Childhood

• Childhood


  A social construct, not a natural category, defined and created by society
• Childhood


  • Varies between societies (cross-cultural differences)
  • Varies within societies, e.g. between different classes
  • Varies historically, over time
• Cross-cultural differences in childhood

  • Children in simpler, non-industrial societies have more responsibility at home and work
  • Less value placed on obedience to adult authority
  • Children's sexual behaviour viewed differently
  • Behaviour expected of children and adults less clearly separated
• Childhood in the West

  • Childhood seen as a special, innocent time of life
  • Children seen as fundamentally different from adults - physically immature and not competent to run their own lives
  • Children need a lengthy, protected period of nurturing and socialisation
  • Childhood is a distinct life stage - 'child' is a separate status from 'adult'
  • Key feature is separateness of childhood from adulthood
• In medieval Europe, the idea of childhood did not exist
• Children in medieval Europe

  • Not seen as having a different nature from adults
  • Work began from an early age
  • Seen as 'mini-adults' with same rights, duties and skills as adults
• Parental attitudes towards children in medieval Europe were very different, e.g. high child death rates encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants
• Emergence of the modern notion of childhood

  1. From 13th century: Schools began to specialise only in the education of the young

  2. The church increasingly saw children as fragile 'creatures of God' needing discipline and protection

  3. Growing distinction between children's and adults' clothing, setting children apart from adults
• The 20th century was 'the century of the child'
• Reasons for changing position of children

  • Lower infant mortality rates and smaller families
  • Specialist knowledge about children's health, e.g. theories of child development stressed that children need supervision and protection
  • Laws banning child labour from the 1840s onwards changed children from economic assets to liabilities, financially dependent on their parents
  • Compulsory schooling since 1880 created a period of dependency on the family and separated children from the adult world of work
  • Child protection and welfare laws and agencies emphasised children's vulnerability and made their welfare a central concern
  • The idea of children's rights, e.g. the Children Act (1989), sees parents as having 'responsibilities' towards their children rather than 'rights'
  • Laws about social behaviour, e.g. minimum ages for a wide range of activities, reinforce the attitude that children are different from adults
• Industrialisation was the underlying cause of many of these changes, e.g. modern industry needs an educated workforce, so compulsory education is needed, higher standards of living resulting from industrialisation lead to lower infant mortality rates
• Postman's argument


  Childhood as we know it is disappearing, and children are becoming more like adults - gaining similar rights and acting in similar ways, e.g. clothing, leisure, even crime
• Postman's explanation


  Television culture replacing print culture: in print culture, children lacked the literacy skills needed to access information, so adults could keep knowledge about adult matters secret from them; television culture makes information available to adults and children alike, breaking down the boundary between adulthood and childhood
• Opie believes childhood is not disappearing, e.g. separate children's culture continues to exist in the form of games, songs, jokes etc.
• Others argue that Western notions of what childhood should be - a separate life stage, based in the nuclear family and school - are being exported globally, so Western childhood is not disappearing but spreading
• Jenks' view of childhood in postmodernity


  Modern society created childhood to prepare the individual to become a productive future adult; in postmodernity, adult relationships become more unstable, and adults' relationships with their children become adults' last 'safe haven' from instability, leading to even greater control of children's lives
• Competing views on whether children's position has improved

  • The 'march of progress' view - children's position has steadily improved and is better than ever before
  • The 'toxic childhood' view - social and technological changes are damaging children's development
• The 'march of progress' view

  • Children are better cared for in terms of their educational, psychological and medical needs
  • Most babies now survive - the infant mortality rate in 1900 was 154, now it's 4.6
  • Higher living standards and smaller family sizes mean parents can afford to provide for children's needs
  • Children are protected from harms and exploitation by laws against child abuse and child labour
• The 'toxic childhood' view

  • Junk food, computer games, intensive marketing to children, testing in education, long hours worked by parents are damaging children's development
  • UK youth are at or near the top of international league tables for obesity, drug and alcohol abuse, violence and teenage pregnancies
  • UNICEF (2007) ranked the UK 21st out of 25 for children's wellbeing
• The conflict view


  • Inequalities among children - children in poor countries have different life chances than those in the West; in Western societies, there are gender differences, ethnic differences, and class inequalities
  • Inequalities between children and adults - 'child liberationists' argue that extensive care and protection are just new forms of oppression, subjecting children to greater adult control
• Age patriarchy


  Adult domination that keeps children subordinate, e.g. adults exercise control over children's time, space, and bodies
• Over 50,000 children are on the child protection register, indicating that adult control can lead to physical, sexual or emotional abuse
• Resistance by children


  Children may resist the restricted status of child by acting older, e.g. smoking, drinking alcohol
• The 'new sociology of childhood'


  • Sees children as playing an important part in creating their own childhoods, rather than just being passive objects shaped by adults
  • Seeks to explore the many diverse childhoods that exist in society by taking the child's viewpoint