Family 2 - Childhood

Question 1

Why is childhood a social construct?

Answer 1

Different childhoods across cultures
Different childhoods in different places
Different childhoods across different times

Question 2

Modern Western view on childhood?

Answer 2

Children should be protected and nurtured

Pilcher (1995) childhood is ‘separate’ from adulthood

Question 3

Evidence of childhood being different across cultures?

Answer 3

Child soldiers
Child labour
Forced marriage
Trokosi
Punch (2001) children in Bolivia take responsibility from an early age
Firth (1970) Tikopia child obedience is not expected from the child
Malinowski (1957) Trobriand Islander adults were tolerant towards children’s sexual exploration

Question 4

How are Western norms being globalised?

Answer 4

Non-profit organisations

Question 5

Evidence of different childhoods in different places?

Answer 5

Class difference
What food their eating
What activities they’re doing
Support they get from parents
Resources they can get

Question 6

Differences in childhood over time?

Answer 6

Child labour
Age of leaving education
High mortality
More children per family
Child carers
Stricter towards children

Question 7

What is Aries (1960)s theory?

Answer 7

Childhood never existed before recently

Question 8

What is Pollocks (1983) criticism of Aries’ theory?

Answer 8

Society just had a different notion of childhood to today

Question 9

Why did childhood change over time?

Answer 9

Industrialisation meant:

• need for educated workforce
• laws against child labour as most people were earning enough
• lower infant mortality due to healthcare advancements

Question 10

What evidence does Postman (1994) have that childhood is disappearing?

Answer 10

• trend towards children getting the same rights as adults
• the disappearance of children’s traditional games
• similarity in clothing
• children are able to commit adult crimes

Question 11

Why does Postman believe this?

Answer 11

Mass literacy caused childhood to become separate as it created an information hierarchy
The shift from print culture to TV culture is the cause for this change

Question 12

Who disagrees with Postman?

Answer 12

Opine (1993)

Jenks (2005)

Question 13

Why does Jenks (2005) disagree with Postman?

Answer 13

Childhood is not disappearing but changing because society is becoming post modern (e.g. divorce rates increasing, children feel insecure so even more protection put on them)

Question 14

Who believes childhood has improved?

Answer 14

Lloyd DeMause (1974)
Aries (1960)

Question 15

Why does Aries (1960) believe it has improved?

Answer 15

Children are more valued (child centred families)
More protected (Children’s Act (2004) Every Child Matters)
Better educated (government spending)
Are healthier (NHS)
Have more rights (UN Rights of the Child)

Question 16

Why are families child centred?

Answer 16

Children are the focal point
They are consulted on decisions
They are invested in (emotionally and financially)
There’s a desire for them to have a better future

Question 17

Why does Palmer (2004) believe childhood is toxic?

Answer 17

Rapid technological and cultural changes have damaged childrens physical, emotional and intellectual health (stress, addiction to screens, etc.)

Question 18

What is the conflict view on childhoods?

Answer 18

Feminists and Marxists say the march of progress view ignores inequalities between children and between adults and children

Question 19

What is the evidence for the conflict view?

Answer 19

Neglect and abuse (2013 43,000 children on child protection plans)
Control over their space (Cunningham (2007) ‘home habitat’ of 8 year olds has shrunk to a 1/9th of what it was 25 years)
Control over their time (daily routines, whether they can or can’t do certain things)
Control over their bodies (how they sit, walk, etc. are washed, fed, dressed, etc. and are restricted over how they touch their own bodies)
Control over resource access (limited money earning opportunities, pocket money depends on ‘good behaviour’)

Question 20

Inequalities between children?

Answer 20

90% of the worlds low-weight babies are born in developing countries
Jens Bonke (1999) girls do more domestic labour especially in lone-parent families
Julia Brannen (1994) Asian parents are more likely to be strict to their daughters
Ghazala Bhatti (1999) izzat (family honour) could be a restriction, especially for girls
Children of unskilled manual worker are 3 times more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and 4 times more likely to have conduct disorders

Question 21

Inequalities between children and adults?

Answer 21

Firestone (1979) and Holt (1974) say new laws to ‘protect’ children oppress them

Question 22

What is age patriarchy?

Answer 22

Gittins (1998) inequalities mean there is adult domination and child dependency
Humphrey and Thiara (2002) 25% of 200 women left their abusing partner because they ‘feared for their child’s life’
Children try to act older or younger than they are to escape this oppression

Question 23

What do critics say of age patriarchy?

Answer 23

Some adult control is needed as children can’t make rational decisions
Children are not powerless (1989 UN Rights of the Child)

Question 24

What is the ‘New Sociology of Childhood’?

Answer 24

Using unstructured, informal interviews to see the child’s full perspective and treat them as active parts in making their own childhood

Question 25

Why is the ‘old sociology of childhood’ criticised?

Answer 25

Mayall (2004) its an adultist viewpoint that sees children as passive

Question 26

What’s the evidence for the ‘new sociology of childhood’?

Answer 26

Smart et al (2001) study of divorce - children try to make the situation better for everyone
Mason and Tipper (2008) - children actively create their own definitions of family; not as ‘proper’ aunts, etc. but those regarded as ‘close’