What is meant by 'Childhood is a social construct'?
Childhood is something created and defined by society. The position which children occupy in society, is not fixed but differs between different times, places and cultures.
Childhood is the same in every society and defined by biological differences between adults and children.The position which children occupy in society is fixed and does not differ between different times, places and cultures.
The most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is SEPARATENESS. This is that childhood is seen as a clear and distinct life stage, and children in our society (UK) occupy a separate status from adults.
Pilcher (1995)
Punch (2001)
Wagg (1992)
Cross-cultural differences in childhood - Argues that children in simpler non industrial societies are generally treated differently from their modern western counterparts. For example they take responsibility at an early age - Punch (2001) found in Bolivia that once children are about five years old they are expected to take work responsibilities in the home and the community.
Benedict (1934)
Holmes (1974)
Benedict argues that in many non- industrial cultures there is much less of a dividing line between the behaviour expected of children and that expected of adults. Such evidence illustrates the key idea that childhood is not a fixed thing found universally in the same form in all human societies but is socially constructed and so differs from culture to culture.
Historical differences in childhood - In the Middle Ages (10th - 13th century) ' The idea of childhood did not exist'. Children were not seen as having a different 'nature' or needs from adults at least, not once they had passed the stage of physical dependency during infancy.
Aries (1960)
Shorter (1975)
Donzelot (1977)
Aries uses old literature as evidence for his theory that childhood did not exist in the middle ages.
Parental attitudes towards children in the middle ages were also very different from those today. ___________________ argues that high death rates encouraged indifference and neglect, especially towards infants. For example, it was not uncommon for parents to give a newborn baby the name of a recently dead sibling, to refer to the baby as it and to forget how many children they had.
Woodroffe (1993)
According to Aries, elements of the modern notion of childhood gradually began to emerge from the 13th century onwards. For example Schools (which previously adults had also attended) to specialise purely in the education of the young.This reflected the influence of the church, which increasingly saw children as fragile creatures of God in need of discipline and protection from worldly evils.
Criticises Aries for arguing that childhood did not exist in the past. ____________ argues that it is more correct to say that in the middle ages, society simply had a different notion of childhood from todays.
Pollock (1983)
De Mause (1974)
Which of these is NOT a reason for the changes in the position of children?
Laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work.
The introduction of compulsory schooling in 1880.
Child protection and welfare legislations, such as the 1889 prevention of cruelty to children act and the 1989 Children act.
The divorce law reform act (!969/71)
The march of progress view for the improvement of the position of children - Argues that 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. This view paints a dark picture of the past. Aries and Shorter both hold this view. They argue that today's children are more valued. better cared for, protected and educated, better health and have more rights than those of previous generations
Fill in the missing words; March of progress sociologists argue that the family has become more ______________. Children are no longer to be 'seen and not heard' as they were in victorian times.
Child-Centred
Child exclusive
Child - controlled
The conflict view of the changes in the position of children - Which 2 sociological theories refute the march of progress view that the position of children had improved drastically in a relatively short amount of time, and argue that the march of progress viewpoint of modern childhood is based on a false and idealised image that ignores important inequalities such as the inequalities between children in terms of the opportunities and risks that they face, and the inequalities between children and adults which are greater than ever because children today experience greater control, oppression and dependency?
Marxists
Feminists
The New Right
Functionalists
Fill in the missing number; Not all children share the same status or experiences. For example children of different nationalities are likely to experience different childhoods and different life changes _____% of the worlds low birth-weight babies are born in the third world.
90%
30%
96%
Gender differences between children - Boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark unaccompanied.
Hillman (1993)
Holt (1974)
Firestone (1979)
Who found that girl children do more domestic labour - especially in lone-parent families, where they do five times more housework than boys.
Bonke (1999)
Greer (2000)
Oakley (1974)
There are important class inequalities between children; According to Woodroffe (1993), children of unskilled manual workers are over three times more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and four times more likely to experience conduct disorders than the children of professionals.
There are inequalities of power between children and adults - March of progress theorists argue that adults use their power for the benefit and protection of children, for example by passing laws against child labour. This is criticised by Firestone(1979) and Holt (1974) argue that many of the things that march of progress writers see positively as care and protection are in fact just new forms of oppression and control.
The disappearance of childhood - Childhood is disappearing because children are now being given an increasing number of the same rights as adults and children now participate in less unsupervised games both of which the in the past were indicators of childhood. Argues that this is due to the rise of TV culture, which in his view blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by making info which should only available to adults available to both adults and children alike.
Postman (1994)
Willmott and Young
Opie (1993)
Contradicts Postman, arguing that childhood is not disappearing and through research of childrens games, rhymes and songs, sees strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate childrens culture. Shows that children can and do create their own independent culture separate from that of adults.
Palmer (2006) describes childhood as ______________. She argues that the rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years have damaged children's physical, emotional and intellectual development. These changes range from junk food, computer games and intensive marketing to children, to the long hours worked by parents and the growing emphasis on testing in education
Toxic
Artificial
Ridiculous
Womack (2007) quotes the head of the Childrens society as saying; "Rather than childhood being generally miserable, there are clusters of young people, namely those growing up on the poorer end of the social scale, who live desperate lives, while others do not"
