Childhood

Childhood

Cross Cultural differences within society
1. Diversity of childhoods
  1. Different people belonging to different cultures have different childhoods
  2. Huge contrast between children living in poorer countries such as Africa to those living in for example contemporary Britain
2. Children living in poverty and so experience very different childhoods to those not
  1. Material deprivation
    1. No luxury items and very little education
  2. African Carribean cultures for example may be more likely to live in poverty than those living in England
Historical change
1. Aries
  1. Argued that within medieval times, children went straight from infancy to adulthood
    1. Therefore had very little childhood
  2. Most workers were children who had begun from the age of 7
2. Children living in Contemporary Britain is very different to those who lived in Britain years ago, as social attitudes and stigmas have changed
  1. Eg to child labour and the sheltering of adult content and knowledge
3. In the 1850's child labour was accepted whereas this is very different to contemporary Britain
4. Children within Contemporary Britain have a much longer lasting childhood than those who were living years ago
  1. Don't move straight from infancy to childhood
Improvement of childhood
1. Within contemporary Britain children's childhood has become much more luxurious
2. Due to technological advances the quality of childhoods has majorly improved
  1. For example due to computers, video games and other luxurious and helpful technologies
3. Wages and standards of living has also improved greatly
  1. This therefore means that it has benefited the children greatly as more money is spent on them
    1. Such as activities as well as luxury items
4. The Welfare State have higher demands on parents to look after their children properly
  1. They have more power to intervene
    1. Eg social workers have the power to remove children from families
Childhood disappearing
1. Postman(1994)
  1. Argued that childhood may be disappearing
  2. The distinction between children and adults is slowly disappearing
  3. The taste and style, attitudes and behaviour of children and adults are merging
  4. The shelter children used to receivve many years ago from adult knowledge and experience is disappearing
2. 2007 Report from Cambridge University based Primary review inquiry
  1. Found Primary school children showing concern of adult related topics including crime, terrorism and global warming
  2. Children have more knowledge and understanding of topics that they should not know or need to worry about
Social construction of childhood
1. Nick Lee (2001
  1. Sees a change in the social construction of childhood
    1. Towards the end of the 20th Century
  2. Claims that adults and children were seen as 'fundementally different kinds of humans'
    1. Adults were stable and complete
    2. Children were unstable and incomplete
2. Changes in the social construction of childhood results in changes in the way adults treat children
  1. 1989 Childrens Act
    1. In court proceedings, 'the child's welfare must be paramount'
    2. In cases of divorce, the court used to decie which parent had custody of the children
      1. Since 1989 the childs view is taken into account

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