Childhood as a social construct

Question 1

What is the modern western notion of childhood?

Answer 1

• Childhood is a special time of life
• Children are fundamentally different from adults
• They’re regarded as physcially and psychologically immature and not yet competent to run their own lives
• Pilcher (1955): Childhood id seen as a clear and distinct life stage, and children in our society occupy a separate status from adults

Question 2

How does society make it clear that children have a different status to adults?

Answer 2

• There are laws which regulate what children can and can’t do
• They have a different style of dress
• There are books, toys, food, entertainments, play areas all for children

Question 3

What is Wagg’s (1992) opinion?

Answer 3

• Childhood is socially constructed

- It isn’t universal, as different cultures define the process of childhood differently

Question 4

What does Benedict (1934) argue about the treatment of children in simpler, non-industrial societies?

Answer 4

1. They take responsibility at an early age
   - Punch’s (2001) study of childhood in Bolivia: children take on responsibility at the age of 5
   - Holmes’ (1974) study of a Samoan village: ‘too young’ was never a reason’
2. Less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority
   - Firth (1970): among the Tikopia of the western Pacific, doing as you are told is a concession to be granted bv the child, not expected
3. Children’s sexual behaviour is often viewed differently
   - Malinowski (1957), studying the Tribriand Islanders: adults took an attitude of ‘tolerance and amused interest’ towards children’s sexual explorations and activities

Question 5

How do some sociologists argue that western notions of childhood are being globalised?

Answer 5

• International humanitarian and welfare agencies have exported and imposed western norms of what a childhood should be on the rest of the world
• This includes ideas such as a separate life stage, based in the nuclear family and school, children are innocent, dependent and vulnerable, and play no economic role
• Campaigns against child labour and ‘street children’ but in reality, such activity by children may be the norm for their culture in preparation for adult life

Question 6

How has Ariès (1960) studied historical differences in childhood and what are his findings?

Answer 6

• In the Middle Ages the idea of childhood didn’t exist
• After a child was weaned, it entered wider society and began working and having the same terms as an adult
• Children were ‘mini-adults’
• Ariès used works of art from the Middle Ages to support his view
• In these pictures, children appear without ‘any of the characteristics of childhood: they have simply been depicted on a smaller scale’
• The pictures show children and adults dressed in the same clothing and working and playing together

Question 7

What did Shorter (1975) notice about mortality rates in the Middle Ages?

Answer 7

• High death rates encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants
• Eg: it wasn’t uncommon for parents to name a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling, or to refer to the baby as ‘it’ or to forget how many children they had had

Question 8

According to Ariès, which elements of the modern notion of childhood began to emerge from the 13th century onwards?

Answer 8

1. Schools:
   - Came to specialise purely in the education of the young
   - This reflected the influence of the church, which increasingly saw children as fragile ‘creatures of God’ in need of discipline and protection from worldly evils
2. There was a growing distinction between children’s and adults’ clothing
   - By the 17th century, an upper-class boy would be dressed in ‘an outfit reserved for his own age group’
3. By the 18th century, handbooks on childrearing were widely available- a sign of the growing child-centredness of family life, at least among the middle classes

• These developments culminate in the modern ‘cult of childhood’. We have moved away from a world that didn’t see childhood as in any way special, to a world completely obsessed with it

Question 9

How does Pollock criticise Ariès?

Answer 9

• It is more correct to say that in the Middle Ages, society simply had a different notion of childhood

Question 10

What are the reasons for changes in the position of children?

Answer 10

1. Laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work
   - They went from economic assets to an economic liability
2. The introduction of compulsory schooling
   - Also, the raising of the school leaving age has extended this period of dependency
3. Child protection and welfare legislation
   - 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
4. The growth of the idea of children’s rights
   - The Children Act defines parents/guardians as having ‘responsibilities’ rather than ‘rights’ in relation to children
5. Declining family size and lower infant mortality rates
   - Encouraged parents to make a greater financial and emotional investment in the fewer children that they now have
6. Children’s development became the subject of medical knowledge
   - Donzelot (1977): theories od child development stressed that children need supervision and protection
7. Laws and policies that apply specifically to children
   - Rules for sex and smoking
8. Industrialisation
   - Modern industry needs an educated workforce and this requires compulsory schooling