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Advocacy, Child

Because children are seldom able to act for themselves in legislative and regulatory arenas, the need exists for adults to advocate for them. Advocates for children are those who press for reforms that will result in better lives for children or for the maintenance of the status quo in areas in which children are being well served by existing policies and practices. Advocates can be individuals or groups, formal agencies, or grassroots coalitions, and they can operate on any level—federal, state, or local—at which decisions regarding policies and practices affecting children and families are made. They might work alone or in collaboration with other advocates. They might be concerned with a single issue or with the overall wellbeing of children. Changes in the ways governments, schools, or businesses operate with respect to the needs of children and families are rarely implemented in the absence of advocacy. This entry describes the history of child advocacy and the institutions and individuals involved in the advocacy process.

Advocacy in History

The roots of the advocacy movement are hundreds of years old. Child social policy was already being enacted as early as the second century A.D., when a foundation to save female infants from destruction at the hands of their parents was established by the Empress Faustina (Garrison, 1965). Children's asylums were established by the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, and Pope Innocent III ordered the building of a series of institutions to care for the many illegitimate children left in the wake of the 13th-century crusades. Historians of child welfare describe laws against infanticide in numerous ancient and modern civilizations (Ariès, 1962; Boswell, 1974).

More recent antecedents of the modern child advocacy movement can be found in the social reforms of the 19th century. Increasing industrialization and polarization of home and work life redefined parenting, implicitly assigning the greater share of responsibility for children and their care to women (Kessen, 1965). The 50 years following the Civil War were also characterized by the proliferation of child study institutions, advances in pediatric medicine, and the establishment of reform schools and orphanages (Jacobs & Davies, 1994; U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1976). These institutions both legitimized advocacy by making action on behalf of children a focus of study and trained scholars in the norms and needs of children and families.

Child Abuse and Child Labor

Two early examples of advocacy movements in the United States illustrate some of the most basic principles of child advocacy. The history of child abuse gives us the case of 8-year-old Mary Ellen Wilson, brutally abused by her adoptive parents in New York City before the days of child protection laws. The founder of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, using his standing as a prominent city socialite, drew enough attention to the child's plight that the case was eventually brought to trial; the media coverage caused a sensation, and the attention garnered by the case eventually led to the founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Bremner, 1971).

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