Families and Households: Childhood Flashcards
Define Social Construct
Something created and defined by society. Childhood is not fixed but differs between different times, places and cultures.
Pilcher (1995)
In modern western society childhood is seen as a distinct period in ones life with children occupying a separate status from adults
Punch (2003)
There are cross cultural differences in childhood. E.G In Bolivia, 5 year old children are expected to take work responsibilities in the home and in the community
Firth (1970)
Studied cross cultural differences in Tikopia and found that doing as your are told by an adult is a choice that is left up to the child rather than a given right expected by an adult
Define Globalisation
International humanitarian and welfare agencies have exported and imposed on the rest of the world Western norms of what childhood should be.
Give 3 examples of Western Ideas of what childhood ought to be like for all children
A separate life stage
Innocent, dependent and vulnerable
No economic role and should not work
Aries (1960)
During the middle ages childhood did not exist. Based on analysis of historical documents, paintings and diaries Aries found that children were expected to contribute to the household or the workplace and were regarded as miniature adults. We now live In a with seeing childhood as special reasons including schools and compulsory education
Pollock
Disagreed with Aries because the sources were limited and highly selective and unrepresentative of medieval society. He had a subjective viewpoint
Postman (1994)
Children in medieval times were treated like miniature adults. There was no privacy or individual identity and as most people were illiterate information was shared into the community through town speakers, poetry, gossip or song. There was no censorship meaning children were exposed to the same information as adults. The invention of the printing press informed individuals of their roles as adults and how children should be brought up.
Give three reasons for the change in children’s social position
Laws restricting child labour
Laws and policies especially for children
Child protection and welfare legislation
Define The March of Progress
Society has become more child-centred therefore children’s experiences of childhood have improved. They believe children today are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated, enjoy better healthy and have more rights than earlier generations.
Palmer (2006)
Palmer labels children’s experience in the modern society as “toxic childhood”. The increase in drug abuse, attempted suicides and self harm in young people in the developed world are due to a decline in emotional and family stability. Many parents are too busy working so they rely on television and computers to occupy them instead.
Define The Conflict View of Childhood
They dismiss The March of Progress as idealised and focus on the inequalities and risks that children face in the modern world. They believe that inequalities between children and adults are greater today than ever before a children face more control, oppression and dependency in modern society
Hillman (1993)
Boys are more likely to have more freedom and encounter riskier experiences than girls
Bonke (1999)
Girls are more likely to do more domestic labour than boys especially if they grow up in a single parent household
Woodroffe (1993)
Children who come from families where parents are unskilled manual workers are four times more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and conduct disorders than children or professionals
Howard (2001)
Children born into poorer families are more likely to die during infancy, suffer longstanding illnesses, fall behind at school and be placed on the child protection register
Firestone (1979) and Holt (1974)
Challenge The March of Progress view arguing that childhood in modern society is characterised by oppression, control and dominance of children by adults. They argue that adult control over children can take extreme form of physical, sexual or emotional abuse
Gittins (1998)
Age patriarchy exists (adult domination) for example, adults exercise control over children’s time, space and bodies. Adults make children economically dependent by preventing them from working such as through child labour laws.
Postman (1994)
Postman argues that childhood is disappearing as suggested by the trend towards giving children the same rights as adults. Television blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy meaning both adults and children receive similar information.
Jenks (1994)
Jenks does not believe childhood is disappearing although he acknowledges that it is changing. Due to instability, adults become more fearful for their children’s security and more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers. Childhood is therefore a separate a separate status and the legal and other restrictions placed on what children can and cannot do defines them as different to adults
What is Smart?
An approach that aims to include the actual perspective of children while they are living through childhood by involving them in research directly. Children are not just passive but actively involved in trying to make things better for everyone.
Mason and Tipper
Children create their own definitions of who is family including people who are not proper blood (fictive kin)
What is DLP?
This method of studying childhood highlights the lack of power children have in comparison to adults and is favoured by child liberationists who campaign for children’s rights and priorities
