Childhood

Question 1

What is the liberal argument for explaining childhood?

Answer 1

‘cult of childhood’ emerged with capitalist societies in the sixteenth century

Question 2

Who is the evidence for the liberal argument for childhood?

Answer 2

Philippe Aries (1960)

Question 3

What did Aries argue?

Answer 3

childhood did not exist in feudal societies.
Younger people were ‘mini-adults’ with similar rights, duties, and skills. For example, children faced equal punishment for crimes. This was due to high infant mortality and the fact societies did not need institutions to socially construct childhood as a separate part of the family and life.

Question 4

How did Aries argue that infant mortality decreased?

Answer 4

a culture of childhood was socially constructed. Aries identifies this new culture in new child-specific fashion, the emergence of schools, and laws to specifically protect children against harm.

children were educated, disciplined, and holding a common national culture

Question 5

Who analysed Aries?

Answer 5

Lloyd de Mause (1974)

Question 6

What did Mause argue?

Answer 6

‘march of progress’ and improvement in the conditions of childhood to the child-centered family and society of today.

awaking from the “nightmare” of childhood with laws like the 1889 Prevention of Cruelty Act. Mause (1974) suggests we have entered a “helping mode” of childhood with smaller families with children at the centre and the rest of society designed to include children.

Question 7

what did post modernists argue about childhood?

Answer 7

childhood as a social construct is disappearing because technology removes the information hierarchy that establishes a boundary between childhood and adulthood.

Question 8

Who is the evidence for the post-modernist argument of childhood?

Answer 8

Neil Postman (1994)

Question 9

What did Postman argue?

Answer 9

childhood emerged with modern societies and print culture as mass literacy became necessary to access society.
This created an information hierarchy of literacy and the knowledge that comes with it as a boundary between childhood and adulthood.
The new information technologies in post-modern societies, like television, reduce the ‘information hierarchy’ as they do not require special skills of literacy to access.

Question 10

What did Postman argue furthermore?

Answer 10

adult authority decreases and the innocence of childhood is removed. This means children and adults share the same norms, values, and behaviours, reducing the requirement of education and socialisation to construct children into adults.

Question 11

Who is the analysis for the post-modernist theory in explaining childhood?

Answer 11

Sue Palmer (2010)

Question 12

What did Palmer argue?

Answer 12

technological and cultural changes in post-modern societies have created a ‘toxic childhood’ which has damaged the physical and emotional health of children. Palmer (2010) cites the accessibility of social media and junk food, as well as mass testing as creating unhappy and unhealthy children.

Question 13

What research supports Palmer and what did it find?

Answer 13

PISA research (2018) that found the UK ranked 68th out of 71 countries in terms of educational wellbeing, with 66% of children worrying some or all of the time.

Question 14

What is childhood?

Answer 14

socially constructed age status, defined in opposition to adulthood.

Question 15

What is the radical feminist argument?

Answer 15

childhood is defined by a gerontocracy in which adults have growing power over children and inequalities between children are increasing.

Question 16

what is gerontocracy?

Answer 16

decision-making based on the governance of older people.

Question 17

Who is the evidence for radical feminists?

Answer 17

Shulamith Firestone (1970)

Question 18

What did Firestone argue?

Answer 18

argued the patriarchy oppresses children because they are repressed, humiliated, and dependent upon their family. The oppression of children can include neglect, abuse, as well as control over space, time, and bodies.

Question 19

What do child liberationists argue?

Answer 19

children need to be freed from the abuse, constraints on their activities, and controls over their bodies created by kinship relations
activities of children, such as doing homework and taking part in hobbies, are often constrained by the family.

Question 20

What is the example for the child liberationist explanation?

Answer 20

ONS statistics (2016) found 20% of children experience abuse, such as physical abuse, and 90% of child abusers are family members

Question 21

How is the child liberationist argument similar to radical feminists?

Answer 21

families control children’s bodies, overseeing how children sit, walk, run, what they wear, their hairstyles, and their clothing