Medical performativity of childhood in the pediatric approach of chronic diseases

Abstract

Childhood is a land stated and built by different actors. This construction becomes troubled when a chronic disease (CD) occurs and the child becomes the subject of pediatric care. In this exploratory study, we address the performativity of children in medical discourse, focusing on the treatment and relationship that is articulated between the medical system and the pediatric user. Through a pragmatic analysis of discourse, we address six interviews with pediatricians. From this, we obtained that the pediatric practice stands as a normative and validated discourse on the reality of children with CD, contributing to the construction of a childhood marked by abnormality and constituting multiple experiences of childhood. We concluded that the scientific and socio-political guidelines that allow pediatric practice play a fundamental role in the construction of childhood of children with CD.