Parenting as Propaganda

I just got back from the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Adolescence in Philadelphia. Like most meetings of researchers, this gathering was much like an ant nest. People who hadn’t seen each other would come together in little groups, touch antenna to see where and how the others had been, and move along, sharing their news. It all seemed random and scattered. But, like an ant nest, the researchers were building something much larger than any one individual could see: a scientific understanding of adolescence. I’ve been attending these meetings since the first gathering 27 years ago in Montreal, where just a few of us met in a hotel room and thought maybe there were enough folks studying adolescents to have our own organization, separate from the larger Society for Research in Child Development. We’ve grown. Our current meeting was thousands strong.

Parenting as Propaganda | Psychology Today