The Public-in-Waiting: Children’s representation and inclusion in Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 public health response

Scholars globally have noted children’s invisibility in public discourse about the COVID-19 pandemic, reflecting social constructions of childhood as a segregated and private world. Though children represent a significant proportion of the “public” in “public health”, children’s roles are rarely considered in the institutions or political approaches that drive public health policy. Yet social theory suggests children’s representation in public discourse not only reflects but constitutes their roles in society. How, then, have children been represented in COVID-19 discourse, and what can these representations tell us about how children’s roles in public health are conceptualised and enacted? Focusing on New Zealand, we assess children’s representation through a critical discourse analysis of public health communications, policy updates, and media coverage using a critical childhood studies approach. We identified that 1) children’s perspectives and concerns were rarely represented 2) children rarely represented themselves 3) children were most often represented as passive sufferers and recipients of adult care and protection. We argue that children’s underrepresentation reinforces a systematic age-based exclusion rooted in Western political constructions of children as public-in-waiting, the private responsibilities of parents. We suggest this exclusion may be limiting public health approaches–and the health of the public.