Has the Position of Children Improved?

Question 1

Outline the march of progress view

Answer 1

• Argues that over the past centuries, the position of children in western society has been improving and today is better than it ever has been.
• e.g. children are protect from harm by laws. The government spends huge sums on education and better healthcare has led to babies surviving a lot more than before

Question 2

What are some previous sociologists that hold a march of progress view?

Answer 2

Aries and Shorter argue today’s children are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated, and have more rights than previous generations

Question 3

What does higher living standards and smaller family sizes mean for children?

Answer 3

Means parents can afford to cater to their child’s needs, give more time and attention to them. It is estimated by the time a child is 21, they have cost their parents £227,000

Question 4

Describe the child-centred family and society

Answer 4

• March of progress sociologists argue the family is now child-centred. Children are the focal point of family, consulted on decisions as never before. Parents invest in their children emotionally and economically. They often have high aspirations for them
• Society as a whole is now child-centred. e.g. media output and leisure activities are designed for children

Question 5

What is toxic childhood?

Answer 5

• Palmer argues children in the UK today are experiencing ‘toxic childhood’
• She argues rapid technological and cultural changes has damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development. Changes include junk food and computer games.

Question 6

Give evidence to support toxic childhood

Answer 6

• UK youth have above average rates for obesity, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancies
• A UNICEF survey in 2013 ranked the UK 16th out of 29 for children’s well being.

Question 7

Outline the conflict view

Answer 7

• Conflict sociologists, Marxists and Feminists, disagree with the march of progress view (MoP)
• They argue that the MoP view is based on a false and idealised image that ignores inequalities.
• They argue there are inequalities among children and between children and adults

Question 8

What are the gender inequalities among children?

Answer 8

• Mayer Hillman (1993) found boys are more likely to allowed to cross or cycle roads or go out after dark unaccompanied.
• Jens Bonke (1999) found that girls do more domestic labour, especially in lone-parent families, where they do 5x more housework than boys

Question 9

What are the ethnic inequalities among children?

Answer 9

• Julia Brannen (1994) found that Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict on their daughters.
• Similarly, Bhatti (1999) found ideas of izzat (family honour) could be a restriction, particularly on the behaviour of girls

Question 10

What the class inequalities among children?

Answer 10

• Poor mothers are more likely to have low birth-weight babies, which is linked to physical and intellectual underdevelopment
• Children of unskilled manual workers are 3x more likely to be hyperactive and 4x more likely to have conduct disorders than children of professionals
• Children from poor families are more likely to die in infancy, suffer longstanding illnesses, shorter in height, fall behind in school, and placed on the child protection register

Question 11

What are the inequalities between children and adults?

Answer 11

• Firestone (1979) and John Holt (1974) argue things that march of progress theorists say is protection is actually new forms of oppression
• Firestone argues ‘protection’ from paid work is not a benefit but an inequality. It segregates children, making them dependent and subject to adult control.
• These critics tend to see children as needing to be free, called ‘children liberationism’, from adult control.

Question 12

What are the different forms of adult control?

Answer 12

• Neglect and abuse
• Controls over children’s space
• Controls over children’s time
• Controls over children’s body
• Control over children’s access to resources

Question 13

Give evidence for neglect and abuse against children

Answer 13

• In 2013, 43,000 children were put in child protection plans as they were deemed to be put at risk, mostly by their own parents
• ChildLine receives 20,000 calls a year from children saying they’ve been sexually or physically abused,
• Such figures indicate a ‘dark side’ to family life where children are the victims

Question 14

How is there control over children’s space?

Answer 14

• Shops may display signs like ‘ no schoolchildren’. Children forbidden to play in some areas.
• Fears about road safety and ‘stranger danger’ have increased. In 1971, 86% of primary school children travelled alone to school while in 2010, this had fallen to 25%.
• This contrasts with developing countries where Cindi Katz (2004) found rural Sudanese children roaming freely within the village and outside of it

Question 15

How is there control over children’s time?

Answer 15

• Adults control children’s daily routines e.g. bedtime, dinner time etc, and the speed of which they mature at, whether they are too young or old to do things.
• Holmes found among young Samoans, ‘too young’ is never a reason for not letting a children take a task

Question 16

How is there control over children’s bodies?

Answer 16

• Adults control their children actions, (sitting, walking) what they wear, hairstyles piercings. It is taken for granted that they may be touched for washing, feeding etc. While also restricting children from touching their own bodies (picking their nose).
• Contrasting sexual freedoms children have in some non-industrial countries, e.g. Trobriand

Question 17

How is there control over children’s access to resources?

Answer 17

• Labour laws and compulsory schooling exclude them from most employment
• State paid child benefit goes only to the parent
• Pocket money given by adults is based on ‘good behaviour’, and there may be restrictions on what it’s spent on
• Contrasts the economic role of children in the past in developing societies. Katz found Sudanese children were in production work by the age of 3 or 4

Question 18

What is the age patriarchy?

Answer 18

• Diana Gittins (1998) used it to describe inequalities between adults and children. She argues there’s an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency. She points out that ‘family’ used refer to the power of the male head, over all (women and children)
• Critics of child liberationism argue some control over children is justified as they aren’t rational and so cannot safeguard their interests themselves. And they aren’t fully powerless, e.g. laws establish that children have rights to be protected and consulted

Question 19

Give evidence of male domination in the family

Answer 19

• Humphreys and Thiara (2002) found a quarter of 200 women left their abusing partner in fear of their children’s lives, supporting the view that patriarchy oppresses children and women.
• Such views support Gittins’ view that patriarchy oppresses children and women

Question 20

Describe how children resist the status of child

Answer 20

• Hockey and James describe one strategy as ‘acting up’, acting like adults by doing things that children aren’t supposed to do, e.g. swearing, smoking, drinking alcohol. Similarly they exaggerate their age (‘I’m nearly 9’)
• ‘Acting down’, behaving in ways expected of younger children, is also a strategy for resisting adult control (‘baby talk’ or insisting on being carried). Hockey and James conclude that modern childhood is a status from which most children want to escape

Question 21

Describe critics of the child liberationist view

Answer 21

• They argue that some adult control of children’s lives is justified, as children can’t make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves
• They also argue that, although children remain under adult supervision, they aren’t as powerless as child liberationists claim. e.g. the 1989 Children Act and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child establish that children have legal rights to be protected and consulted

Question 22

What does looking at childhood as a social construct risk?

Answer 22

• It risks seeing children from an ‘adultist’ viewpoint, argued by Mayall.
• It may see children are mere ‘socialisation objects’ for adults to mould, and are only interested in what they will become

Question 23

Outline the new sociology of childhood

Answer 23

This approach doesn’t see children as simply ‘adults in the making’. Instead, it sees children as active agents who play a major part in creating their own childhoods

Question 24

Outline the child’s point of view in the new sociology

Answer 24

Smart says, the new approach aims to include the views and experiences of children themselves while they are living through childhood.

Question 25

Describe studies supporting that children are active agents in their own childhoods

Answer 25

• Mason and Tipper show how children actively create their own definitions of who is ‘family’, may include non-blood relatives, but those who they regard as close
• Smart et al’s study of divorce found that, children weren’t passive victims, they were actively involved in trying to make the situation better for everyone
• These studies used informal, unstructured interviews which empower children to express their own views

Question 26

Is the new sociology of childhood supported by child liberationists?

Answer 26

It allows children to express their view, and draws attention to the fact children lack power in relation to adults, as its favoured by child liberationists .