Has the position of childhood improved

Question 1

What does the march of progress view argue about the position of children?

Answer 1

Over the past few centuries, the position of children in western societies has been steadily improving and today is better than it has ever been

Question 2

Who, for example, holds a march of progress view?

Answer 2

Ariès and Shorter who argue today’s children are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated, enjoy better health and have more rights than those of previous generations

Question 3

What is an example of how the march of progress view is correct?

Answer 3

Children today are protected from harm and exploitation by laws against child abuse and child labour, while an array of professionals and specialists cater for their educational, psychological and medical needs. Government also spends a lot on their education

Question 4

What does better healthcare and higher standards of living also mean for children?

Answer 4

Babies have much higher chances of survival now than a century ago (in 1990 IMR was 154 per 1000 live births, but today its at 4 per 1000)

Question 5

What does the march of progress argue about family?

Answer 5

It is more child centred. Children are no longer ‘seen and not heard’, and are the focal point of the family, consulted on many decisions. Parents invest a lot emotionally and financially in their children and have higher aspirations for them

Question 6

How has the child centred family affected society?

Answer 6

It has spread to society as a whole being child centred. For example many leisure activities are designed specifically for children

Question 7

How does Palmer disagree with the march of progress view?

Answer 7

Children in the UK, are now experiencing a toxic childhood

Question 8

What does Palmer blame for the toxic childhood?

Answer 8

Rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development. Changes include junk food, computer games, intensive marketing to children, long hours worked by parents and the growing emphasis on testing in education

Question 9

What concerns have been expressed about young people today?

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Answer 9

Concerns about their health and behaviour, eg UK youth have above average rates in international league tables for obesity, self harm, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, early sexual experience and teen pregnancies

Question 10

which theories disagrees with the march of progress view?

Answer 10

Conflict sociologists, such as marxists and feminists

Question 11

What do conflict sociologists argue?

Answer 11

Society is based on a conflict between different social groups such as social classes or genders where certain groups have more power/status/wealth so is dominant while the other is subordinate and oppressed

Question 12

What are the two ways that conflict sociologists criticise the march of progress view?

Answer 12

Inequalities between children in terms of the opportunities and risks they face: Many today remain unprotected and badly cared for. And also inequalities between children and adults are greater than ever: children today experience greater control, oppression and dependancy, not greater care and protection

Question 13

discusses gender differences between children

Answer 13

Boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses, and go out after dark unaccompanied

Girls do more domestic labour, especially in lone parent families where they do five times more housework than boys

Question 14

What are the class inequalities between children?

Answer 14

Poor mothers are more likely to have low birth weight babies (can lead to delayed physical and intellectual development),

children of unskilled manual workers are more than 3x more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and 4x more likely to experience conduct disorders than children of professionals,

and children in poor families are more likely to die in infancy/childhood, duffer longstanding illness, be shorter in height, fall behind at school, and be placed on child protection registers

Question 15

What do critics of the march of progress view

Answer 15

Many of the things march of progress writers see as care and protection are actually just new forms of oppression and control, eg exclusion from paid work isn’t a benefit to children but segregates them, makes them more dependant and subject to adult control-it doesn’t benefit them

Question 16

name the inequalities between adults and children.

Answer 16

> neglect and abuse
> controls over children's space
> controls over children's time
> controls over children's bodies
> controls over children's access to resources

Question 17

Explain neglect and abuse

Answer 17

2013, 43,000 children needed child protection plans, childline receives 20,000 calls a year about abuse, revealing the ‘dark side’ to family life

Question 18

Explain controls over children’s space

Answer 18

Shop signs saying ‘no school children’, told where to and not to play, increasingly close surveillance in public, more children driven to school due to road safety and ‘stranger danger’ (1971, 86% children walked home from school but only 25% in 2010, which contrasts with the independence of children in developing countries, found by Katz)

Question 19

Explain controls over children’s time

Answer 19

Adult controls child routine (when to eat, sleep, dress etc) adults control pace of growing up (too old or young to do certain things) Contrasts with Holmes’ findings among Samoans where you were never too young for something)

Question 20

Explain controls over children’s bodies

Answer 20

Control how they sit, walk, run, what they wear, hair styles and piercings. They’re washed, fed, hugged and their hands are held. Told they can’t do things such as suck their thumbs

Question 21

Explain controls over children’s access to resources

Answer 21

Limited opportunities to earn money so dependant on adults, labour laws and compulsory school, child benefit goes to parents, pocket money may depend on behaviour and can have restrictions

Question 22

What do critics of the child liberationist view argue?

Answer 22

Some adult control over children’s lives is justified on grounds that children can’t make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves. Also, under adult control doesn’t mean they’re powerless eg 1989 children’s act and united nations convention on the rights of a child

Question 23

What is the ‘new sociology of childhood’?What does Smart say the aim of this new approach is?

Answer 23

An approach that doesn’t see children as ‘adults in the making’ bit as active agents who play a major part in creating their own childhoods

Aim of the new sociology of childhood is to include views and experiences of children themselves while they’re living through childhood

Question 24

children actively create their own definitions of who is ‘family’ which may include people

Answer 24

ho aren’t ‘proper’ aunts or grandfathers etc, but who they regard as close

Question 25

What is different about the new sociology of childhood?

Answer 25

Because it allows children to express their own point of view, it draws attention to the fact that children often lack power in relation to adults and so is favoured by child liberationists who campaign in favour of children’s rights and priorities