Depictions of Public Service in Children’s Literature: Revisiting an Understudied Aspect of Political Socialization*

Objective. Scholars who have investigated depictions of public service in children’s literature have come to a mix of conclusions regarding the portrayal of public figures in children’s literature. We revisit these studies, attempting to answer the question of how public servants are portrayed in children’s literature. Methods. We perform content analysis of 93 books and examine 868 characters for benevolence and competence. Results. We find that public servants are portrayed as no more incompetent or malevolent than other adults in children’s literature. On a few dimensions, we find just the opposite. Furthermore, we find that women in general are portrayed as more benevolent than men, although the same patterns are not found between sexes when examining only those in the public service. Conclusions. If children are developing negative stereotypes of government officials and institutions, these stereotypes do not appear to be formed through their reading of children’s literature.