Childhood Flashcards
Pilcher(1995)
-The most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness, -children occupy a different status than adults
Examples:
-laws regulating what children can and can’t do
- differences in dress
- different entertainment
What’s the ‘golden age’ of childhood and why can it be seen as bad?
‘Golden age’- happiness and innocence
However children are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection from danger from the adult world and must be ‘quarantined’
- as a result children’s lives are largely in the sphere of family and education and are excluded from work
Wagg(1992)
Childhood is a social construct:
Childhood differs in different societies , different culture contrast or define the process of childhood differently
Benedict(1934)
Children in simpler non industrial societies are treated differently from western areas
There is much less a dividing line between adults and children
They take responsibility at a young age
Punch- in Bolivia children as early as 5 take work responsibilities at home and community
Less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority
Children do not have to do as they are told
Children’s sexual behaviour is often viewed differently
In Malinowski study he found that adults took an attitude of amusement towards children’s sexual activities
Aries- historical differences in childhood
In the Middle Ages the idea of childhood did not exist.
The child like the parent got into work at an early age and were ‘mini- adults’ with the same duties
E.g the law made no distinction between child and adult punishments
- pictures show child and adults dressed in same clothes and working/ playing together
Shorter-middle ages
High death rates encouraged indifference and neglect towards infants
Aries
Elements of modern childhood emerging from the 13th century onwards
School- educating the young reflecting church belief of children being vulnerable
Clothing- by the 17th century children’s clothing differ from adults
18th century- growing child centred families ( Atleast in the mc)
Aries describes the 20th century as ‘the century of the child’
Criticms of Aries that childhood did not exist in the past- Pollock
in the Middle Ages childhood existed but it was different
Declining family size and lower infant mortality rate
Encourages parents to financially invest in their fewer children
Laws and policies that apply specifically for children
Minimum ages for smoking, sex which reinforces the idea that children are different than adults and so different rules are applied
Introduction of compulsory schooling
1880- effected the poor who experience education for the first time,
Raising of the school leaving age has extended this period of dependency
Industrialisation
The shift from agriculture to facility production explains the changes
Modern workplaces need compulsory schooling of the young
High standards of living and better welfare leads to lower infant mortality rates
AO3- is childhood a social construct?
It only gets constructed at a certain age:
Infants/toddlers- dependency is needed to survive
5-12 - is plausible as child can be self reliant
13+ years- it makes sense because of independence
The march of progress
Childhood is improving- supported by shorter and Aries
Examples:
Legal improvements
Work restrictions
Compulsory education
UN rights of the child
Healthcare- NHS
Child centred family
Child centred family
Parents invest time , emotion and money into kids
They wants their kids to survive and have high aspirations
- high living standards and smaller families- child focus
- by the time a child turns 21 they will have cost their parents £227000
AO3- TOXIC CHILDHOOD
Palmer- children in the uk are experiencing a toxic childhood
Children have damaged physical, emotional and intellectual development
UNICEF- uk ranked 16/19 for children wellbeing
Conflict view- against march of progress
Society is based on conflict and inequality
Gender differences- Bonke
girls do 5 times more Domestic labour in lone parent families
Ethnic differences- Bhatti
Family honour was a restriction on girls behaviour
Class difference
Women in poverty are more likely to have low birth weight babies which delays physical/ intellectual development
Howard- poor children are more likely to die in infancy
Inequality between adults and children
Conflict view:
Holt- it’s a form of oppression and control
Firestone- protection from paid work forced children to be dependant and subject to adult control
Age patriarchy- gittins
Humphrey and thiara- 25% of the 200 women left their abusive partners because of fear for their child’s life
This supports gittin- patriarchy oppresses children as well as women
Hockey and James- age patriarchy evidence
Acting up- acting like adults
Acting down- acting like young children so that parents demand you to be independent rather than depend on them
Child abuse and neglect
NSPCC in 2011- 1 in 5 children have been maltreated by their parents
2020 DFE- over 50000 children subject to child protection orders
Adult control- time
Adults control children’s daily routines and the ‘speed’ of which they grow up by defining when a child’s too young or old to do something
Evaluation:
Holmes- samoans ‘ too young’ doesn’t define their activity
Adult control- bodies
Adult control children physical routines like washing or dressed
Adults restrict where the child touches themselves like picking their nose- contrasting with freedom in non industrial areas
Adult control- space
Close surveillance over where children hang out- like shopping centres especially school hours
This control surveillance contrasts other non industrial areas
Katz- rural Sudanese children roam freely within the village
Adult control- resources
Labour laws and compulsory schooling prevents employment
- child benefit goes to parent
- pocket money is given by parents based of their judgement and is controlling on what you spend
Katz- Sudanese children start work at 3/4
Helicopter parents
Parents that hover over children removing obstacles and problems
Emancipation
Divorcing your parents
Conflict view theorists
Such as Firestone and holt think that children need to be free of adult control
Criticisms
- adult control is needed because children can’t make rational decisions
Pilcher- children are immoral
Children are still not powerless:
1989 children’s act- children have legal power and can emancipate and seek legal support
The new sociology of life
Mayall- both the conflict view and MOP see children from a ‘adult viewpoint’
And use children as ‘socialisation projects’ for adults to shape and develop in the future
Children instead are active agents who create their own childhood
Postman
Childhood is disappearing at a dazzling rate:
- adult and children are getting the same rights
- children committing adult crimes
- blurring line between adult and child culture( clothing)
- declining parental authority
Information hierarchy
Adults can read it children can not
- adults have the power to keep knowledge about sex, violence and death hidden from children for innocence
TV
Blurs difference of adult and childhood because anyone can access it
- children are exposed to the same information as adults which cause adult authority to disappear which replaces childhood innocence with knowledge
Evaluation- OPLE
There are separate TV channels and programmes and songs and games
Over exaggerated influence of tv there are other factors involved
Jenks- childhood is changing NOT disappearing
Late 20th century:
- unstable family( divorce)
- parents need their children due to insecurity within the family
- parents overprotect their kids as it is the only relationship which is stable and certain
- children are vulnerable and in need of protection which means more surveillance ( helicopter parents)
Evaluation- childhood is postmodernity
-parents do see their child as more important than their partner
Junks overgeneralises- children are not all in the same position
Social media- Palmer
Consumerism increases dependency and affects your social interactions
-influence of social media and access to adult content can shape your relationship
Criticism of palmer
-It’s ethnocentric and cannot generalise
- suggest toxic childhood is new when it isn’t
- more information availability has led to more paranoid parents
Western notion of childhood spreading
Evidence:
- United Nations universal rights of children
- charities helping ‘street children’ and preventing child labour
- globalised tv and media which has a perception of an ideal childhood
The new sociology of life
Acknowledges the need to include children in the study of childhood-Smart
Focuses on the present tense of childhood from a child’s perspective- Mayal
Smart
Included experiences of child by using qualitative research methods like informal unstructured interviews
Mason and tipper
Children have their own definitions of ‘proper’ family and whose not like, close family friends being regarded as uncle or aunts
