Historical differences in childhood

• Globalisation of Western childhood

  Sociologists believe that western notions of childhood are being globalised. Welfare agencies have imposed on the rest of the world that western norms are what childhood should be - A separate life stage where children are innocent, dependent, vulnerable and have no economic role.
• Child liberationists

  They argue that modern western childhood is oppressive and children today are subject to adult authority.
• Aries and Shorter

  In the Middle Ages, children entered wider society on close term as an adult, beginning work from an early age. Children were 'mini-adults' with the same rights, duties and skills as adults. The law made no distinction between the two.
• Aries

  Aries uses works of art from the Middle ages. These children appear without 'any of the characteristics of childhood' they have been depicted on a smaller scale. The painting shows children dressed in the same clothing and working/playing together.
• Shorter

  Parental attitudes towards children in the Middle ages were different from those today. He argues that high death rates encouraged neglect, especially towards infants. For example, it was not uncommon to name a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling or refer to the baby as 'it' or to forget how many children they had.
• Aries Critiques

  Pollock criticises Aries for using a limited and highly selective set of sources, art may be subjective. She argues that such sources were unrepresentative, mainly done for the wealthy and approach to childhood may not have been typical for wider society.
• Aries critiques

  Wilson argues that Aries makes the mistake of being ethnocentric and is guilty of applying modern standards to past societies. Societies had different standards of childhood - they may of loved their children in different ways.
• Middle Age

  Childhood did not exist, children were regarded as 'mini adults' and were treated as such, working with adults, dressing like adults and behaving like adults.
• 16th-18th century

  Separateness from adulthood began to develop. Rich parents sent their children to school. For poor families, the industrial revolution meant that child labour was widespread. Children was an economic asset.
• 19th Century

  Factory Acts banned the employment of children in mines and factories. State education was compulsory in most European countries.
• 20th-21st Century

  Separate degrees of childhood (teenager, youth). Developments of experts specialising in children (Child psychologists). Children have now become an economic liability.
• Similarities between children and adults

  • Growing similarity in clothing
  • Disappearance of childhood games
  • Children committing adult crimes
  • Television culture
  • Books and games