Toddler economicus: childhood habit cessation in a Beckerian Model of pacifier use

Abstract

As a test of elements of Gary Becker's model of habitual behaviours, the present study examines another potential example of a habit – pacifier use – within the youngest segment of the population, infants and toddlers. To explore the facets of a child's pacifier habit, we make use of an extensive questionnaire on the effectiveness of several proposed methods for stopping a child's pacifier consumption. Results indicate that children's pacifier use approaches the habit/addiction threshold, and it is best alleviated with abrupt cessation, or ‘cold turkey.’ Interestingly, our empirical finding that ‘cold turkey’ dominates or is superior to other methods of getting children to stop relying on pacifier use (e.g. limiting time of use, altering the pacifier's tip, etc.) has two implications. First, it supports the Beckerian notion that a child's pacifier habit approaches the habit/addiction threshold, as stated above. Second, it contradicts suggestions from many in the health profession to seek methods other than ‘cold turkey’ to stop a child's pacifier use.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to an anonymous referee of this journal, Kamal Upadhyaya, Steve Caudill, Joe Olmi and Windy Keene for helpful comments. We also thank the various school boards, superintendents of education, principals and other administrators and staff at participating schools and child care centers for their assistance and generosity in assisting us with data collection. This work supported by a BAC Faculty Scholars Grant. The usual caveat applies.

Notes

¹As Becker explains, ‘…a habit becomes an addiction when the effects of past consumption on present consumption are sufficiently strong to be destabilizing (Becker, 1996: 120).’ More formally, an addiction is a habit that is strong enough such that (dc(t)/dS(t))>δ, since at a steady state c=δS (Becker, 1996: 133). For more on addiction and the concept of ‘adjacent complementarity’, see Ryder and Heal (1973) and Becker (1996).

²As Becker (1996: 68) states, the ‘…[t]heory of rational addiction…implies that strong addictions end only with cold turkey…[A rational person's] consumption declines over time more rapidly when a change in current consumption has a larger effect on future consumption. The effect on future consumption is larger when the degree of complementarity and the degree of addiction are stronger. Therefore, rational persons end stronger addictions more rapidly than weaker ones’. See Becker (1996: 68–70) for a thorough discussion.

³Given the survey format, it was possible for a single survey to contribute more than one usable observation to our database. The parental choice of a given method for stopping a child's pacifier use constitutes an observation in our study, not the child herself/himself. Thus, where a parent(s) employed more than one method, two or more observations are generated for that particular child.

⁴We are grateful to an anonymous referee for suggesting this avenue for future research.

⁵For more on the debate between cognitive behavioural/behavioural therapy and psychoanalytical approaches to treating various panic disorders, see the new ‘Practice Guidelines’ for treating patients with panic disorder (American Psychological Association).