Parents, Children and Paediatricians in the Making of Appropriate Parenting

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged, in the International debate, that the child – of any age – is entitled to the right of being an active subject in the building of his/her development and well- being, including health. The child's active participation is rooted in everyday practices, which are put in place by caring adults, fostering the child's awareness of his/her active role in the shaping of health.We carried out a pilot research with the following objectives: to obtain information on how parents develop their representations of the children's well-being, health and illness, especially considering the division of tasks among the parents; to define the main features of the expert and common sense knowledge on children health and illness; to investigate the paediatricians' expectation concerning the parents' caring tasks, and the practices which are adopted to direct parents' behaviour.