Families & Households

• Social construct


  Has been created and accepted by the people in a society
• Childhood only exists because of society: 3 explanations

  -Differences between societies

  -Differences within a society

  -Differences over time
• Modern western notion of childhood

  -Separateness

  -Pilcher

  -Children seen as fundamentally different to adults

  -Physically and psychologically immature

  -Need long period of nurturing before they are ready for adult society

  -Other cultures
• Modern western notion of childhood: Wagg

  -Separate age-status not universal

  -Different cultures construct or define process of development
• Cross-cultural differences in childhood

  -Benedict: non-industrial societies less dividing line between child + adulthood

  -Punch: rural Bolivia expects children to work at age 5 (Holmes: no such thing as 'too young')

  -Firth: among Tikopia doing as you are told = concession to be granted by child (not expected by adult)

  -Malinowski: Trobriand islanders tolerate + amuse children's interest in sexual exploration
• Globalisation of western childhood


  -We are imposing our western notions of childhood (separateness, vulnerability, and child labour laws) onto the world.

  -E.g. campaigns stopping child labour. This may be good but some cultures may be 'preparing' the children for adult life.
• Historical differences in childhood

  -Ariès (1960): idea of childhood 'did not exist' before and were not seen as different to adults

  -Children were like 'mini-adults' who had the same rights, duties and skill as adults as there was no laws passed the distinction between childhood and adulthood.

  -Shorter (1975): high death rates have encouraged indifference and neglect towards infants

  -We have moved from a society where child was not valued to a child-centred society.

  ->Pollock (1983): more correct to say it had a different notion and some argue that his work is valued as it shows that childhood is socially constructed
• Modern notion of childhood

  1. Schools were suited for all children and this reflects influence of the church

  2. Growing distinction of adult and children's clothing emerged

  3. Handbooks were widely available which is a sign of child-centeredness
• Reasons for changes in position of children

  -Laws restricting child labour & excluding children from paid work = financially dependent on parents

  - Introduction of compulsory schooling in 1880 = raising school leaving age has extended period of dependency

  -Child protection & welfare legislation - 1889 prevention of cruelty to children act

  -Growth of idea of children's rights - children act defines parents as having responsibilities rather than rights in relation to children

  -Declining family size & lower infant mortality rates encouraged parented to make greater financial & emotional investment in fewer children

  -Children's development became subject of medical knowledge.

  -Laws & policies apply specifically to children - minimum wages for activities - sex & smoking

  ->Industrialisation: process of it, shift from agriculture to factory production as basis of economy - underlies many changes
• Disappearance of childhood


  Postman (1994)

  -Television has led to this due to the breaking down of boundaries between adults and children
• Information hierarchy: Postman


  -19th century: mass literacy = a barrier between adults who could read and children who could not

  -Knowledge about 'adult matters', sex, death, violence etc. were kept separate

  -TV breaks down this information hierarchy
• AO3 Postman


  -Opie (1993): strong evidence of the continued existence of separate children's culture over many years (lifetime research)

  -Over emphasises a single cause: television, at the expense of other factors influencing development of childhood
• Childhood in postmodernity


  -Jenks (2005) also believes that childhood is changing as he agrees with Ariѐs that childhood was a creation of modern society

  -Modern society is seen as place where childhood is preparing to become a productive adult in the future

  ->However, Jenks argues that childhood is undergoing a major change in society from modernity to postmodernity

  -In postmodernity, relationships with children is the last adult's refuge from uncertainty and as a result, adults are more fearful for children's security and are protecting them

  -Further strengthens the prevailing view of childhood as vulnerable and need of protection from the adult's world
• AO3: Childhood in postmoderity

  -Some evidence that parents see relationships with children more important than with partners but however, the evidence comes from small, unrepresentative data

  -Guilty of over-generalising and despite greater family diversity and childhood patterns, he makes sweeping statements that all children are in the same position.
• March of progress view: childhood


  -Aries and Shorter: today children are more valued

  -De Mause: 'nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken'

  
  

  1.Laws to protect children from all types of abuse.

  2.Education (not labour)

  3.Local councils - social services for child welfare.

  
  

  CHILD CENTRED SOCIETY

  -Higher standard of living = smaller family sizes

  -Can afford to provide children's needs

  -Media output/leisure activity for children
• Toxic childhood (Palmer)


  -Rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years have damaged children's physical, emotional and intellectual development (above average rates of obesity, self harm, drug abuse etc.)

  -Junk food, computer games, marketing to children
• The conflict view: Hillman


  -Gender differences between children

  -Boys are more likely to be allowed to cross/cycle on roads and stay out late unaccompanied than girls
• The conflict view: Bonke

  -Girls do more domestic labour

  -Lone parent families especially; 5x more housework than boys
• The conflict view: Brannen & Bhatti


  -Brannen: 15-16yr olds asian parents are more likely to be strict towards daughters

  -Bhatti: ideas of izzat (family honour) could be a restriction on behaviour of girls
• The conflict view: Class inequalities between children

  -Poor mothers = more likely to have low birth-weight babies

  -Children of unskilled manual workers = 3x more likely to suffer from hyperactivity & 4x more likely to experience conduct disorders

  -Children in poor families = more likely to die in infancy/childhood; longstanding illness; shorter in height; fall behind in school
• The conflict view: Cunningham

  The 'home habit' of 8yr olds (the area in which they are able to travel alone) has shrunk to one-ninth of the size it was 25 years earlier (SURVEILLANCE)

  -Children are told to play in specific/fears of road safety

  -1971: 86% of children able to go home alone -> 2010: 25%

  -Different cultures = Katz (2004): rural sudanese children roam freely within village
• Neglect and abuse


  -Adult control over children = physical neglect/abuse

  -2013: 43,000 children subject to child protection plans & childline: 20,000 calls a year

  ->Dark side to family life
• The conflict view: Firestone & Holt


  -Many of the things that MOP writers see as care and protection = new forms of oppression and control

  -EG Firestone: 'protection' from paid work is not a benefit to children but inequality (segregating children)

  ='Child liberationism' (Need to free children from adult control)
• Controls over children's time

  -Adults in modern society control children's daily routines: times when they get up, eat, go to school, come home etc.

  -Adults control the speed at which children 'grow up'

  -They define whether a child is too old or too young for this or that activity, responsibility or behaviour

  -Contrasts with Holmes' finding that among Samoans, 'too young' is never given as a reason for not letting a child undertake a particular task
• Controls over children's bodies

  -Adults control how they sit, walk, run, what they wear, hair styles, if they can have their ears pierced

  -When they are picked up, how they are disciplined by smacking

  -They control how children touch their own bodies e.g. Sucking thumbs
• Control over children's access to resources

  -Children have limited resources to earn money

  -Labour laws and compulsory schooling exclude them from employment

  -The state may pay child benefits but it goes to the parent not the child

  -Pocket money may be restricted

  -Unlike Katz, Sudanese children were in productive work from 3 or 4
• Age patriarchy: Gittins


  Inequalities between adults and children

  -Patriarchy oppresses women AND children

  -Adult domination & child dependency

  -'Family' referred originally to the power of male head over other members
• Support age patriarchy


  Humphreys & Thiara (2002)

  -1/4 of 200 women left their abusing partner as they were concerned about welfare of children
• Age patriarchy: Hockey & James


  -'Act up' = engage in adult activities e.g. smoking & drinking

  -'Act down' = adopting behaviour of younger children e.g. baby talk
• Evaluation of conflict approach

  + Draws attention to lack of control children have in society (relates to child abuse)

  - Argue restrictions on children, but children do have many legal rights to protect them in court of law (Children Act)
• The new sociology of childhood

  See children as active agents who play a major role in creating their own childhoods
• Research methods: child's point of view

  -Informal, unstructured interviews

  ->Validity, qualitative data, primary data; interpretivists)

  
  

  -Children express their own views (researcher see from their pov)

  -Explore diverse, multiple childhoods that exist in a society

  -Draws attention to the fact that children often lack power in relation to adults

  
  

  FAVOURED BY CHILD LIBERATIONISTS (children's rights/priorities)
• Child's point of view

  -Smart (2011): aims to include the views & experiences of children; focusing on 'present tense of childhood' (Mayall)

  -Mason & Tipper (2008): how children actively create their own definitions of who is 'family' -> may include people who are not 'proper' family but consider 'close'

  -Smart et al (2001): study of divorce = children were actively involved to make situation better for everyone