Childhood Flashcards
Why is childhood a social construct?
Childhood is a social construct because what we understand by the term is created and influenced by the attitudes, actions and interpretations of members of society. It only exists in the way we understand it because people define it as such. It is not a fixed or universal term.
In general what are some of the cross cultural differences in childhood?
The freedom from adult responsibilities experienced by many Western children is not found in all societies, especially those of developing countries. In many simpler societies, children take on adult roles as soon as they are physically able to.
The International Labour Organisation suggests that 1 in 7 children in the world work, with 215 million children aged 5-17 involved in child labour in Sub-Saharan Africa, 28% of children are involved in work.
What did a 2008 report by the Child Soldiers International report find?
A 2008 report by the Child Soldiers International suggested that between 2004 and 2007 child soldiers were involved in active conflict in 21 countries around the world, with children both being brutalised and killed, and brutalising and killing others, as part of adult conflicts. UNICEF reports that more than 21,000 children have been recruited by government forces and armed groups in conflict-hit regions during past 5 years.
What did the report Hidden in Plain Sight from UNICEF IN 2014 find?
A report Hidden in Plain Sight from UNICEF in 2014 found 1 in 10 girls around the world experiences serious sexual violence, and very high numbers (around 95,000) of child murders each year.
How is childhood different in less developed countries?
In many less developed nations, the experience of childhood is extremely different from that of the industrialised world. Children in such countries are constantly at risk of early death as a result of poverty and a lack of basic health care. For example, UNICEF notes that measles kills over 500,000 children a year in Africa, while malaria kills over one million children a year, most under the age of five.
Moreover, children in these countries are less likely to have access to education. According to UNESCO, 67.4 million children do not attend school in the developing world, while an estimated 122 million children aged 18 and under cannot read or write. Two-thirds of these are thought to be girls, who face more challenges than boys in receiving an education because of cultural and religious discrimination and social stigma. Often, girls’ education is seen as secondary to childcare, looking after the sick and elderly, and other household responsibilities.
What did Punch (2002) find?
Punch (2002) found that children in Bolivia as young as five were put to work looking after animals, tending the fields and so on. According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) about 1 in 5 of the worlds 1.5 billion children are involved in paid work. Many of them - 126 million - are engaged in hazardous work that has adverse effects on physical and mental health or moral development. Many of them are working more than 30 hours per week for exploitative rates of pay, for example, in sweet shops producing goods for Western markets - in 2008 it was discovered by the BBC that children as young as 8 were earning 60 pence a day working with suppliers.
What did UNICEF find regarding children living on the street?
In many countries, street children are not regarded as special or as in need of protection. UNICEF estimates that 100 million children are growing upon urban streets around the world. There are estimated to be 11 million street children in India and 400,000 street children in Bangladesh (of which nearly 10% have been forced into prostitution in order to survive). Charities estimate that there are 1.9 million children in Mexico sleeping rough on the streets and 240,000 of these have been abandoned by their parents.
What does Ariès say about childhood in medieval times?
Philippe Ariès (1973) showed that, in medieval times, childhood did not exist as a separate status. Children often moved straight from infancy, to working roles in the community. Children were seen as miniature versions of adults - ‘little adults’ - and were expected to take on adult roles and responsibilities as soon as they were physically able to do so, and to participate in all aspects of social life alongside their parents. Family portraits in the 15th and 16th centuries were often depicted as these little adults - shrunken versions of their parents, wearing adult clothes.
What does Ariès say about childhood before mid 19th century?
Until the mid 19th century (1850s), child labour was commonly practised and accepted. Most children worked, starting around the age of 7. In early parts of the 19th century, many factory workers were children under the age of 11. Children worked as long and as hard as adults, and adolescent children often left home for years to work, with bugs being taken on as apprentices and girls as servants in richer households. In poor families, parents sometimes forced their children to engage in scavenging and street selling, and occasionally they were used as thieves and prostitutes. Children frequently faced the same legal punishments as adults for criminal activity.
What did Ariès show about the industrial family?
Ariès showed that the social construction of childhood was linked to industrialisation. With industrialisation, work moved outside the family home. Restrictions on child labour in mines and factories during the 19th century, designed to protect children from exploitation and hardship, isolated most children from the world of adult work and responsibilities. Children began to be seen as innocent and in need of protection, though they were also seen as weak and vulnerable to temptation.
The growing speed of technological change in the 19th century meant parents were frequently unable to pass on the knowledge and skills required for working life, and the requirements for a literate and numerate labour force in part led to the development of compulsory education from 1880. These changes made children dependent on parents or other adults. There then emerged a new conception of a phase of ‘childhood’, with children lacking in power and dependent on, and supported by, adults. This period of dependency is getting ever longer today, as more young people spend time in education and training.
What are the differences between children in the same society?
- Gender
- Social class
- Ethnicity and religion/culture
How has gender created differences between children in the same society?
Evidence from feminists studies such as Sharpe (1976), Oakley (1985) and Fine (2010) show that boys and girls are socialised into a set of behaviours based on cultural expectations about masculinity and femininity. Gendered socialisation, according to feminist analysis, is mainly distributed to teach them the feminine skills and attitudes need to perform the adult role of home-maker and mother. McRobbie (200) also suggests that girls’ experience of childhood may differ from boys because parents see them as in need of greater protection from the outside world. This means that they are subjected to stricter social controls from parents, compared with boys.
In contrast, boys’ experience of childhood involves what Chapman calls ‘toning down their emotionality and familial intimacy’ so that they effectively acquire the masculine skills and attitudes required for their adult roles as wage-worker and breadwinner. Boys are rarely seen to be in need of protection from external threats and consequently spend a lot of their childhood outside the home socialising with their peers. Evidence from McHale et al’s study suggests that where families have limited budgets, they are more likely to invest in activities that enhance development for their sons than for their daughters.
How has social class created differences between children in the same society?
Upper class children may find that they spend most of their formative years in private boarding schools. Middle-class children may be encouraged from an early age to aim for university and a professional career, and they are likely to receive considerable economic and cultural support from their parents.
Recent research in middle-class parenting by Lareau (2011) found that social class influences patterns of family life and childhood. She found that the experience of middle class childhood was socially constructed by parents who were engaged in a ‘concerted cultivation’ of children. This involved such parents enrolling children at a young age in a range of specific cultural, artistic and sporting activities and courses. In addition, these children would be encouraged to join libraries, and parents would take them in visits to the museums, art galleries and sites of historical interest.
In contrast, Lareau found that working class parents emphasised the ‘natural growth’ of their children - they did not cultivate their children’s special talents. Instead they believed that as long as they provided their children with love, food and safety, their children would grow up to be healthy and well-rounded individuals.
Donzelot argues that poor families and their children are more likely to be controlled and regulated by the state. For example, the state monitors the quality of both parenting and childhood through the use of health visitors, social workers and ‘at risk’ registers. The function of such surveillance is to prevent the forming of deviant attitudes and delinquent behaviour.
Nelson has identified a new kind of upper middle class parenting called ‘helicopter parenting’ emerging among the wealthy in the USA. He argues that rich parents excessively interfere in the lives of their children in terms of guidance and shaping their experience of childhood. Because they hover around their children - construct detailed schedules outlining how their children should live their daily lives. Nelson claims that such attention is stifling development and producing spooky and immature children who expect the world to stop for them.
How has ethnicity and religion/culture created differences between children in the same society?
There is evidence that Muslim, Hindu and Sikh children generally feel a stronger sense of obligation and duty to their parents than white children. These children generally shared their parents’ view that it was important not to bring shame on the family.
Ghumann found that religion had a big impact on the childhood experience of Asians. For example, many Muslim children spent their Saturday mornings at the mosque learning the Qur’an. Shaw, who carried out an ethnographic study of British Pakistani Muslims in Oxford found that young people were internalising Islamic values and family traditions. The study also found that female children were treated in more traditional ways than their brothers. However, it is important to realise that children in white majority groups may also have their childhood partially constructed by religious beliefs and values. For example, church-going is likely to be a feature of their childhood. Jehovah’s Witnesses child whose religious forbids the celebration of Christmas or birthdays.
O’Brien et al found that ‘race’ and gender often interact to have a negative impact on the experience of childhood, with Asian girls in particular not being allowed out on their own compared with young Asian males because of the parents’ belief that they were more vulnerable to racist attitudes and abuse.
Chagall and Julienne found that parents whose children had suffered racist harassment or attacks did not allow them the freedom to move about the neighbourhood themselves.
What are the reasons for changes in the position of children?
- Laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work make children an economic liability, not an asset.
- The introduction of compulsory schooling in 1880. The raising of the school-leaving age has extended this period of dependency.
- Child protection and welfare legislation such as the 1889 Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act. 1989 Children Act made the welfare of the child the fundamental principle underpinning the work of agencies such as social services.
- The growth of the idea of children’s rights. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child lays down basic rights such as entitlement to healthcare and education, protection from abuse and the right to participate in decisions that affect them, such as custody cases.
- Declining family size and lower infant mortality rates
- Children’s development became the subject of medical knowledge. Jacques Donzelot (1977) observes how theories of child development that began to appear from the 19th century stressed that children need supervision and protection.
- Laws and policies that apply specifically to children such as minimum ages for a wide range of activities like drinking and sex. These laws have reinforced the idea that children are different from adults and so different rules must be applied to their behaviour.
