Childhood as a social construction

Question 1

Marxists views

Answer 1

Believed that childhood developed as the workforce evolved and adapted to be more complex
-Interest of capitalism to keep children at home, as no longer valuable as workforce, allowed socialisation into next workforce
-Family provides shelter and care, ideology of responsibility meant that sacrifices were made for children
-Education paid for by taxes and family provide support, children are raised with no expense to employers

Question 2

Functionalist views

Answer 2

Children prevented from work due to rise in technology, reduction in necessary workers
Laws prevent children from working and the introduction of education 1870
Education benefits family and society (creates educated workforce)

Believe that youth culture developed after WW1:
- Growing influence of children, could purchase consumables
-The mass media (radio, records)
-The youth market was profitable by companies, so targets them with their interests
-Education was extended, meaning children were placed together away from adults

Question 3

Phillipe Aries (1962)

Answer 3

-Ideas of childhood in pre-industrial society, suggested that children did not experience childhood but were treated as equals
-Did not have exact ages or births - people seen through their abilities so it was common to see adults working alongside children - ‘little adults’
-Believed children began to change towards the end of the 17th century - decrease in infant mortality rate
-Treated with interest and affection, and childhood developed - ‘little angels’
-Social change of 17th century - privacy within family began to be more dominant than lifestyles
-Late 19th century - child-rearing was central to life in industrial societies
-Been very influential - people agree that sentiment towards children has changed and that childhood is different in different societies

Question 4

Criticism of Aries

Answer 4

-Pollock (1983) - criticises Aries for his limited and selected use of source and evidence (paintings)
-Argues they were unrepresentative of society - commissioned by wealthy elites without a typical view of childhood. Working class would not have had paintings
-Art is also subject to opinions and trends
-Believes that qualitative data is needed, not just images (e.g. diaries, accounts)

Question 5

Criticisms of Aries - Wilson (1980)

Answer 5

-Argues that Aries that ethnocentric

Question 6

Childhood and industrialisation

Answer 6

-Aries - changes he outlined took longer to impact treatment of W/C children, many still in poverty and work
-Children in work was seen as an economic necessity
-Mid 19th century - legislation passed restricting children from work and limiting hours, but many were still beggars, thieves and prostitutes
-1867 - Bernado’s established first children’s home
-1889 - NSPC set up
-1870- compulsory education

Question 7

Childhood and the 20th century

Answer 7

Emergence of child-centred society

Cunningham (2006) - child-centred society has three main features:
1. Childhood is the opposite of adulthood, children are innocent and need adult protection
2. Social worlds of children and adults is very different - children occupy spaces (e.g. school and home) with play, separate from adult spaces such as the workplace
3. Childhood is associated with certain rights - ‘right to be happy’ ‘the right to be safe’

Question 8

Definition of child-centred

Answer 8

‘THe treating of children’s needs became a priority and as paramount, and childhood was seen as a distinct and separate group and time from adulthood. Children are seen as scared and special

Question 9

Children and the state

Answer 9

-State became more involved in childhood
-NHS -plays a role in making children healthy (midwives, vaccinations, paediatricians)
-State controlled education (Secondary socialisation) 4-18 years
-Social services/workers to protect children against neglect
-Laws to protect children - labour laws, sex, alcohol
-Provision of child benefit and child tax benefits
-Children’s Act 2004 (updated 2014) - ECM and paramountcy principle- gave social workers the right to overrule families

Question 10

Children’s Act 2004

Answer 10

-Enforced ‘Every child matters’ initiative - took steps to improve wellbeing of children from birth
-Aimed to protect children from ill-health, substance misuse, teenage pregnancy, abuse and crime
-Outlined that children needed to have the support to be able to healthy, safe, enjoy and achieve and make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being
-Introduced children centres, full service extended schools (e.g. breakfast clubs), investment in CAMHS, reforms in youth justice system and speech and language therapy

Question 11

Laws to protect children - labour law

Answer 11

Labour law - Young working people must have working conditions appropriate to their age, must be protected from economic exploitation and anything that could harm their physical or mental development. Children can start work at13, and work maximum 12 hours a week. Children of minimum school leaving age can work up to a maximum of 40 hours a week

Question 12

Laws to protect children - alcohol

Answer 12

Because alcohol can be harmful to children the law states you have to be over 18 to buy/sell alcohol

Question 13

Laws to protect children - sex laws

Answer 13

The age of consent in the UK is 16. It’s the age that the law has decided that teenagers are mature enough to make their own decision. Designed to prevent children from being abused by older people

Question 14

Why did we become a child-centred society?

Answer 14

-Improved standards of living with a major decline in infant mortality rate
-Better contraception, the changing role of women and rising costs of living has seen as reduction in the number of children
-This has led to smaller, more child-centred families where parents invest more socialisation and protection children

Question 15

Relativity definition

Answer 15

Notion that people’s experience of social life is not the same; it’s not fixed or absolute. It often differs according to social class, ethnicity, gender or location

Question 16

Childhood as a relative experience - class

Answer 16

Childhood may vary depending on class
Upper class - spend most of their childhood in boarding school
Middle class - encouraged to aim for uni and professional career from a young age. They can expect economic support for their parents
Lareau (2011) - middle class childhood was socially constructed by ‘concerted cultivation’ (act of parents enrolling children in cultural, artistic and sporting activities)
Working class - emphasised ‘natural growth’ of children, believe that as long as children had love, care and safety then they would be well-rounded adults

Question 17

Childhood as a relative experience - class (Donzelot 1979)

Answer 17

Poor families are more likely to be controlled by state

Question 18

Childhood as a relative experience - class (Nelson 2010)

Answer 18

New kind of upper-middle class parenting emerged with the USA. ‘Helicopter parenting’ - parents interfere with kids upbringing and create a strict scheldule. Argues that children are then not capable of dealing with real-life situations

Question 19

Childhood as a relative experience - class (Jefferies et al 2002)

Answer 19

W/C children have to deal with poverty - found that by the age of 7 children who experienced poverty had already fallen behind M/C children in school
Poverty also increases rate of illness in childhood and low-income families often do not experience activities that M/C children take for granted

Question 20

Childhood as a relative experience - gender

Answer 20

Childhood can differ depending on gender
Sharpe (1976) Oakley (1985) and Fine (2010) believe that girls and boys are socialised differently depending on expectations for gender
-Have different experiences based on toys, bedrooms and interactions with parents
-Designed to teach different attitudes

Question 21

Childhood as a relative experience - gender (McRobbie 2000)

Answer 21

Suggest girls have different experience than boys - experience stricter parenting
Boys experience ‘toning down their emotionality and familial intimacy’ and acquire ‘masculine’ role of breadwinner and wage-worker

Question 22

Childhood as a relative experience - gender (McHale et al)

Answer 22

Suggested when families have limited budgets, they invest in activities for their sons, rather than daughters

Question 23

Childhood as a relative experience - ethnicity and religion

Answer 23

Childhood can be different for different religions and ethnic groups
-Muslim, Hindu and Sikh children can feel a stronger feeling of duty and obligation towards parents and to not bring shame to family

Question 24

Childhood as a relative experience - ethnicity and religion (Ghumann)

Answer 24

Ghumann (2003) - found that religion had impact on childhood experiences, e.g. Muslins spend Saturday mornings at mosque learning Qur’an
Argued that conflict between Asian parents and children exists but is solved through compromise

Question 25

Childhood as a relative experience - ethnicity and religion (Shaw 2000)

Answer 25

Carried out ethnographic study of British Pakistani Muslims in Oxford, found that young people were internalising Islamic values and family traditions. Also found that females were treated more traditionally than males

Question 26

Childhood as a relative experience - O’Brien et al (2000)

Answer 26

Racism has also effected childhood, whether through the victim, perpetrators or witnesses
Racism and gender can interact to have a negative impact

Question 27

Childhood as a relative experience - ethnicity and religion (Chapel and Julienne 1999)

Answer 27

Parents whose children have suffered a racist attack were not allowed to move around their neighbourhood themselves

Question 28

Childhood - globalisation Netherlands

Answer 28

Children in the Netherlands and the UK experience different childhoods
Netherlands:
-schools do not push young children in their progress in reading, writing and arithmetic
-do not introduce structured learning until the age of 6
- homework is not introduced until children are in their early teens
-children feel less pressured towards exams schoolwork, and most children enjoy school
-Dutch’s liberal views towards the access to drugs and sex, have the lowest teenage pregnancy rate in the world -young people are more responsible and are well adjusted.
-also be seen with attitudes to drugs, which are easily available, but are not engaged with by many people
-UNICEF report suggests, relaxed and open societies can have a positive effect and create the ‘world’s happiest children’.

However:
- title of the ‘world’s happiest children’ can be disputed by the existence of abusive households, children in poverty and poor educational settings

Question 29

Childhood - globalisation Bolivia

Answer 29

Punch (2002) - children as young as 5 are put to work looking after animals and are put to work in fields
- International Labour Organisation - one in five of the world’s 1.5 billion children are involved in paid work
-working more 30 hours a week for exploitative levels of pay

War - impact on childhood, threat to safety and increased chance of orphans, refugees or soldiers
- Syria - 2013 - 11,000 Syrian children had been killed in the civil war
-Afghanistan - 35,000 children have been the victims of land mines since 1979
-In Northern Uganda - as many as 14,000 children have been abducted to serve as soldiers

Question 30

Childhood - new right (Melanie Phillips)

Answer 30

Melanie Phillips (1997)
-Argues that culture of parenting in UK has broken down and ‘innocence’ of childhood has been undermined by:
-Good parenting distorted by liberal ideas and state policies, given too many rights to children.
-Media and peer groups have more power over children than parents, problem with media aimed at young girls as they encourage ‘sexual behaviour’ at a younger age
-Believes childhood has shortened, innocence of childhood has been lost
-Does not think children are mature enough to deal with ‘their rights’ or ‘sexualisation’ argues this has led to an increase in suicide, eating disorders, self-harm, teenage pregnancy, drug or alcohol abuse

Question 31

Childhood - new right (Palmer)

Answer 31

Sue Palmer (2007)
-Argues that adults benefit from living in a wealthier society, electronic devices have improved lives
-But children are harmed by then - using them as alternatives to traditional parenting
- Children prefer devices to parents, believe children are deprived of traditional childhood and become more impulsive and self-obsessed

Question 32

Childhood - new right (Postman)

Answer 32

Postman (1982)
- Believes childhood is under threat - television exposes children to real world too soon, lost period of happiness as no more secrets from children. Access to reality of sex, disaster, death and suffering
-‘Social blurring’ - little distinction between adults and childhood, less childlike and traditional features of growing up (e.g. getting a job, getting married and leaving home) are less clear cut. Economic dependence on parents lasts longer

Question 33

Criticisms of Postman

Answer 33

Does not have solid evade, and recent studies show parents taking a more active roles in children’s live

David Brooks (2001) - parents are even more concerned with child’s safety

Question 34

Social Action theory

Answer 34

See children as being able to influence their socialisation process, not static and universal, opposing NR assumption that children are ‘empty cups’
Morrow (1998) - children readily contributed to family life and wanted a ‘say’ in certain things
Chambers - thinks children should not be seen as passive recipients of care and socialisation
Valentine (1999) - children and adults often fight over the ‘right to independence’ and try to prove they are responsible and competent
Evans and Chandler (2006) - parents justified consumption as home is safer than outside world

Question 35

Childhood - consumerism and the media

Answer 35

UK - children can be seen as a consumer - children between 7 and 11 are worth about £20 million a year
-Targeted to encourage ‘pester power’ - encourage parents to buy items that will enhance status within peers
-‘Golden age’ of childhood - childhood as less complex, and a shift to a more consumer-orientated society is as a result of children manipulating their parents into purchasing
Pugh (2002) - parental spending is ‘consumption for compensation’ - alleviate guilt at not being present for children
-Some parents use children to show wealth and status

Question 36

Counterpoint to consumerism

Answer 36

Not be such a danger. Parents are using it protect their children
Evans and Chandler -(2006) - world has become more dangerous for children so by spending more on goods, children spend more time at home. CDs, DVDs are ‘safer leisure options’

Question 37

Consumerism - Chambers

Answer 37

-Children’s options and viewpoints need to be considered, no longer passive to socialisation
‘need to be acknowledged as moral and social practitioners of family life in their own right’

Identified tension between parents and children due to children’s media - since 2000, range of new devices used in family home, causing a renegotiation of relations between children and parents

Question 38

Consumerism - Livingstone (2009)

Answer 38

-Rise of ‘screen rich bedroom culture’ and ‘youth centred media’ - parents believe personal space for children is important, leading to individual spaces and actives
-Adolescents spend a lot of time in own company
-Children communicate more with outside than with own family members

Question 39

Consumerism - Van Rompaey and Roe (2011)

Answer 39

Argue the children have disengaged with family life
-New media - ‘living together but separately’
-Tension between children and parents - obliged to restrict access to phones and online media, risk of children witnessing violent for sexual content, being groomed or cyber-bullying
-Conflict when children think parents invading personal space - parents want to know what children are doing, want to protect them
-Children wan autonomy