Childhood

Question 1

Why sociologists use separation as reason for childhood being socially constructed?

AO1/2

Answer 1

• Cunningham: In the west there is a belief that children are fundamentally different from adults in terms of vulnerability, dependency, maturity, what they can consume, etc
• Pilcher: The most important feature of western childhood is the supposed separateness enforced by western society e.g. workplace VS nursery. This separation is enforced due to the belief that children and adults are fundamentally different

Question 2

How can we analyse Cunningham

AO3

Answer 2

Relevant today - clubs require ID to enter, playcenters often have a height or age limit - reinforces the idea that children and adults belong in separate spaces

Question 3

How does childhood being different across the world suggest its socially constructed?

AO1/2

Answer 3

• Punch found that in rural Bolivia children as young as 5 were working and doing tasks
• Malinowski: children in Trobriand Island were allowed to be sexually curious and adults were amused by it
• Holmes found in a Samoan village a child was never too young to work and take responsibility

Question 4

How can we analyse cultural variation?

AO3

Answer 4

• Wagg: “childhood is socially constructed. It is what members of particular societies, times, and places say it is”
• Relevant today - companies like Shein are able to create sweatshops in areas like Guangzhou were child labour is legal

Question 5

How can we evaluate cultural variation as a reason why childhood is socially constructed?

AO3

Answer 5

Globalisation has led to the spread of views and beliefs across the world leading to the western perspective of childhood becoming the dominant global consensus - when children are put to work there are often campaigns against this and the countries that allow this are heavily criticised e.g. boycotting of electrics due to Apple exploiting children in Congo

Question 6

Why does Aires argue childhood is socially constructed?

AO1/2

Answer 6

• Childhood varies across time
• Aires conducted a content analysis of paintings and found that in pre-industrial society children were seen as ‘little adults’ who would take on adult responsibilities
• He gathered this as there was often little difference in the way children were presented to adults outside of size as they were often depicted in the same clothes or working jobs

Question 7

How can we analyse Aires?

AO3

Answer 7

• Benedict: in non-industrial societies, childhood is a very different experience as children are often expected to help work to contribute to the family
• Wagg: “childhood is socially constructed. It is what members of particular societies, times, and places say it is”
• Relevant today - children’s clothes are now entirely separate from adults often on a separate floor/section or even their own stores

Question 8

How can evaluate Aires?

AO3

Answer 8

• Based on subjective interpretations of paintings
• Pollack: paintings were typically only made of the upperclass - Aires’ sample was unrepresentative of midieval society as a whole
• Wilson: eurocentric - Aires claims that children were once ‘little adults’ but now there is a distinction between adults and children, but this is only true in the west - children are still ‘little adults’ expected to work and marry from very young ages in some cultures

Question 9

Why does Wyness argue childhood is not socially constructed?

AO1/2

Answer 9

Common sense thinking makes childhood an inevitable part of life due to the biological differences between children and adults which is the same regardless of culture, time, or place

Question 10

Why does Shorter argue childhood has improved?

AO1/2

Answer 10

• Parents are now more affectionate to their children
• Due to the high infant mortality rate in the 18th century mothers had no interest in bonding with their children and often referred to their children as ‘it’ or by the names of their past dead sibling
• Discipline was also much harsher and babies were often left to cry rather than be picked up
• Today, parents show far more affection to their children - physical punishment is rare and generally frowned upon while ‘gentle parenting’ is on the rise

Question 11

How can we analyse Shorter?

AO3

Answer 11

• Gabb: parents are now more intimate with their children - greater level of displayed emotion to past generations e.g. more physical touching
• Infant mortality is 10% higher in the UK’s most deprived areas
• Physical punishment is still normalised in many black and asian households even if frowned upon by western society
• Rousseau - parents are now less likely to beat their children due to the belief that all children are born good and this innocence must be preserved
• Giddens: transformation of intimacy - parents are now more affectionate and emotionally active in children’s lives

Question 12

Why does Rousseau argue childhood has improved?

AO1/2

Answer 12

• Relationships are now more focused on love from parent to child
• Parents now believe that all children are born good and they must show children love to keep this goodness
• Thus parents are less likely to use physical punishment as they see it as beating someone innocent
• Instead, parents prioritise positive reinforcement in socialisation to ensure children continue to be good into adulthood

Question 13

How can we analyse Rousseau?

AO3

Answer 13

Physical punishment is still the norm in many cultures e.g. black and asian - doesn’t apply to all CAGE groups

Question 14

How can we evaluate Rousseau?

AO3

Answer 14

Rousseau assumes changing ideas were the main cause of the change in childhood but this could be due to other factors e.g. changes in laws which force parents to treat their children better rather than this being reflective of a genuine shift in ideology. Donzelot - policing of the family

Question 15

Why does Aires argue childhood has improved?

AO1/2

Answer 15

The Modern Notion of Childhood which first emerged in the 13th century:
- The influence of the church led people to see children as fragile ‘creatures of God’
- Schools have become specialised in educating the youth thus making them dependents e.g. compulsory education
- By the 18th Century handbooks on child rearing were available - shows child centeredness
- All of this has led to the ‘modern cult of childhood’
- Aires describes the 20th Century as the century of the child

Question 16

How can we analyse Aires?

AO3

Answer 16

Poorer people have higher infant mortality rates, fall behind in school, and are more likely to be placed on the child protection register

Question 17

How had industrialisation led to childhood improving?

AO1/2

Answer 17

• Shift from agricultural to factory production led to higher living standards, welfare provision, and allowed the spread of wealth
• 1833 Factory Act: made it illegal for children to work in factories
• 1880 Compulsory Education: children are now seen as dependents as they cannot work full time
• 1889 Provention of Cruelty to Children Act and Children Act made child welfare the main principle underlying the work of social services
• 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of a Child

Question 18

How can we analyse industrialisation causing childhood to improve?

AO3

Answer 18

Standard of living has not raised for all classes - poorer children are more likely to suffer ill health and have a low birth weight

Question 19

Why does Giddens think childhood has improved?

AO1/2

Answer 19

Transformation of intimacy - parents are now more affectionate and emotionally active in their children’s lives.

Question 20

How can we analyse Giddens?

AO3

Answer 20

• Shorter: parents are now more affectionate to their children
• Gabb: parents are now more intimate with their children
• Not applicable to all CAGE groups e.g. ethnic minorities remain distanced from their children and more likely to use physical displine

Question 21

How can we evaluate Giddens?

AO3

Answer 21

• Chapman: families experience childhood differently based on family type (nuclear, same-sex, lone parent, reconstituted) and class, gender, ethnicity, education, religion
• Ignores the dark side of the family

Question 22

Why does Cunningham believe society is child centred?

AO1

Answer 22

3 Major features of child centred society:
1. Childhood is seen as the opposite of adulthood - 18 onwards
2. The social worlds of adults and children are physically and symbolically separated e.g. park VS pub
3. Children have certain rights like the right to be safe - enforced through DBS checks

Question 23

How does Wells analyse Cunningham?

AO3 or AO2 if used Wells as his own AO1 point

Answer 23

The state enforces these features of child centred society through policies e.g:
- compulsory education until 18 ensures children are dependents and only expected to be independent when adults
- ban on underage drinking enforces adult social places like pubs and bars being distinctly adult
- modern gov are very concerned with keeping children safe e.g. Every Child Matters

Question 24

Why does Jenks believe childhood has improved?

AO1/2

Answer 24

• Childhood is more protected
• Class solidarity has broken down and family life is now more insecure due to increase in divorce
• Husbands and wives have now become ‘disposable’ whereas children are not the making the parent-child relationship most important
• Children have become the final cource of ‘primary relationships’ - the most fulfilling and unconditional relationships
• This increases how much children need to be protected

Question 25

How can we analyse Jenks’ view of childhood being protected?

AO3

Answer 25

Beck: ‘Risk Society’ - parents keeping their children more protected is them evaluating risk as their relationship with their child is more secure than that with their partner

Question 26

How can we evaluate childhood having improved?

AO3

Answer 26

• Pugh: consumption as compensation - now both parents work (neo-conventional family) so less time is given to children - parents attempt to compensate by giving gifts
• Pugh: conspicuous consumption - parents show their status through their children e.g. clothes, school - childhood hasn’t ‘improved’ for the good of children but their parents’ vanity
• Gittins: age patriarchy - the family is not child-centered as children are controlled by the father in the home

Question 27

What is Palmer’s view of childhood?

A03

Answer 27

‘Toxic Childhood’: rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged children’s physical, emotional, and intellectual development
- UK has above average rates of child obesity, self-harm, substance abuse, sexual experience, and teen pregancy
- This is because of changes such as junk food, computer games, and social media

Question 28

What is Lawton’s view of childhood?

(marxist POV)

AO1

Answer 28

• Children are just another commodity
• Children aged 7-11 are worth about £20mil a year as consumers due to pester power
• Young people are easily manipulated by advertising into wanting and buying stuff
• A child will cost a parent £227,000 by the time they turn 18

Question 29

How can we analyse Lawton?

AO3

Answer 29

Given the current cost of living crisis it’s unlikely parents will give in to pester power

Question 30

How does Pugh support Lawton?

AO3

Answer 30

Compensation by consumption: as parents work more and can’t spend as much time with their children they compensate by giving in to pester power and buying them toys, clothes, etc

Question 31

How can we analyse Pugh?

AO3

Answer 31

Divine: the WC are now more affluent - even they can show status through their children

Question 32

What is Postman’s view of childhood?

AO1/2

Answer 32

“Childhood is disappearing at a dazzling speed”:
- historically children were safer in terms of what they’re exposed to
- before you needed to have literacy and intellect to access adult content as it was in text form
- adult content is now presented in pictures and videos e.g. porn, gore, violent content
- the information hierachy has broken down due to the mass media e.g. TV, internet as adult content is now easily accessible and doesn’t require higher intellect to understand
- this has led to a loss of innocence
- e.g. James Bulger case - the murders tried to recreate what they saw Chucky do in ‘Child’s Play’

Question 33

How can we analyse Postman?

AO3

Answer 33

• In 2021 21,700 children were cautioned or sentenced by the police - children are now perpatrators of crime due to exposure to inappropriate content
• James Bulger case: the boys who killed him were attempting to replicate a murder they saw Chucky do in ‘Child’s Play’

Question 34

How can we evaluate Postman

AO3

Answer 34

• Opie: There is still a distinction between mass media made for children and that for adults e.g. children’s TV and games still consists of nursery rhymes and colours whereas adult content specifies a minimum age and has more mature content e.g. U, PG, 12, 15, 18
• Jenks: as childhood is a social construct, it is not disappearing just changing with the times as society shifts from modernity to postmodernity. Also laws still highly reguate the behaviour of young people e.g. driving, smoking, drinking

Question 35

Why would some social action theorists argue childhood has NOT improved?

AO1/3

Answer 35

• Van Rompaey and Roe: new media created fragmentation in life where children disengage and spend more time on media - ‘living together but separately’
• Livingstone: younger generation are increasingly on their new media devices, parents now have to communicate with their children at meal times via text
• Drotner et al: the new use of media has led to childhood becoming privatised as adolescents are separated from family life

Question 36

Why does Mayhall think childhood has NOT improved?

clue: similar to firestone and holt

AO1/3

Answer 36

• The modern government ignores the rights of children and underestimates their ability to think and act for themselves
• Children have no influence on policies which affect them e.g. compulsory schooling
• This makes it easier for adults to abuse them as they are forced to be dependents
• Children should be given more of a voice in policies which affect them

Question 37

What are the images of childhood according to Jenks?

AO1/2

Answer 37

1. Dionysian image: children love pleasure and will get into trouble in pursuit of pleasure. Thus, children need strict discipline to govern and protect them
2. Apollonian image: children are born good and different from adults and so need their good side gently coaxed out of them. This idea influenced childcenteredness and the avoidance of physical discipline

Question 38

What ways are power relations expressed in childhood?

AO1/2

Answer 38

• Neglect and abuse: adults can abuse their control over children - in 2022 51,510 children were put on child protection plans as they were deemed at risk of serious harm most often from their parents
• Cunningham: control over children’s space - home habitat of 8 year olds has shrunk to 1/9 of the size it was 25 years ago
• Control over children’s time: adults decide children’s daily routines and whether they are too young/old for an activity, responsibility, or behaviour
• Control over children’s bodies: adults decide what children can have done e.g. tattoos, piercings, haircuts. Children often lack control over how they are touched - washed, dressed, cuddled, etc
• Control over access to resources: child benefit is paid to the parent not the child and children are excluded from all work except low paid part time jobs
• Gittins: age patriarchy the male head of the family has power over all other members including children

Question 39

How can we analyse the ways power relationships are expressed in childhood?

AO3

Answer 39

• Katz: sudanese children were allowed to roam freely within several kilometers around their village
• Holmes: samoan village children were never “too young” to engage in tasks adults did
• Malinowski: Trobriand island children had sexual freedom
• Punch: rural bolivia children as young as 5 were working
• Humphreys and Thiara: 1/4 of 200 women studied left their abusive partner as they feared for their children

Question 40

How do social action theorists evaluate power relationships in childhood?

AO3

Answer 40

• Giddens: childhood is becoming more individualised due to children’s influence over consumption and the decline in obedience
• Chambers: parents are answerable to children now - must take more responsibility than in the past
• Mason and Tipper: children actively create their own definitions of who is family now - this can include people who aren’t ‘proper’ aunts/uncles but they regard as close
• Smart study of divorce shows that children are not passive victims and were actively involved in trying to improve hostile family situations

Question 41

What are some ways the lines between childhood and adulthood are being blurred?

For short answer questions

Answer 41

• Breakdown of information hierachy - children are now able to access and consume adult content fairly easily
• Children are becoming increasingly involved in politics - rise in youth activism in social media and in real life e.g. British Youth Council and the Young Mayor Network
• More children are engaging in adult/mature activities e.g. sex, alcohol consumption