The New Pediatrics: A Profession in Transition / Edition 1

In analyzing the emergence of the new pediatrics as a case study within medical sociology, Pawluch shows how professional concerns and interests infl uence debate around social problems. As sociologists began to take greater interest in the problems of childhood, and as children's lives became increasingly medicalized—as some have argued—it is at least in part because of pediatricians' willingness to endorse medical defi nitions for certain social problems and to provide treatment for them. Pawluch's underlying concern is that medical professionals have begun to make claims for authority in the definition of what constitutes the social problems of childhood. Among the topics she examines are the "dissatisfied pediatrician syndrome," the potential for a crisis in oversupply of pediatricians and competing providers of services, the push for expansion into new areas of care, and possible future developments in this specialty.