Childhood

Question 1

Pilcher

Answer 1

the most important feature of childhood is seperateness. Childhood is seen as a clear and distinct life stage.

Question 2

Benedict

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

Philippe Aries - historical differences

Answer 3

argues that in the Middle Ages 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.

Question 4

Aries - elements of the modern cult of childhood

Answer 4

elements of the modern notion of childhood gradually began to emerge
- schools came 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.
- distinction between children and adult’s clothing. By the 17th c, an upper class boy would be dressed in ‘an outfit reserved for his own age group which set him apart from adults.’
handbooks on child rearing were widely available - a sign of growing child centredness of family life.

Question 5

The modern cult of childhood - Aries

Answer 5

He argues that we have moved from a world that did not see childhood as in any way special, to a world that is obsessed with childhood. He describes the 20th c as the century of the child.

Question 6

Pollock

Answer 6

criticised Aries for arguing that childhood did not exist in the past. She argues that it is more correct to say that in the Middle Ages, society simply had a different notion of childhood from today.
However Aries work is valuable because it shows that childhood is socially constructed: he demonstrates how ideas about children and their social status have varied over time.

Question 7

Reasons for changes in the position of children

Answer 7

• laws restricting child labour and excluding children from paid work: from being economic assets, children became an economic liability, financially dependant on parents.
• introduction of compulsory schooling: the raising of the school leaving age has extended this period of dependency.
• child protection and welfare legislation: Children Act 1989
• the growth of the idea of children’s rights: for example the Children Act defines parents as having ‘responsibilities’ rather than rights. This also lays down basic rights such as protection from harm and the right to participate in decisions.
• declining family size and lower infant mortality have encouraged parents to make a greater financial and emotional investment in the fewer children that they have.
• children’s development became the subject of medical knowledge: stressed the need that children need supervision and protection.
• Laws and policies that apply specifically to children: such as minimum ages for a wide range of activities from sex to smoking have reinforced the idea that children are different to adults and so different rules must be applied to their behaviour.

Question 8

Industrialisation

Answer 8

the process of industrialisation - the shift from agriculture to factory production as the basis of the economy - underlies many of the changes. For example modern industry needs an educated workforce and this requires compulsory schooling of the young.
The higher standards of living and better welfare provision that industry makes possible lead to lower infant mortality rates.
Thus this is a key factor in bringing about the modern idea of childhood and the changed status of children.

Question 9

Disappearance of Childhood- Postman

Answer 9

argues that childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed,’ He points the trend towards giving children the same rights as adults, the disappearance o children’s traditional unsupervised games, the growing similarity of adults and children’s clothing and even to cases of children committing adult crimes such as murder.
- the emergence of childhood and now it’s disappearance lies in the rise and fall of print culture and it’s replacement by TV culture.
During the Middle Ages most people were illiterate and speech was the only skill needed for participation in the adult world. Children were able to enter adult society from an early age. Childhood was not associated with innocence, nor the adult world with mystery. There was no division between the adult world and that of the child.

Question 10

Postman - Information hierarchy

Answer 10

argues that childhood emerged as a separate status along with mass literacy, from the 19th C, onward.
This is because the printed word creates an information hierarchy: a sharp division between adults who can read and children who cannot.
this gave adults the power to keep knowledge about sex, money violence, illness, death and other adult matters a secret from children. These things became mysteries to them and childhood came to be associated with innocence and ignorance.
Now TV blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying the information hierarchy.
Unlike the printed word, TV does not require special skills to access it and it makes information similar to children and adults.
The boundary between adult and child is broken down and adult authority diminishes. The innocence of childhood is replaced with knowledge.
- Another factor is where the adults and children tastes and styles become indistinguishable.

Question 11

Criticism of Postman - Opie

Answer 11

• childhood is not disappearing.
  Argues that there is strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate children’s culture through children’s unsupervised games, rhymes and songs.
• P study is valuable in showing how different types of communication technology such as print and TV has an influence. However he overemphasises a single cause - TV at the expense of other factors that have influenced the development of childhood.

Question 12

Jenks

Answer 12

• does not believe childhood is disappearing but he does believe it is changing.
• agrees with Aries that the idea of childhood was a creation of modern society.
• modern society was concerned with ‘futurity’ and childhood was seen as a preparation for the individual to become a productive adult in the future. To achieve this the vulnerable, undeveloped child needed to be nurtured, protected and controlled, especially by the child centred family and by the education system which imposed discipline and conformity on children.
• Now Jenks argues childhood is once again undergoing change as society moves towards post modernity.

Question 13

Jenks - Childhood in Postmodernity

Answer 13

In modern society adults relationships were more stable but in postmodern society, the pace of change speeds up and relationships become more unstable. This generates feelings of insecurity. In this context relationships with their children become more important as a source of adults identity and stability.
- Relationships with their children become adults last refuge from the constant uncertainty. As a result adults become even more fearful for their children’s security and even more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers such as child abuse.
- this further strengthens the view that children are vulnerable and in need of protection, resulting in even greater surveillance and regulation of children’s lives.
For this reason J does not agree with Postman that we are seeing the disappearance of childhood. Childhood continues to be a separate status and the legal and restrictions placed on what they can do continues to mark them off from adults.

Question 14

Criticism of Jenks

Answer 14

• evidence for both for and against Jenks is limited. There is some evidence that parents see their relationship with their children as more important than that with their partners and that partners are very concerned about the risks they believe their children face. However the evidence comes from small, unrepresentative studies.
• Jenks is guilty of over generalising. Despite the greater diversity of family and childhood patterns found today, he makes rather sweeping statements that imply that all children are in the same position.

Question 15

Aries and Shorter - The march of progress view

Answer 15

argue that today’s children are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated, enjoy better health and have more rights than those of previous generations.
e.g. protection from harm, specialist caters for their educational, psychological and medical needs, etc.

Question 16

Toxic Childhood - Palmer

Answer 16

• she argues that rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 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.
  concerns have also been expressed about young peoples health and behaviour e.g. high rates in obesity,, self harm, drug and alcohol abuse, teenage pregnancies etc.

Question 17

The child centred family

Answer 17

• higher living standards and smaller family sizes also mean that parents can afford to provide for children’s needs properly.
• children are now the focal point of the family, consulted on many decisions as never before.
• parents invest a great deal in their children emotionally as well as financially and often have high aspirations for them to have a better life and greater opportunities than they themselves had.
• society also child centred e.g. media output and leisure specific to children

Question 18

The conflict view - Marxists and Feminists

Answer 18

• challenge march of progress view
• argue that society is based on a conflict between social groups such as social classes or genders.
• see the relationship between groups as one of domination and subordination in which the dominant group act as oppressors.
• march or progress view is based on a false and idealised image that ignores important inequalities. Criticise the view on two grounds:
  1. there are inequalities among children in terms of the opportunities and risks they face as some remain uncared for
  2. inequalities between children and adults is greater than ever: children today experience greater control, oppression and dependency

Question 19

Conflict View +C: March of Progress View

Answer 19

• not all children share the same status or experiences e.g. those of different nationalities.

Question 20

Conflict View - Hillman Gender Differences

Answer 20

Hillman - gender differences e.g. boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses and go out after dark unaccompanied.

Question 21

Conflict View - Bonke Gender Differences

Answer 21

Bonke- found that girls do more domestic labour especially in lone parent families.

Question 22

Conflict View - Brannen Ethnic Differences

Answer 22

Brannen- study of 15-16 yr olds found that Asian parents were more likely than other parents to be strict towards daughters.

Question 23

Conflict View - Bhatti Ethnic Differences

Answer 23

Bhatti - found that ideas of izzat (family honour) could be a restriction, particularly on the behaviour of girls.

Question 24

Conflict View - Class Differences

Answer 24

• poor mothers are more likely to have low birth weight babies which is linked to delayed physical and intellectual development.
• children of unskilled manual workers are more likely to suffer hyperactivity and conduct disorders than the children of professionals.
• children born into poor families are more likely to die in infancy or childhood, to suffer longstanding illness, shorter in height, fall behind at school, and ti be placed on the child protection register.
  Thus we cannot speak of children in general as if they were all equal

Question 25

Firestone and Holt +C: March of Progress View

Answer 25

- argue that what march of progress see as care and protection are in fact just new forms of oppression and control. Firestone argues that protection from paid wok is not a benefit to children but a form of inequality. It is a way of segregating children, making them more dependant, powerless and subject to adult control.

Question 26

Neglect and Abuse

Answer 26

children were subject to child protection plans because they were deemed to be at risk of significant harm - most often from their own parents. Indicates to a 'dark side' of the family.

Question 27

Control over Childrens Space

Answer 27

- children are highly regulated - children are forbidden to play in some areas - fears of road safety and stranger danger has led to increased companionship of parents with their children - this control contrasts with the independence of many children in developing countries today

Question 28

Control over Childrens Time

Answer 28

- adults in modern society control childrens daily routines including eating, school time, play, TV, sleep, etc. - control the speed at which children 'grow up.' It is them who define whether a child is too old or young for that activity, responsibility or behaviour. - This contrasts with Holmes finding that among Samoans 'too young' is never given as a reason for not letting a child undertake a task.

Question 29

Control over Childrens Bodies

Answer 29

- adults exercise control through how they sit, walk, run, hairstyles, clothes, makeup, etc. - it is taken for granted the ways in which children bodies are touched by certain adults: washed, fed, dressed, picked up and they may be disciplined by smacking.

Question 30

Control over Childrens Access to Resources

Answer 30

in industrial societies children have limited opportunities to earn money and so they remain economically dependent on adults: - labour laws and compulsory schooling exclude them from all but the most marginal low paid part time employment - state benefit goes to the parent not the child - pocket money given by parents may depend on good behaviour and there may be restrictions on what it can be spent on All this contrasts with the economic role of children in developing societies today and European societies in the past.

Question 31

Age Patriarchy - Gittins

Answer 31

- uses this term to describe inequalities between adults and children. - argues that there is an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency.

Question 32

Age Patriarchy - Humphreys and Thiara

Answer 32

found in a study of 200 women that most left their abusing partner because they feared for their children lives. Such findings support Gittins view that patriarchy oppresses children as well as women.

Question 33

Hockey and James

Answer 33

evidence that children may experience childhood as oppressive comes from the strategies they use to resist the status of child and restrictions that go with it. - describe one strategy as 'acting up' - acting like adults by doing things that children are not supposed to do such as swearing, drinking alcohol, joy riding and under age sexual activity. - Acting down - behaving in ways expected of younger children - is also a popular strategy for resisting adult control e.g. reverting to baby talk. - H & J conclude that modern childhood is a status from which most children want to escape.

Question 34

+C: Hockey and James

Answer 34

- some adult control is justified on the grounds that children cannot make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves. - although children remain under adult supervision they are not as powerless as child internationalists think. For example the Rights of the Child establish the principle that children have legal rights to be protected ad consulted.

Question 35

The New Sociology of Childhood

Answer 35

- there is a danger of seeing children as merely passive objects who have no part in making their own childhoods. Mayall - calls this an 'adulist' viewpoint - that is they see children as mere socialisation projects for adults to mould, shape and develop of no interest in themselves but only for what they will become in the future - however this approach sees children as ACTIVE AGENTS who play a major part in creating their own childhood. This approach therefore does not see children as just 'adults in the making.'

Question 36

The New Sociology of Childhood | - The Childs Point of View - Smart

Answer 36

- this new sociology of childhood approach aims to include the views and experiences of the children themselves while they are living through childhood. - As Mayall says we need to focus on the present tense of childhood, to study ordinary life from the child's perspective.

Question 37

The New Sociology of Childhood | - The Childs Point of View - Mason and Tipper

Answer 37

shows how children actively create their own definitions of who is family - which may include people who are not proper aunts or grandfathers, etc, but who they regard as 'close'

Question 38

The New Sociology of Childhood | - The Childs Point of View - Smart et al

Answer 38

study of divorce found that far from being passive victims, children were actively involved in trying to make the situation better for everyone - studies like this use research methods such as informal unstructured interviews, which empower children to express their own views and allow researchers to see the world from the childs point of view - this enables the researchers to explore the diverse, multiple childhoods that exist even within a single society. E.g. as Smart notes there are 'disabled childhoods, Chinese childhoods, girls, adopted children, etc. Because it allows children to express their point o view, the new sociology of childhood also draws attention to the fact that children often lack power in relation to adults. As such it is an approach favoured by child internationalists who campaign in favour of children's rights and priorities.