Family : Changes in Childhood - March of Progress View

• March of Progress View (social policies)

  • Improved health care - for example, childhood vaccinations, medical services and specialists.
  • increasing role of the welfare state - for example, child protection registers, social workers, children's services
  • Education becoming compulsory until 18 in the UK.
  • Laws specifically for children, giving children rights and a legal voice - for example, the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1991).
  • Laws which control children's behaviour - for example, children are not allowed to have sex until they are 16.
• March of Progress View (changing attitudes towards children)

  • Changing attitudes towards children
  • Movement towards child-centred societies.
  • Smaller families so narrower and deeper relationships between children and their parents; greater investment of adults in their children due to more children surviving infancy.
  • Greater affluence, many services specifically for children, such as leisure activities, children's clothing.
• Childhood emerged due to the industrial revolution between 1750 - 1900: children moved from being an economic asset (because they could work and add to the family income to an economic burden (because they are now financially dependent on their parents).
• The status of children changed when their ability to work was restricted - this meant that they were now viewed as vulnerable and in need of protection. This coincided with changes in the family from the extended family of the agricultural pre-industrial age to the nuclear family of the post-industrial age.