Popular Views Of Childhood Booklet Sociologists

Question 1

Cunningham
Controls over children’s space

Answer 1

‘Home habitat’ of 8 year olds has shrunk to 1/9 of the size it was 25 years earlier

Question 2

Katz
Controls over children’s spaces

Answer 2

Describes how rural Sudanese children roam freely within the village and several kilometres outside it

Question 3

Womack
Unhappy children

Answer 3

Britains children are the unhappiest in the West

Question 4

Margo
Unhappy children

Answer 4

British children spend more time with peers than parents compared to young people in culturally similar countries.
Many children are concerned that their parents aren’t there when they need them and don’t make them feel loved or cared for.

Question 5

Rees
Unhappy children

Answer 5

Research for Children’s Society found that in England 9% of young people 14-16 run away from home at least once a year

Question 6

Womack
Sibling abuse

Answer 6

Results of the 2010 Understanding Society longitudinal study showed 31% of young people said they were hit, kicked or pushed by their brother/ sister ‘a lot’ or ‘quite a lot’

Question 7

Bowles et al
Sibling abuse

Answer 7

Revealed children who said they’d been bullied by a sibling several times a week were found to be twice as likely as other children to have depression, self harm and suffer with anxiety by 18.

Question 8

Postman
Is childhood disappearing?

Answer 8

The distinction between adults and children is disappearing and there is a merging of taste and style of children and adults with behaviour, language and attitudes becoming indistinguishable

Question 9

Cunningham
Is childhood disappearing?

Answer 9

Argues parental authority has been undermined by children having money from pocket money or paid work

Question 10

Margo
Is childhood disappearing?

Answer 10

Emphasises children’s access to advertising is new and transforms them into consumers who demand access to the adult world earlier

childhood is disappearing through the sexualisation of childhood by adverts and retailers who encourage young people to dress and act in a sexually precocious way.

There are also sex tips for teens in youth magazines and health and beauty spas for young girls which show that children are exposed to and expected to navigate adult concerns at younger ages than before.

Question 11

Silva
Is childhood disappearing?

Answer 11

Suggests the role of parents may be diminishing as adults and older children lead increasingly separate lives.

Question 12

Palmer
Is childhood disappearing?

Answer 12

Suggests parents increasingly use modern technology along with junk food to keep children occupied.
Argues this along with increasingly busy and stressed lives of parents is depriving children of a ‘proper childhood’ with quality family time.
Sees the contemporary world creating ‘toxic childhood syndrome’ which is creating a toxic new generation which potentially faces a range of social and behavioural problems.

Question 13

Kabatek abd Perales
Same-sex families

Answer 13

Children in same sex families outperform children in different sex parented families on multiple indicators of academic performance such as higher rates of high school graduation.