Estudio comparativo en Representaciones Sociales del cuidado de niños pequeños en población general y en padres y madres de los CeDI

The study of social representations related to childcare facilitates the understanding of parenting practices by revealing how ways of caring for children are normalized and transmitted. In this paper, the perception of the general population is compared with that of caregivers attending Child Development Centers (CeDI). Based on a cognitive-systemic theoretical framework with a humanistic perspective, seven dimensions of care were defined: expression of love and acceptance, sensory contact, communication, basic needs, play, limits and satisfaction with the parental role. A descriptive study with a cross-sectional design was conducted. The sample was intentional non-probabilistic. It was composed by 771 caregivers from Argentina, with ages ranging from 18 to 68. 79.6% of the sample consisted of the general population and 20.4% were caregivers from the CeDI. It was analyzed through a word association technique (Wagner & Hayes, 2011). A common core of meanings was identified where the terms love, responsibility, and patience present the highest frequencies. These results suggest that, at a general level, care is structured mainly around affective and normative dimensions, valuing the emotional availability of the adult. The comparative analysis revealed significant differences; CeDI caregivers prioritize care in a less abstract way, using terms such as education, nutrition, health, and hygiene with a higher frequency than the general population. This discrepancy evidences that in contexts of social vulnerability, the representation of care is strongly linked to the satisfaction of basic and factual needs.