Representations of Child Abuse in Quebec Print Media and the Integration of Child Psychological Ill-Treatment into the Youth Protection Act: When Distancing Abusive Families Matters More

The media has played an important role in raising the public awareness and knowledge on child abuse. Yet, we do not know how child psychological maltreatment was presented in the media and how it might colour our common understanding of the problem. This article presents the results of a qualitative research on social representations of child psychological maltreatment in the Quebec media. More specifically, the study aimed to investigate how child abuse and child psychological maltreatment were presented in the Quebec media when psychological maltreatment was formally integrated into the Youth Protection Act in 2006. 85 newspaper articles were analyzed. We identified various forms of anchoring and objectivation of social representations, including the emotional anchoring and objectivation of abuse in moral outrage, compassion, and fear, as well as various metaphors, personifications, and antinomies related to the issue. Cross-sectional analysis of the data revealed the thematic anchoring of representations of child maltreatment in the thêmata self/other and justice/injustice. This article discusses the implications of these results regarding social exclusion and the othering process of marginalized groups. Finally, we will address the repercussions of these thêmata on current solutions and action plans to end child abuse and maltreatment.

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