitive guidance during reminiscing. More severe neglect perpetrated at the family level was associated with lower maternal elaboration. Maternal reminiscing was not significantly associated with abuse severity or emotional maltreatment severity at the target and family levels. These results contribute to a nuanced understanding of maternal reminiscing among maltreating families, with implications for maltreated children’s development and relational interventions.

Diversity Dissected

Based on comparative, intercategorical intersectional analyses of Aladdin (1992), Mulan (1998), and The Princess and the Frog (2009), I find that Disney’s intersectional representations and socialization messages tied to gender and race/ethnicity have not changed noticeably from the release of Aladdin to that of Princess. Rather, they continue to be problematically postfeminist because they hide heteronormative and patriarchal sentiments behind images of girl power. They are also sinisterly stereotypical because they negatively portray the Other and valorize Western values. Although Disney socializes different intersectional groups of children in a racialized way that distinguishes between people of color living within or outside of the United States by only encouraging the latter group to attempt to achieve relative whiteness, all three films socialize their target child audience according to heteronormative, patriarchal, and white privilege affirming values. As such, I argue that the films may be harmful to the socialization of all children.

‘Then she got a spanking’: Social accountability and narrative versions in social workers’ courtroom testimonies

Courtroom talk in child custody interrogations recurrently features contrasting event descriptions about ‘what happened’, as well as contrasting person descriptions. This case study – from a large set of audio-recorded courtroom examinations – documents how social workers’ contrasting narrative versions about alleged domestic violence are related to divergent problem formulations. Blame-account sequences feature descriptions of a particular event as violent or nonviolent and descriptions of a new partner as ‘non-adult’ or merely as ‘impulsive’ but ‘concerned’. Other contrasting person descriptions feature a target child either as ‘normal’ or as someone who ‘has a diagnosis’. This involves categorizations of the particular child either as a victim (‘normal child’) or as someone ‘with a diagnosis’, two contrasting accounts that provide divergent explanatory formulations of what the overall problem is. Ultimately, divergent testimonies also reflect how social accounts in court reflect both mitigated/aggravated descriptions of violence and divergent accounts of parents’ and children’s agency and accountability.

Identifying Classroom Friendships: Teachers’ Confidence and Agreement With Children

We conducted an exploratory study to investigate teachers’ confidence and agreement with children when teachers and children identified close classroom friendships. Participants comprised six kindergarten teachers and 110 children, including 26 children with disabilities. Data were gathered from a friendship nomination questionnaire completed by teachers and a friendship nomination task completed by children. On average, teachers accurately identified one peer that a target child also named as a “best friend.” Teachers also identified children selected as “very best friends” for 59% of their students when using a less conservative definition of very best friendship. Teachers reported being confident in identifying friendships, on average, for 39% of their class. However, greater confidence did not equate with more accurate reports. Although teachers were slightly more confident in their friendship reports for children with disabilities, they were also less accurate. Implications for supporting friendship development and future research are discussed.

Adolescent Siblings of Individuals With and Without Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Self-Reported Empathy and Feelings About Their Brothers and Sisters

Siblings of brothers or sisters with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are important but understudied family members. As many previous studies have relied on parent report of sibling outcomes, the use of sibling self-report is an important addition to the research. This study assessed the feelings of adolescent siblings toward their brothers or sisters with and without IDD, as well as broader aspects of sibling empathy. Data were collected via a national, online survey from 97 parent-sibling pairs. Siblings of individuals with IDD reported higher levels of anxiety toward the target child than did siblings of typically developing individuals. Sibling feelings toward the target child were related to both parental and target child factors, but only among families of individuals with IDD.

Early Childhood Victimization and Physical Intimate Partner Violence During Pregnancy: A Developmental and Person-Oriented Approach

Intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization during pregnancy is a major public health concern, yet little is known about how risk factors for IPV during pregnancy may depend on whether women have histories of victimization dating back to early childhood (ages 0-5 years). This study examined whether risk factors for physical IPV victimization during pregnancy (a pregnancy that was not planned and prenatal substance use) differed for women with versus without early childhood victimization. Participants were 236 ethnically diverse, low-income biological mothers ( M = 30.94 years; 50.0% Latina, 16.9% Caucasian, 13.1% African American, and 16.9% multiracial) of children aged 0 to 6 years. Mothers were classified into four groups based on whether they had experienced early childhood victimization and physical IPV victimization during pregnancy with the target child. Multinomial logistic regressions, controlling for demographic characteristics, examined whether a pregnancy not planned and prenatal substance use predicted group membership. Compared to mothers with early victimization only, mothers with both early childhood victimization and physical IPV during pregnancy were more than 3 times as likely to report that their pregnancy with the target child was not planned. In follow-up analyses, mothers with early victimization and physical IPV during pregnancy also reported higher lifetime parity than mothers with physical IPV during pregnancy but no early victimization. Early childhood victimization may place women on a risk pathway to physical IPV during pregnancy, particularly if the pregnancy is not planned. Prevention and policy efforts should screen women for early childhood victimization to understand risks for physical IPV during pregnancy.

Framing children through observation practices: using art theory to re-think ways of looking at children.

This paper looks at methodological questions that are raised through the practice of observation to consider how researchers ‘keep an eye on the world’, and particularly how early years practitioners keep an eye on children. Drawing on notions of perspective in art history and theory as methodological resources it asks questions about the frames through which children have been conventionally seen in both research and Early Years Settings. In particular I have chosen to focus on the Target Child Observation System, as it was the system that I was first trained to use both as an Early Years Teacher and as a researcher. By referring to perspective as a method to represent what is observed, the paper contrasts two different models of perspective. Alberti’s use of the window and grid to project the observed is contrasted with Brunelleschi’s mirror play. Questions are raised about how observation as procedure acts to limit vision by organising the gaze. Brunelleschi’s demonstration of perspective can be useful in order to remind us of ways in which the objects of our gaze might escape verification through observation.