sociology childhood essay

Sociology of Childhood: Significance, Social Construction, Examples

Childhood is a significant period in the lives of most individuals, and it is generally considered to be a natural biological stage of development that heavily influences one’s thoughts, ideas and attitudes. This article will mainly discuss the period of childhood from a sociological perspective, focusing on the notion of childhood as believed by society. It will mainly address the social construction of childhood and how experiential childhood differs across cultures and communities, eventually shedding light on how adults construct childhood.

Significance of Childhood

Sociologists argue that what is important is not the underlying biological nature of childhood, but the process of learning through which young people are introduced to values and norms that aids significant socio-emotional development (Leonard, 2016). Therefore, it is necessary to discuss and debate how primary and secondary socialization occurs throughout childhood, as these socialization processes will pave the way towards learning the meaning of childhood through a sociological perspective.

Social Construction of Childhood

Social construction is usually defined as “a theoretical perspective that explores the ways in which ‘reality’ is negotiated in everyday life through people’s interactions and through sets of discourses” (Norozi & Moen, 2016). The consensus is that children and childhood knowledge is a social construct, and it is not rooted in organic realities. The notion of childhood is deeply intertwined with societal perspectives. The reality of how childhood is perceived does not exist in isolation. It is heavily influenced by other factors such as culture, time, values and norms. Therefore, sociologists argue that as opposed to common belief, the reality of childhood is not determined by age. Rather, it is socially constructed through ideas and beliefs that are reinforced by society. Taking this into account, childhood experiences across the globe differ in significant ways. Not only this, but the year of birth and other cohort effects can also influence experiences of childhood across different generations. Other factors include socio-economic background, race, ethnicity, etc.

Geographical Location: For children in India, their childhood is significantly marked by religious faith. They inculcate the belief in God from a very young age, they perform daily visits to temples and their vacations often consist of pilgrimages. On the other hand, children in China are majorly impervious to religion. They are raised in atheist environments and do not believe in deities, which leads to different emotional states.
Time : Childhood experiences vary tremendously across generations. While new-age kids are heavily influenced by technological advancements, kids in older generations had to rely on other forms of entertainment. They were physically and mentally healthy as they grew up in traditional environments with regular play. However, children born after the late 2000s suffer through various problems such as weak eyesight, incorrect posture, etc. due to their high usage of technological devices. Their childhood experiences thus vary by miles despite belonging to the same family and community.
Socio-Economic Background : A child belonging to a lower socio-economic status is usually more responsible in terms of work and employment. Most children seek employment even before they turn adults. Their childhood experience greatly differs from those belonging to middle-class and upper-class families, as they are provided with education opportunities and are less burdened in terms of manual labour.

According to Philippe Aries, a French medievalist, childhood was not even seen as a separate stage of life until the 15th century. In his book, the Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (1960), he argues that the idea of childhood did not exist in the medieval century. Children were expected to work and live as adults. According to his thesis, social constructionism of childhood is then a valid phenomenon, because, without it, the notion of childhood would fail to exist.

Cross-Cultural Differences

We have already discussed how different factors affect childhood experiences. Values and norms are some of these important factors and these attitudes are mainly reinforced by the culture that one is associated with. Thus, sociologists argue that childhood exists mainly as a dominant product of culture. According to Lev Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, cultural learnings precede development, which means that culture heavily influences a child’s thoughts and beliefs. According to Jens Qvortrup, childhood as a social construct is extremely open to cultural change and since culture is mainly upheld by adults, the theoretical notions of childhood are also mainly constructed to reflect adult beliefs (Qvortrup, 1989). Other developmental theorists such as Bronfenbrenner also view development in a socio-cultural context, asserting that child-rearing differs across different ecological systems.

In Japan, children are trusted to walk home alone after school much earlier than in India. Even children in elementary schools are trusted to take the subway and run errands. Due to the high culture of interdependence and joint ownership, children are taught to trust almost any member they encounter in public (The Wire, 2016). This is wildly different from India, where even teenagers depend on caregivers for routine tasks.

Another example is the division of labour in underdeveloped and developed countries. In the Kurdish society of Iraq, children are expected to take up jobs that are specifically designed for them such as serving or cleaning. In fact, Tongan children in horticultural societies perform tasks such as sweeping leaves or cutting the grass when they are toddlers (Barone, 2020). On the other hand, children in Western societies do not take up jobs until they are teenagers. South-East Asian cultures encourage even later assignments of work, with most people seeking employment well into their adulthood.

Adult Construction of Childhood

In 2006, Sorin and Galloway outlined ten constructions of self that position the notion of childhood in relation to an adult. These constructions provided a significant lesson on the psycho-social impact of adult relationships on the notions of childhood. These constructions are:

The Child as Innocent, the Adult as Protector: According to this construct, the child is seen as young and innocent, which makes them incompetent and vulnerable. Thus, the adult has to take up responsibility for the child and protect them from the evils of the world. Childhood is thus characterized as a period of innocence and vulnerability.
The Child as Evil, the Adult as Good/Moral: The child herein is known as evil or imperfect. Their behaviour is thus to be regulated by wise, mature adults. This construct is used to explain conformity and regulation that is essential to discipline a child.
The Snowballing Child, the Deferring Adult: Here, the children are seen as snowballing people who make inflexible demands. The parents, though in authority, usually give in ot their demands for various reasons. This construct makes up for a majority of consumer behaviour with toys and candies being specifically marketed to kids.
The Out-of-Control Child, the Powerless Adult: These children assume power in relationships with the adults around them, eventually forcing them to do whatever they demand. For example, a child may threaten their parent that they would starve unless given their favourite food to eat.
The Noble/Saviour Child, the Dependant Adult: In this construction of childhood, the child takes up adult responsibilities. These responsibilities are enforced upon the child and are not undertaken by choice. For example, a child may be forced to work to pay the bills in the presence of a dependent, alcoholic mother.
The Miniature Adult: In this construction of childhood, the children are depicted the same as adults. They have essentially lost their innocence or vulnerability and present adult characteristics. For instance, many child criminals are asked to be tried and reprimanded as adults due to the nature of their crime.
Adult-in-training: According to this view, children work through various intellectual stages to formally develop an adult personality. Developmental psychologists usually focus on this construct.
The Commodified Child, the Self-Interested Adult: Within this construction, the children are largely powerless and have been commodified in order to produce profits for their parents. For instance, child actors working against their will who inadvertently provide material benefits to their guardians.
The Child Victim, the Absent Adult : In this construction, the children are suffering through social and political oppression and they have no one to take care of them. An example is the war-like military environment in Syria that not only pushes terror upon them but also on their parents, leading to guilt and absenteeism.
The Agentic Child, the Adult as Co-Constructor of Being: The child is positioned as a capable agent possessing all rights and functions. Within this image, the child and the adult co-construct childhood, where the child is an active learner and the adult is an enthusiastic teacher who passes on values and norms to the upcoming generations.

Thus, childhood is a significant period of life that is not only characterized by biological differences but also sociological constructs and perspectives. It is thus important to view the theoretical and experiential notions of childhood from a holistic point of view that considers all aspects of society.

Also Read: How to Apply Sociology in Daily Life

Ali Norozi, S., & Moen, T. (2016). Childhood as a social construction. Journal of Educational and Social Research . https://doi.org/10.5901/jesr.2016.v6n2p75

Barone, F. (2020, January 31). A cross-cultural perspective on childhood . Human Relations Area Files – Cultural information for education and research. Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://hraf.yale.edu/a-cross-cultural-perspective-on-childhood/

Behind the independence of Japanese kids lies a culture of community . The Wire. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://thewire.in/culture/behind-independence-among-japanese-kids-lies-a-culture-of-reliance-on-community

Leonard, M. (2016). The sociology of children, childhood and generation. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529714494

Qvortrup, J. (1989). On change of children and childhood. Early Influences Shaping The Individual , 85–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-5634-9_8

Sorin, R. (2016, January 31). Constructs of childhood: Constructs of self . Children Australia. Retrieved May 29, 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/21282427/Constructs_of_cconstructs_of_self

Ishita Bhambri

Ishita Bhambri is an undergraduate student of Psychology and Sociology at FLAME University, Pune. A raging feminist and a mental health advocate, she is deeply interested in gender studies and film literature. In her free time, she enjoys reading books and baking desserts.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

We're Hiring!
Help Center

Childhood and society: an introduction to the sociology of childhood

Related Papers

Sociology of Health & Illness

International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure

Utsa Mukherjee

In this article, I contend that the sociology of leisure in particular and leisure studies in general has been shaped by adult-centric assumptions which have marginalized chil-dren's perspectives on and experiences of leisure within theory building exercises. Consequently, leisure researchers who do empirical work on children's leisure have largely eschewed critical debates about children's agency, social positioning and lived citizenship among others that have been developed by the 'new' sociology of childhood. Failure to build bridges with other areas of scholarship such as sociological childhood studies, has intensified the intellectual isolation of leisure research. Here, I propose a sustained dialogue between leisure studies and childhood studies which will not only widen the intellectual breadth of leisure theory and make it more inclusive, but also enable leisure studies to have an impact on the new social studies of childhood. In illustrating what such a collaboration might entail, I outline a conceptual schema of three interlocking genres of children's leisure-namely organized, family and casual leisure-based on existing studies conducted by researchers in leisure, childhood and family studies that offer a roadmap for the development of a new critical sociology of children's leisure.

Caterina Satta

Angelo D. Marra

Simon J Duffy

Sociology Compass

Sarah Matthews

Ammar Singh

Global Childhoods: Issues and Debates

Denise Cuthbert

Mannion, G. (2007) Going Spatial, Going Relational: Why ‘listening to children’ and children’s participation needs reframing. In Discourse, Vol. 28, No. 3, September 2007 Special Issue on Pupil Voice in Educational Research, pp. 405 – 420.

Greg Mannion

in New Handbook of International Sociology, edited by Ann Denis & Devorah Kalekin-Fishman, London: Sage: 421-60.

Robert van Krieken

As the social construction and experience of childhood has developed into the 21st century, sociological studies of childhood have correspondingly become more extensive, differentiated and conceptually complex. The sociology of childhood now draws on an ever-expanding array of theoretical approaches, deals with a constantly broadening set of empirical concerns, and is of growing relevance to an increasing number of sociological fields. This paper takes stock of the current state of the sociology of childhood by identifying its potential to organize itself around the concepts of conflict, competition and cooperation. It outlines the ways in which these three concepts run through sociological studies of childhood today in connection with relations among children as well as between children and adults and reflects on the future directions likely to be taken by sociological examinations of childhood as a specific research question. It argues that there is a key role to be played by the development of an approach which integrates these three concepts, and sets out a proposal for the structuring of theory and research in the sociology of childhood which takes some useful steps towards such a perspective.

RELATED PAPERS

David Buckingham

Anne-Marie Smith

Childhood Studies

Mary Jane Kehily

Symbolic violence in socio-educational contexts. A post-colonial critique.

Dr Basia Vucic

Children <html_ent glyph="@amp;" ascii="&"/> Society

Sarah Gorin

Olga den Besten

Karianne Franck

Helen Brocklehurst

New Perspectives on African Childhood: Constructions, Histories, Representations and Understandings

Andrea Y Adomako

PARADIGMS & UNDERSTADING SOCIAL ISSUES

Turkan Firinci Orman

The International Journal of Human Rights

Samantha Punch , Ruth Emond

Journal of Children's Services

Cath Larkins

Jouni Häkli

Sarada Balagopalan

Roy Huijsmans

E Kay M Tisdall , Samantha Punch

Emma Uprichard

History of the Human Sciences

Norman Gabriel

Catherine Hartung

Iveta Silova , Nelli Piattoeva , Zsuzsa Millei

Valeria Llobet , Nara Milanich

Social Sciences

Vinnarasan Aruldoss

New Perspectives on African Childhoods

Debbie Olson

New Perspective on African Childhood : Constructions, Histories, Representations and Understanding

Mawuloe Koffi Kodah

Journal of Pedagogy , Dragana Breneselovic , Zivka Krnjaja , Carol Thompson , Ninnie Andersson , Michael Kleine

International Journal of Early Years Education

Zenna Kingdon

Children's Voices from the Past: New Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Carla Pascoe Leahy , Kristine Moruzi

Stuart Lester

Wendy Russell

Journal of Family Violence

Hazel James

Leisure Sciences

Antonia Canosa, PhD

Journal of Childhood Studies, 46(4), 59-73

Stephanie Olsen

Susie Weller

Childhood studies, an overview of.

Marek Tesar

Robert Imre , Zsuzsa Millei

Daniela Sime

Nabeel Petersen

Andrea Priestley

The Sociology of Childhood by William Corsaro, Essay Example

Pages: 4

Words: 986

Hire a Writer for Custom Essay

Use 10% Off Discount: "custom10" in 1 Click 👇

You are free to use it as an inspiration or a source for your own work.

The most widely spread models of studying childhood observed by Corsaro (7-18) are the determinist and constructivist approaches to sociological studies. The determinist model proponents consider a child as a passive participant of the society with dual roles – the one of a novice with the potential opportunities to alter and innovate the society and the one of a threat to the existing state of affairs. The constructivist model holds that children are both active participants and interested learners who shape the society in which they live, together with the future of the society.

Corsaro coins a new term of ‘interpretive reproduction’ to show the innovative view on the participation of children in the society. He means that children create something new, now solely reproduce what their parents or other adults teach them, acting in a unique way in their peer cultures (Corsaro 18). The trend is truly consistent in the contemporary studies of childhood and children because the role of children as inferior members of society is being reconsidered and reshaped nowadays; the theory may add much value and consideration for children’s actions in the process of learning and comprehending information.

The orb web model presupposes multiple influences to which a child is subject in the course of his or her development. However, Corsaro (25) states that besides institutions mentioned in the model children are exposed to the influence of peer cultures that are unique and innovative and cannot be passed on to junior children by older ones.

Childhood is socially constructed by children, from the point of view of Corsaro (3) because children are active, creative participants of the society in which they live; in addition, they form the future model of adult society – it is necessary to remember that children are future adults, and depending on the peer culture they ill create the adult culture will be altered accordingly.

Many changes influenced the formation of childhood in the context of the 20 th and the 21sr century. It is necessary to recollect such significant ones as the redefinition of families and re-adjustment of family roles (Corsaro 84). At the beginning of the 20 th century children were supposed to work from an early age to provide for the family, families were large (Corsaro 95). Nowadays families significantly reduced in size, there is a growing number of one-parent families, families with working mothers and adolescent families (Corsaro 95-100). All this cannot help influencing the childhood directly.

Studying childhood is possible with the application of the following approaches: macro-level methods (demographic studies, large-scale surveys, historical methods), micro-level methods (individual and group interviews, microscopic and holistic ethnography etc.) alongside with some non-traditional methods applied (Corsaro 46-55). Ethical considerations when exploring childhood involve institutional review board (IRB) implications, besides power and representation (Corsaro 56).

Philippe Aries was the first to examine the history of childhood in his work, which included the study of art, but had no extensive value because it only referred to the works studied and did not represent the visuals, thus limiting understanding of the subject considerably (Corsaro 48).

The main challenges in the peer cultures of preschool years that children face are to gain control over their own lives and to share that control with each other (Corsaro 134).

The period of socialization presupposes formation of gender roles and the formation of racial identity that cannot help affecting the child’s vision in future. (Corsaro 93). However, depending on how skillfully and tolerantly they are formed the child may mostly overcome the possible stereotypes.

10.Children try to deal with the conflicts that arise in their peer cultures by taking part in the various cultural routines thereof (Corsaro 160). Rituals are also a popular form of self-expression and eliminating uncertainty – this is a repetitive, cooperative expression of common values having much importance for those engaged in it (Corsaro 145).

Some characteristic features of preadolescent peer cultures are that they like to play organized games – in formal and informal settings (Corsaro 204). Besides, they create particular cultural artifacts to make their shared activities organized (Corsaro 209). Corsaro (201) also notes that preadolescent peer cultures are distinguished by autonomy and identity.

Borderwork is enacted as soon as sexual boundaries are stipulated. Then, adolescents start borderwork to differentiate between members of their groups and others. It concerns dominance of boys over girls much, and involve teasing, conflict and tension among the groups (Corsaro 215-223).

Corsaro (192-197) found out that the issues of popularity are centered around particular factors like family background, physical appearance, social skills, precocity or adult-like concerns and style, good academic records (for girls) and mostly good athletic form and dominance in the group (for boys). Racial considerations also play an important role due to stereotypes that are formed during socialization.

Carol Gilligan attributed much attention to moral and ethical aspects of feminine and masculine reasoning. In her opinion women are more guided by ethics than men, which won her many opponents, like Lawrence Kohlbergs who argued the ability of women to ethical considerations (Corsaro 198).

Changes in structure of families could not help leaving the trace on children’s development. In working families, children are left with much less attention, so they lose their childhood in the whole sense. They may also be urged to find a job, though a part-time one, to have their pocket money (Corsaro 100). However, these negative influences are not the dominant ones – contemporary children are heavily influenced by divorces and violence in families, which ruins them psychologically and makes them less willing to create families of their own (Corsaro 104-105).

Among problems described by Corsaro in Chapter 11 one has to pay particular attention to such issues as poverty and quality of children’s lives (this problem, seemingly not concerning the developed countries, is still a problem for every state), child labor, teen pregnancy and non-marital births (rising at an astounding rate in the 21 st century), as well as violence and victimization (Corsaro 251-275).

Works Cited

Corsaro, William. The Sociology of Childhood . Pine Forge Press, 2005.

Stuck with your Essay?

Get in touch with one of our experts for instant help!

Malnutrition Policies, Essay Example

Anthropology Assignment, Essay Example

Time is precious

don’t waste it!

Plagiarism-free guarantee

Privacy guarantee

Secure checkout

Money back guarantee

Related Essay Samples & Examples

Voting as a civic responsibility, essay example.

Pages: 1

Words: 287

Utilitarianism and Its Applications, Essay Example

Words: 356

The Age-Related Changes of the Older Person, Essay Example

Pages: 2

Words: 448

The Problems ESOL Teachers Face, Essay Example

Pages: 8

Words: 2293

Should English Be the Primary Language? Essay Example

Words: 999

The Term “Social Construction of Reality”, Essay Example

Words: 371

The Social Construction of Childhood

Evidence supporting the social construction of childhood comes from cross-cultural differences, historical changes and differences within society.

The sociological perspective

Sociologists see childhood as a social construction, created by the social structure and culture, people’s interpretations and dominant social attitudes, norms and traditions.

Cross-cultural differences

Children in the West experience a freedom from adult responsibilities that is not seen across all societies.
In Britain, there is a prolonged period of childhood and adolescence before the transition into adulthood; this is not seen in all societies.
In many countries, even very small children are expected to take on adult roles as soon as they are physically able (e.g. factory work or as soldiers).

Historical changes

According to Ariès , in medieval times, childhood did not exist as a separate entity, with children being view as ‘little’ adults’ and an economic asset to the family.
Children once went straight from infancy to adult roles and responsibilities.

Legal changes

Ariès argues that the social construction of childhood was linked to industrialisation, as work moved outside of the family and into the factory.
This also created the need for a literate and numerate workforce, leading to compulsory education in 1880.
Legislation restricting child labour also created a distinct group separate to adults.

‘Childhood’

Such changes led to the emergence of the concept of ‘childhood’ as seen in Western societies today, with children lacking in power and dependent on adults.

Differences Between Children in the Same Society

Childhood is not the same for all children and there are inequalities in life chances based on social class, gender and ethnicity.

Class difference

About a quarter of children in the UK live in poverty; poor children suffer from more ill-health and disability and do less well in education.

Gender difference

Girls often have a more restricted and controlled childhood than boys.

Ethnic difference

Different ethnic groups may have different expectations on children and their behaviour.

1 Theory & Methods

1.1 Sociological Theories

1.1.1 Marxism

1.1.2 Feminism

1.1.3 Social Action Theories

1.2 Sociological Methods

1.2.1 Types of Data

1.2.2 Positivism & Interpretivism

1.2.3 Research Design

1.2.4 Research Considerations

1.2.5 Values in Research

1.2.6 Modernity & Post-Modernity

1.2.7 Sociology as a Science

1.2.8 Sociology & Social Policy

1.2.9 End of Topic Test - Sociology Methods & Theories

1.3 Sources of Data

1.3.1 Introduction

1.3.2 Experiments

1.3.3 Surveys

1.3.4 Longitudinal Studies

1.3.5 Questionnaires

1.3.6 Types of Questionnaires

1.3.7 Interviews

1.3.8 Observation

1.3.9 Case Studies

1.3.10 Documents

1.3.11 Official Statistics

1.3.12 End of Topic Test - Sources of Data

2 Education with Methods in Context

2.1 Role & Function of the Education System

2.1.1 Introduction

2.1.2 Functionalist Theories

2.1.3 Marxist & Feminist Theories

2.1.4 The New Right

2.2 Educational Achievement

2.2.1 Social Class: Internal Factors

2.2.2 Social Class: External Factors

2.2.3 Social Class: Attitudes to Education

2.2.4 Social Class: Difference in Achievement

2.2.5 Gender

2.2.6 Ethnicity

2.3 Relationships & Processes Within Schools

2.3.1 Processes

2.3.2 Labelling

2.3.3 Categorisations

2.3.4 Student Experience

2.3.5 End of Topic Test -Education with Methods

2.4 Educational Policies

2.4.1 Equality

2.4.2 Privatisation

2.4.3 Marketisation

2.4.4 Government Policies by Party

2.4.5 Globalisation

2.4.6 End of Topic Test- Educational Policies

2.4.7 Practice Exam Question - Social Policies

3 Option 1: Culture & Identity

3.1 Conceptions of Culture

3.1.1 Culture

3.1.2 Mass Culture

3.1.3 Popular Culture

3.1.4 Global Culture

3.1.5 End of Topic Test - Culture and Identity

3.2 Identity & Socialisation

3.2.1 Identities

3.2.2 Socialisation

3.2.3 Secondary Socialisation

3.2.4 Theories of Socialisation

3.2.5 End of Topic Test - Identity

3.2.6 Practice Exam Question - Socialisation & Equality

3.3 Social Identity

3.3.1 Social Class

3.3.2 Upper & Middle Class

3.3.3 Working & Underclass

3.3.4 Social Class Evaluation

3.3.5 Gender

3.3.6 Changing Gender Identities

3.3.7 Ethnicity

3.3.9 Disability

3.3.10 Nationality

3.3.11 End of Topic Test - Social Identity

3.4 Production, Consumption & Globalisation

3.4.1 Production & Consumption

3.4.2 Globalisation

3.4.3 Evaluation

3.4.4 End of Topic Test - Production

4 Option 1: Families & Households

4.1 Families & Households

4.1.1 Definitions

4.1.2 Functionalist & New Right Perspectives

4.1.3 Marxist & Feminist Perspectives

4.1.4 Postmodernist Perspective

4.1.5 End of Topic Test - Families & Households

4.1.6 Practice Exam Question - Function of Family

4.2 Changing Patterns

4.2.1 Marriage

4.2.2 Divorce

4.2.3 LAT Relationships

4.2.4 Child-Bearing

4.2.5 Lone Parenthood

4.2.6 Diversity

4.2.7 The Sociology of Personal Life

4.2.8 Government Policies Post-WW2

4.2.9 End of Topic Test - Changing Patterns

4.3 The Symmetrical Family

4.3.1 The Symmetrical Family

4.3.2 Evaluation

4.4 Children & Childhood

4.4.1 Childhood

4.4.2 Childhood in the UK

4.4.3 Childhood as a Social Construct

4.4.4 The Disappearance of Childhood

4.4.5 Child Abuse

4.4.6 Domestic Violence

4.4.7 End of Topic Test - Family & Childhood

4.5 Demographic Trends UK

4.5.1 Introduction

4.5.2 Birth Rates

4.5.3 Death Rates

4.5.4 The Ageing Population

4.5.5 Studies on the Ageing Population

4.5.6 Migration

4.5.7 Globalisation

4.5.8 End of Topic Test - Demographics UK

5 Option 1: Health

5.1 Social Constructions

5.1.1 The Body

5.1.2 Health, Illness & Disease

5.1.3 Disability

5.1.4 Models of Health & Illness

5.1.5 End of Topic Test - Social Constructions

5.2 Social Distribution of Healthcare

5.2.1 Social Class

5.2.2 Gender

5.2.3 Ethnicity

5.2.4 Regional

5.3 Provision & Access to Healthcare

5.3.1 The NHS

5.3.2 Inequalities in Provision

5.3.3 Sociological Explanations

5.3.4 Inequalities in Access

5.3.5 Inequalities in Access 2

5.3.6 End of Topic Test - Distribution Health

5.4 Mental Health

5.4.1 The Biomedical Approach

5.4.2 Social Patterns

5.4.3 Social Constructionist Approach

5.5 The Globalised Health Industry

5.5.1 The Functionalist Approach

5.5.2 The Postmodernist Approach

5.5.3 The Globalised Health Industry

5.5.4 End of Topic Test - Mental Health & Globalisation

6 Option 1: Work, Poverty & Welfare

6.1 Poverty & Wealth

6.1.1 Types of Poverty

6.1.2 Types of Poverty 2

6.1.3 Distribution of Wealth UK

6.1.4 Sociological Theories

6.1.5 Sociological Theories 2

6.1.6 Distribution of Poverty UK

6.1.7 End of Topic Test - Poverty & Wealth

6.2 Welfare

6.2.1 The Welfare State

6.2.2 Theoretical Approaches to Welfare

6.3 Labour Process

6.3.1 Nature of Work

6.3.2 Technology & Control

6.3.3 Work & Life

6.3.4 The Effects of Globalisation

6.3.5 Globalisation & Worklessness

6.3.6 End of Topic Test - Welfare & Labour

7 Option 2: Beliefs in Society

7.1 Ideology, Science & Religion

7.1.1 Types of Religion

7.1.2 Ideology & Belief Systems

7.1.3 Social Stability & Religion

7.1.4 Social Change & Religion

7.1.5 End of Topic Test - Ideology, Science & Religion

7.2 Religious Movements

7.2.1 Religious Organisations

7.2.2 New Religious Movements

7.2.3 New Age Movements

7.2.4 Practice Exam Question - Growth of NRMs

7.3 Society & Religion

7.3.1 Social Groups & Religion

7.3.2 Gender & Religion

7.3.3 End of Topic Test- Religious Movements & Society

7.4 Contemporary Religion

7.4.1 Secularisation UK

7.4.2 Against Secularisation

7.4.3 Secularisation US

7.4.4 Fundamentalism

7.4.5 Economic Development & Religion

7.4.6 End of Topic - Contemporary Religion

8 Option 2: Global Development

8.1 Development, Underdevelopment & Global Inequality

8.1.1 Development

8.1.2 Underdevelopment & Global Inequality

8.2 Globalisation & Global Organisations

8.2.1 Globalisation

8.2.2 Transnational Corporations & International Agency

8.2.3 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs)

8.3 Aid, Trade, Industrialisation, Urbanisation

8.3.1 Development: Aid & Trade

8.3.2 Development: Industrialisation & Urbanisation

8.3.3 Development: Environment & War

9 Option 2: The Media

9.1 Contemporary Media

9.1.1 New Media

9.1.2 Control of the Media

9.1.3 Sociological Approaches: New Media

9.1.4 Globalisation

9.1.5 News Selection

9.1.6 Moral Panics

9.1.7 End of Topic Test - Contemporary Media

9.2 Media Representations

9.2.2 Social Class & Ethnicity

9.2.3 Gender

9.2.4 Sexuality & Disability

9.2.5 Practice Exam Questions - Presentation of Women

9.3 Audiences

9.3.1 Media Theories

9.3.2 Media Theories 2

9.3.3 Media Representations & Audiences

10 Crime & Deviance

10.1 Crime & Society

10.1.1 Functionalism

10.1.2 Subcultural Theory

10.1.3 Marxism

10.1.4 Realism

10.1.5 Other Approaches

10.1.6 End of Topic Test - Crime & Society

10.1.7 Practice Exam Questions - Social Construction

10.2 Social Distribution of Crime

10.2.1 Ethnicity

10.2.2 Gender

10.2.3 Globalisation & Crime

10.2.4 Media & Crime

10.2.5 Types of Crimes

10.2.6 End of Topic Test - Social Distribution of Crime

10.3 Prevention & Punishment

10.3.1 Surveillance

10.3.2 Prevention

10.3.3 Punishment

10.3.4 Victimology

10.3.5 End of Topic Test - Prevention & Punishment

Jump to other topics

Unlock your full potential with GoStudent tutoring

Affordable 1:1 tutoring from the comfort of your home

Tutors are matched to your specific learning needs

30+ school subjects covered

Childhood in the UK

EssayEmpire

Childhood essay.

This Childhood Essay example is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic, please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

In the past few decades, childhood has received extensive academic attention from sociology. Previous studies on the topic have approached childhood primarily from a psychological perspective. They have especially focused on childhood as a time for cognitive development and psychological maturity. In the discipline of sociology, the area of childhood has not been fully neglected, but rather marginalized until relatively recently. Children have typically been portrayed as adults in training, so their individual needs, motives and desires have been ignored. In fact, children s needs and desires have been associated with crime and deviance. Sociology of childhood has emerged as an important area of study in the past few decades. Instead of looking at childhood as a universal experience of cognitive development, sociology of childhood focuses on the role of societies and different cultures in defining and shaping childhood experiences. This approach also focuses on the role of socialization.

The first interest in sociology has come from feminist scholars and scholars of gender studies. Especially studies of subordinate groups such as women and minorities started including another subordinate, marginalized group: children. Secondly, traditional gender roles have associated women closely with children.

The most substantial body of work in childhood has been in the area of socialization. Socialization refers to the process during which children learn and internalize the rules of society. The process of socialization has been studied from the perspective of two different paradigms.

The first paradigm, the deterministic model, assumes children are passive creatures. The initial assumption in this paradigm is that children are new, inexperienced members of society, who need to be taught the rules of that particular society. In this paradigm the children do not contribute to their education and socialization, but are rather passive recipients.

The second paradigm, the functionalist model, focuses more on creating order in society. The main assumption in this view is that children are disruptive and chaotic by nature. Their disruptive nature poses a threat to society s order and stability. That is why they need to learn the rules of society. Socialization, according to functionalists, provides the education process for children to learn and obey the rules of society. This process is crucial to ensure the order and stability of society. While the functionalist model was popular particularly in the 1950s, this view has lost its popularity.

The third paradigm, the reproductive model, moved the debate on childhood away from the role of socialization in maintaining order to sustaining inequalities. Some sociologists argue that socialization of children becomes a mechanism to reinforce and sustain existing social inequalities. Especially through parental resources and education, many theorists argue children are socialized intro privileged social roles.

Today, there are three trends in the contemporary sociological literature on childhood. First, a burgeoning literature on childhood focuses on children as actors. While previous literature has studied childhood from the perspectives of parents, educators and adults, the views and perspectives of children were rarely acknowledged. A recent wave of research acknowledges children as actors with distinct motivations and aspirations instead of simply seeing them as passive recipients. In this sociological view children are not portrayed as smaller, unformed adults, lower in the developmental chain, but rather as distinct actors.

Another new approach in contemporary sociological literature focuses on social inequality among children. Instead of categorizing all children together, this view opts for exploring the inner differences within and between them. Some theorists point to the role of race, class and gender in understanding inequality among children in the USA. Many theorists also offer cross-national comparisons in children s relative deprivation and poverty.

Finally, contemporary sociology explores the boundaries of childhood. Some sociologists point to the blurred line between childhood and adulthood. Especially due to work and consumption, childhood is shortened. New research argues, however, that while the period of childhood might be shortened, transition to adulthood is taking longer than ever before.

Bibliography:

Corsaro, W. A. (2005) The Sociology ofChildhood. Pine Forge Press: Thousand Oaks, CA.
Liebel, M. (2004) A Will of Their Own: A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Working Children. Zed Books: New York.
Zelizer, V. A. (1985) Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children. Basic Books: New York.
How to Write a Sociology Essay
Sociology Essay Topics
Sociology Essay Examples

ORDER HIGH QUALITY CUSTOM PAPER

Special offer!

GET 10% OFF WITH 24START DISCOUNT CODE

Ritualised Violence against girls

In the Hamar Tribe in Ethiopia,

When boys reach the age of puberty they have to go through a ritual to become men. The main event in this ritual (for the boys at least) involves jumping over some cattle four times. Once a boy has done this, he is officially a man.

However, before they jump the cattle, young teenage girls beg to to be whipped with sticks by the boys about to undergo the ritual – the more they are whipped, the more ‘honour’ they bring on their families.

NB this isn’t play whipping, some of the blows these girls receive are serious, as you can see from the scars in the video still below, the whipping often opens up quite significant wounds which take time to heal, and with healing comes scaring.

Towards the end of this video you get to see an example of this ceremony – the girls are quite willing volunteers in this ritualized violence, which seems to be a normal part of childhood for girls in the Hamar Tribe.

Child slavery in West Africa

In West Africa, thousands of girls and women have been enslaved by a practice called ‘trokosi’. Girls as young as seven are given away by their family to pay for the sins of family members. They get forcibly shipped to a shrine, possibly in a foreign country, stripped of their identity, and are forced to work as ‘servants of God’.

In the documentary below, one victim of trokosi revisits her home country of Ghana to find out why this happened to her.

She was lucky enough to get out because an American negotiated her release and became her adopted father, which kind of suggests this religion is pretty flexible!

Further examples of how childhood is socially constructed

You can probably also find videos on child labour and child soldiers, two other good examples.

Please click here to return to the homepage – ReviseSociology.com

Paranoid Parenting

Parents project their own fears onto their children, restrict their freedoms and may unintentionally harm their development into independent adults.

In 2001 Professor Frank Furedi wrote ‘Paranoid Parenting’, arguing that a ‘culture of fear’ pervades parenting today, with parents perceiving their children as vulnerable, and as being perpetually at risk from several threats: from strangers, traffic, toys, and from the threat of falling behind in their development.

Parenting today has become an ordeal in which parents obsess over every detail of their child’s development, one in which they try to assess the risks of every activity and try to reduce these risks through surveillance and control (preventing them from taking risks in the first place).

Parents are now reluctant to let their children do unsupervised activities, such as walking to school on their own, for fear of them being abducted by strangers, and they are scared to let them go on school trips which involve long journeys, because of fear of traffic accidents or the possibility of them having moments when they might evade adult-supervision.

When purchasing products for young children, the safety of those products is also a concern – what are the risks of the child being injured or choking when playing with a toy, for example.

Parents are not only scared for their children’s safety when they go outdoors, they are also scared when they go online -virtual spaces are perceived as places where children may be prone to pedophiles, for example.

cover of Paranoid Parenting by Frank Furedi.

The causes of Paranoid Parenting

The most obvious cause is the exaggeration of the extent of stranger-abductions, and anything negative which happens to children in the news.

A less obvious cause is the growth of an ‘expert culture’ which has grown up around childhood, so that now there are a multitude of child-development professionals. There is an increasing norm in which parents are expected to defer to the authority of experts, rather than find their own way to parent.

The problem is that many of these experts have contradictory and unclear advice about what good parenting looks like, hence it just increases parental confusion.

A final reason is because the increase in alienation of parents – they have less power in the world of politics and work, and their children have become the main place where they can construct their identities, project their power and their dreams onto – so they are precious indeed!

The consequences of Paranoid Parenting

The increased control and surveillance that comes with Paranoid Parenting is a reduction in the amount of opportunities for children to develop independently – thus children remain children for longer because they are not allowed the freedom to take risks and make indpenedent choices that are required for transition to adulthood.

Another consequence is that children become more afraid themselves – with the constant messages that the world is risky, they become risk averse – and more vulnerable and anxious – paranoid parents create anxious kids. They inadvertently harm them.

Evaluating Paranoid Parenting

It’s now 20 years since Furedi wrote Paranoid Parenting, but today it seems more relevant than ever.

The video below involves an interview with Lenore Skenazy, the author of Free-Range Kids, who was dubbed ‘America’s Worst Mum’ when she let her 9 year old ride the Subway on his own, and made a video piece about it.

Note that her son had been asking to do this, and was familiar with the subway, so this was a rational ‘learning task’ for her son to do on his own!

This led to lots of TV appearances in which Lenore got demonised as the worst mum in America – she says in the interview that the TV hosts would often ask her ‘but what would you have done if he had never come back?’ and points out that this isn’t really a question, because they know how she’d feel – what they are doing is reinforcing the view that being a parent today involves going to the ‘worst case scenario’ – imagining the worst thing that could happen to your child and then concluding that they must always be under supervision, because that’s today’s norm, to be ‘Paranoid Parents’.

In the video and in this article there are several examples in the United States of the Police being called because of kids being unsupervised – in one example a teenage boy was chopping wood in his own yard with an axe, someone saw it, called the police, and they confiscated the axe, returning it to his parents.

The message is to not let your kids do anything that might help them develop as autonomous human beings, instead they should be doing ‘more homework’, and most definitely under surveillance.

Signposting and Related Posts

This material is mainly relevant to the families and households module in A-level sociology.

This can be used to criticise the ‘ March of Progress’ view of childhood ,
It’s also related to Toxic Childhood.

To return to the homepage – revisesociology.com

Find out More:

You can buy Paranoid Parenting here .
You might also like to read this Guardian article .

Timeline of Social Policies which changed childhood

Below is a timeline of some of the social policies which changed childhood, from the early 19th century through to the present day.

Most people would adopt a ‘ March of Progress view ‘ and argue that these polices improved the lives of children, however there are some sociologists who see these policies as placing too many restrictions on children.

The main types of social policies which have changed children’s lives are those relating to work, education and child welfare and protection.

This post was written primarily for A-level sociology students studying the families and households module.

The 1833 Factory Act

Made it illegal for textile factories to employ children under the age of 9, and they had to provide at least twelve hours of education a week for children aged between 9-13.

The 1867 Factories Act

Made it illegal for any factory to employ children under the age of 8, and they had to provide all children aged between 8-13 with at least 10 hours of education a week.

Thomas Barnardo also opened his first children’s home in 1867.

The 1870 Education Act

Mass Education for children aged 5-12 was introduced

This is effectively the introduction of national primary education in Britain, although it wasn’t made compulsory for all 5-12-year olds until 1880, and the quality of education could be very poor indeed in some areas until the Education Reform Act of 1944.

The 1878 Factories and Workshop Act

Banned the employment of children under 10 in Factories.

The 1880 Education Act

Schooling in Britain made compulsory for every child up to the age of 10. Local Education Authorities

1889 – The Prevention of Cruelty towards Children Act, commonly known as the Children’s Charter

This Act gave the State the right, for the first time, to intervene in relationships between parents and their children. The Police could now enter a private residence and make arrests if a child were being mistreated.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Towards Children (NSPCC) was established in the same year.

This policy and new institution together laid the foundation for modern child welfare, and the idea that the state could intervene if parents were not being responsible.

The 1908 Children’s Act

This established juvenile courts, so that children would be prosecuted according to different standards from adults.

It also introduced a formal register of Foster Parents, formalising the idea of State approved Foster Parents taking over from ‘removed children’ who had suffered abuse from their biological parents.

The Punishment of Incest Act was introduced in the same year – this made sexual abuse within families a matter for state intervention and punishment, previous to this the Church had been responsible for dealing with this.

1918 – School Leaving Age Raised to 14

The 1944 education act.

While students of sociology should be familiar with this date as the year in which the Tripartite System was introduced (and students probably familiar with criticising this act!), at the time this was a huge leap forward in the rights of children.

The 1944 Education act was the first time the State really took responsibility for education at a national level, rather than leaving education to Local Education Authorities. The act saw a huge increase in funding for education funding for education and a massive building programme of new secondary modern schools.

The School Leaving Age was also raised to 15.

The 1948 Children’s Act

This established a children’s committee and a children’s officer in each local authority and represents the emergence of ‘child protection and welfare’ being a major responsibility of each Local Authority.

A series of legislation throughout the 1960s and 1970s, often in response to high profile deaths of children at the hands of their parents or foster parents, consolidated children’s social services and safeguarding strategies in Local Authority in the UK.

1973 – School Leaving Age raised to 16

1989 – the children’s act.

Gave children the right to protection from abuse and exploitation and put child welfare at the heart of everything the Social Services did. It also reinforced the central principle that children were best looked after, wherever possible within families.

1991 – The Child Support Act

This gave children protection in the event of Divorce – it emphasised that prime concern of family courts in a Divorce should be the welfare of the children.

2003 – Every Child Matters

This was a government report following the death of Victoria Climbie

It outlined five key principles that every child should have the right to:

enjoy and achieve
make a positive contribution
achieve economic well-being

The idea was that everyone working within children in any capacity should be ensuring these principles guided their interactions with children.

2013 – Children were required to remain in education or work with training until at least the age of 18.

Further legislations.

The history of child labour, education and welfare legislation doesn’t stop here, there is more, but I am!

NB Safeguarding is now a big policy agenda, but to my mind it doesn’t really do anything new, it’s just refining and rebranding Every Child Matters and previous policies.

Sources used:

The National Archives

Child Labour: The British Library

UK Child and Labour Laws: a History

The Children’s Charter – A Turning Point in the History of Childhood .
Timeline: A History of Child Protection
What is the Every Child Matters Policy ?
Safeguarding Policies
Steve Chapman et al, AQA A-Level Sociology Year 1 and AS Student Book.

How has childhood changed since the 19th century?

How has childhood in the UK changed since the 19th Century, and have these changes been positive?

There have been several changes to the lives of children since the early 19 th century, and we can break these down as follows:

Work – Policies which regulated and restricted child labour, leading to the eventual exclusion of children from paid work.
Education – The introduction of compulsory education and the increase in both funding of education and the raising of the school leaving age.
The Medicalisation of childbirth and early childcare – Rather than high infant mortality rates, the NHS now provides comprehensive maternity and early childcare to mothers and children.
Legislation has emerged to exclude children from a whole range of potentially harmful and dangerous acts.
Parents spend more money on children than ever – a range of specialist products and services have emerged and increased which are specifically aimed at children and child development.
Parents now spend more time with their children , actively engaged with ‘parenting’.
Child Welfare – The introduction of child protection and welfare legislation, and its expansion into every aspect of child services through recent Safeguarding policies.
The recent growth of the idea of ‘rights of the child’ has given children more of a voice in society.

Mind Map of eight changes to childhood since the 19th century, for A-level sociology, families and households option (AQA)

Most people see these changes as representing a ‘March of Progress’. They see such changes as gradually improving the lives of children by giving them more protection from the stresses of adult life. It seems that we have moved towards a ‘child centred society’.

However, there are sociologists who point to the downsides of some changes, especially in the last 50 years.

This post mainly adopts a March of Progress perspective, with the critical perspectives dealt with in my other posts on ‘Toxic Childhood’ and ‘Paranoid Parenting’. I wrote this post primarily for students studying the Families and Households option for A-level Sociology.

Childhood in Victorian Times

During the early 19 th Century, many working-class children worked in factories, mines, and mills. They often worked long-hours and in unsafe conditions, which had negative consequences for their health, and could sometimes even result in children suffering injuries or dying at work.

At home, children were also often required to take on adult-work, doing domestic chores and caring for sick relatives.

Social attitudes towards children started to change in the middle of the 19 th century, and childhood gradually came to be seen more as a distinct phase of life, separate from adulthood, with children needing protecting from the hardships of adult life, especially work and provided with more guidance and nurturing through education.

Along with changing attitudes, social policies and specialist institutions emerged which gradually changed the status of children.

The changes below happened over a long period of time. The changes discussed start from the 1830s, with the first factory acts restricting child labour, right up to the present day, with the emergence of the ‘rights of the child’, spearheaded by the United Nations.

A March of Progress?

One perspective on changes to childhood is that children’s lives have generally got better over time, known as the ‘march of progress’ view of childhood.

This is something of a ‘common sense’ interpretation and students should be critical of it!

There were several ‘factories acts’ throughout the 19 th century, which gradually improved the rights of (typically male) workers by limiting working hours, and many of these acts had clauses which banned factories from employing people under certain ages.

The 1833 Factories Act was the first act to restrict child labour – it made it illegal for textile factories to employ children under the age of nine and required factories to provide any children aged 9-13 with at least 12 hours of education a week.

The 1867 Factories Act extended this idea to all factories – this act made it illegal for any factors to employ children under the age of 8 and provide children aged 8-13 with at least 10 hours of education a week.

The 1878 Factories Act placed a total ban on the employment of children under the age of 10, fitting in nicely with the introduction of education policies.

Today, children can only work full-time from the age of 16, and then they must do training with that employment. Full adult working rights only apply from the age of 18.

Government policy in 2023 discourages younger people from taking on full time work because younger people receive lower wages.

The minimum wage by age in the UK IN 2023:

£5.28 for under 18s.
£7.49 for 18-21 year olds.
£10.18 for 21-22 year olds.
£10.42 for those aged 23 and over.

This means that those under 18 can’t realistically expect to earn enough to survive, and so are effectively not able to be independent. Those aged up to 21 are in a similar position.

These lower wages encourage young people to stay in education for longer, until at least 21.

Children aged 13-15 can work, but there are restrictions on the number of hours and the types of ‘industry’ they can work in. Babysitting is one of the most common jobs for this age group.

The 1870 Education Act introduced Education for all children aged 5-12, although this was voluntary at the time.

In 1880 it became compulsory for all children to attend school aged 5-12, with the responsibility for attendance falling on the Local Education Authorities.

The next century saw the gradual increasing of the school leaving age and increase in funding for education:

1918 – The school leaving age raised to 14
1944 – school leaving age raised to 15 (also the year of the Tripartite system and massive increase in funding to build new secondary modern schools)
1973 – The school leaving age increased to 16.
2013 – Children required to remain in education or work with training until 18.

Today the UK government spends almost £100 billion a year on education and employs around 500 000 people in education.

Children are expected to attend school for 13 years, with their attendance and progress monitored intensely during that time.

The scope of education has also increased. The curriculum has broadened to include a wide range of academic and vocational subjects. There is also more of a focus on personal well-being and development.

The Medicalisation of childbirth and early childcare

Rather than high infant and child mortality rates as was the case in the Victorian era, the NHS now provides comprehensive maternity and early childcare to mothers and children.

In the United Kingdom today it is standard for pregnant women to have a dozen ante-natal appointments for health checks and ultrasounds with National Health Services.

After birth, the government expects parents to subject their newborn children to extensive health checks to measure their development.

There are several of these in the first weeks after birth and then:

A monthly health review up to 6 months.
Every two months up to 12 months.
Every three months from there on.

During early reviews experts discuss things such as vaccinations and breastfeeding with parents and administer full health checks.

Later reviews are more light touch and may just involve general health checks, height and weight monitoring.

Legislation protecting children

The government introduced several policies over the last century which protect children from engaging in potentially harmful activities:

Children under the age of 14 cannot work, but at age 14 they can do ‘light work’.
Children can apply for the armed forces at 15 years and 9 months, but they can’t serve until they are 16.
16 years of age is really where children start to get more rights – you can serve. with the armed forces, drive a moped, get a job (with training) and change your name at 16.
At age of 18, you have reached ‘the age of entitlement’ – you are an adult.

For more details you might like to visit the ‘ at what age can I’ ? timeline.

More money spent on children

This could well be the most significant change in social attitudes to childhood, specifically in relation to the family.

A range of specialist products and services have emerged which are specifically aimed at children and child development.

Children use to be perceived as people who needed to bring money into the family home. Today adults are happy to spend more money on children.

According to one recent survey, the average family spends half their salary on their children .

Expenditure by parents on their first newborn child (on things such as push chairs) increased by almost 20% between 2013 and 2019.

table showing how much it costs to bring up a child in Britain

According to CPAG it cost £70 000 for a two parent family to raise a child to 18 in 2022; and it cost £110 000 for a one parent family. This is not including housing or child care costs.

Parents spend more time with their children

Research from 2014 found that fathers spent seven times longer with their children compared to 40 years earlier in 1974.

Statistics from Our World in Data shows an increasing trend too.

graphs showing how much time parents spend with their children

Child Welfare

The introduction of child protection and welfare legislation, and its expansion into every aspect of child-services through Safeguarding policies.

The Stats below Public Spending on Children 2000-2020 show how a lot of the recent increase comes from more ‘community spending’ – in light blue.

bar chart showing how much public money is spent on children UK

The ‘rights of the child’

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines several rights children have including the right

to be heard.
to an identity
not to be exploited
to an education.

There are several more, as outlined in this child friendly version of the document…

United Nations rights of the child graphic.

A Child Centred Society

Changes such as those outlined above suggest our society has become more child centred over the last century or so. Children today occupy a more central role than ever. The government and parents spend more money on children than ever and children are the ‘primary concern’ of many public services and often the sole thing that gives meaning to the lives of many parents.

According to Cunningham (2006) the child centred society has three main features (which is another way of summarising what’s above)

Childhood is regarded as the opposite of adulthood – children in particular are viewed as being in need of protection from the adult world.
Child and adult worlds are separated – they have different social spaces – playground and school for children, work and pubs for adults.
Childhood is increasingly associated with rights.

If we look at total public expenditure on children, there certainly seems to be evidence that we live in a child centred society! (Source below) .

Criticisms of the March of Progress View of childhood

The common sense view is to see the above changes as ‘progressive’. Most people argue that now children are more protected that their lives are better, but is this actually the case?

The ‘March of Progress’ view argues that yes, children’s lives have improved and they are now much better off than in the Victorian Era and the Middle Ages. They point to all the evidence on the previous page as just self-evidently indicating an improvement to children’s’ lives.

Conflict theorists, however, argue against the view that children’s lives have gradually been getting better – they say that in some ways children’s lives are worse than they used to be. There are three main criticisms made of the march of progress view

1. Recent technological changes have resulted in significant harms to children – what Sociologist Sue Palmer refers to as Toxic Childhood .

2. Some sociologists argue that parents are too controlling of their children. Sociologists such as Frank Furedi argue that parents overprotect their children: we live in the age of ‘Paranoid Parenting’.

3. There are significant inequalities between children, so if there has been progress for some, there certainly has not been equal progress.

A further criticisms lies in the idea that childhood may now be disappearing – for more details check out this post: The Disappearance of Childhood .

Signposting

Childhood makes up part of the families and households option in the first year of A-level Sociology.

Child Employment

Public Spending on Children 2000-2020

National Minimum Wage Rates UK

Office for Budget Responsibility : Welfare Spending

NHS: Your baby’s health and developmental reviews

Children’s Commissioner: Spending on Children in England and Wales .

Generation Anxious

700 000 children in the U.K. are currently registered with an emotional disorder, that’s 7.2%, of 5-19 year olds, or about 1 in 13, according to a recent survey by NHS Digital .

And that’s just those children who have been formally diagnosed. That figure of 7.2% represents those children who have reached the clinical diagnoses threshold – where their distress impairs them so much that it gets in the way of their daily functioning.

The Children’s society says there are many who can’t get help because their problems are not serious enough, maybe as many as 3-4 times the above figure.

Mental health disorders have a huge economic impact, costing the UK 4% of GDP.

In this blog post I summarize a recent podcast from Radio Four’s ‘ Bringing Up Britain: Generation Anxious ’ which explores why so many of today’s children suffer with anxiety.

The show explores various possible contributors such as social media, pressurized exams, genetics and parents passing on their own worries to their children, as well as changing cultural norms which remove children’s agency.

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is the buzz word of the moment, but the anxiety which stops children going to school is different to butterflies in tummies before going on stage at the school play. The word covers both, a human experience we all feel and a clinical diagnosis.

The later type of ‘ordinary’ anxiety can be helpful in some senses, and anxiety is a normal response to stress and entirely normally developmentally – e.g. up to the age of three separation anxiety is normal as are phobias for pre-school children, and for teens there is a heightened sense of awareness of our selves and how others see us.

In order to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, the level of distress must be so debilitating that one cannot function – it’s where you can’t face going out because you’re so anxious.

There are also different types of anxiety: such as social anxiety – not being able to be scrutinized without going bright red, and generalized anxieties – about anything that can go wrong, for example.

If you get serious anxiety as a child, it harms your development – you’re behind your peers and with schoolwork, and it’s reinforcing – the more you get behind, then the more there is to be anxious about!

Anxiety Increases with age, more common with girls, strong link to deprivation and family history. It’s also affect by personality types – some are more cautious and socially shy.

What is it that’s making children feel more anxious?

Social context is important – not so long ago, children would be out playing at ages 6-7, away from their parents, developing a sense of their own agency, but we’ve now starved them of these chances to be independent in primary school – primary schools forbid children to travel their alone – hence why secondary school is now seen as more of a challenge!

It could also be parents are increasingly transferring their anxieties onto their children – linked to the fact that there are too many experts telling parents what to do and the increased pressure on ‘getting parenting right’ – anxious parents makes anxious children: they do share an environment, after all!

A recent column in The Times likened GCSEs to a type of child abuse, but increased exam pressure is dismissed as being linked to increasing anxiety, because we’ve been doing them for thousands of years, and they’re probably less stressful now than they were 30 years ago.

However, it doesn’t help that children are more sensitive about the future nowadays and that more creative subjects which many children prefer are now squeezed out in favour of English and Maths.

The show also considers the effect of Social Media – it makes sense because your social media presence is fundamentally linked to your social identity – and it doesn’t switch off, and this is especially likely to impact teens at the time of life when they’re thinking about their identities.

However, there is a lock of good evidence of the relationship between social media usage and anxiety levels: its just cross sectional but we don’t know what comes first, we don’t know what kind of social media activity teens are involved in and we don’t have longitudinal data.

Socioeconomic factors also play a role – giving time to children, both physically and emotionally is important for their development, but the lower an income you earn, then the more time you need to spend working, and the less time you have for your children.

Body Image and anxiety

There does seem to be evidence of a relationship between body image and anxiety.

A recent Mental Health Foundation Survey found that ¼ people aged 18-24 believed that reality TV shows such as Love Island makes them worry about body image.

1/3 rd of young people worry every day about their body, feeling things such as shame.

Over 1/5 th 17-19 year old girls have anxiety depression or both. Around 11-14 there is a relationship between obesity and anxiety, but the relationship is complex.

How to help children control anxiety…

Various solutions are offered

More resources for mental health services
Cognitive behavioural therapy is mentioned as a good way of dealing with more serious anxiety.
Forest Schools and meditation lessons in schools are day to day things we could be doing socially
Giving young people more of a sense of agency
Being prepared to listen to children and talking about anxiety.

We also need to remember that ‘normal’ levels of anxiety are helpful – without it, we probably wouldn’t care about how we perform in society, it’s a natural part of going through changes, and the best things in life don’t tend to happen in comfort zones!

Relevance to A-level Sociology

This is of relevance to the sociology of childhood, especially toxic childhood , and also research methods: we need to question whether these anxiety stats are valid or whether they’re socially constructed. The growth of anxiety might just be because there are more experts more willing to diagnose anxiety.

What should we do about childhood obesity?

Some arguments for the government’s recent policy proposals to tackle childhood obesity.

The governments new plans to tackle childhood obesity hit the headlines this weekend , but how much of a ‘problem’ is childhood obesity, and is the government right to try and tackle this at all?

1 in 3 children in the U.K. is either overweight or obese by the time they leave primary school, with those from deprived areas twice as likely to be affected.

There are some pretty obvious downsides to childhood obesity to both the individual and society – such as the increased risk of obesity related illnesses such as diabetes, and estimated annual cost to the NHS of > £billion/ year.

The government today announced a set of measures designed to halve the number of children suffering from obesity by 2030, which included

A ban on the sale of energy drinks to children.
A uniform calorie labeling system to be introduced in all restaurants, cafes and takeaways.
Shops are to banned from displaying unhealthy food at checkouts and entrances
Shops are to banned from including unhealthy food in special offers.
Primary schools would be asked to introduce an “active mile” to encourage children to be more active, including daily running sessions and an emphasis on walking and cycling to school.

The plan forms the second chapter of the government’s childhood obesity strategy. The first chapter was criticized for being too weak when it was published two years ago.

Given the increase in childhood obesity, this seems to be like a timely intervention:

Arguments for banning advertising junk food to children

There is strong evidence that children who are more exposed to advertising are more likely to eat more junk food, which is a starting point argument for banning the ads.

Even if you argue that is is the parents’ responsibility to control what their kids eat, the fact that in reality, it is simply impossible for parents to regulate every aspect of their children’s lives: kids are going to go online and be exposed to whatever’s there: better that junk food adverts are not.

This move ‘fits into’ the general movement towards more child protection. In fact, I think it’s odd that junk food manufactures have been exempt from doing harm to children (by pushing their products onto them) for so long.

It might help make childhood a little less ‘Toxic’ , and help reduce pester power , making adult-child relations a little more harmonious.

Arguments against…

Those of a liberal persuasion would probably be against even more state intervention in the lives of families, however I personally don’t see these policies as ‘intervening’ in the lives of families, they are more about forcing companies to restrain their marketing of unhealthy food to children, so personally I can’t think of any decent arguments against these government policies…… suggestions welcome in the comments!

The Nuffield Trust: Can the NHS help solve the U.K’s obesity epidemic ?
The Obesity Health Alliance Briefing Paper
The Independent: Energy Drinks set to be Banned for the Under-16s ….
Image sources: House of Commons briefing paper on obesity , 2018.

Applying material from Item A, analyse two changes in the position of children in society over the last 100 years.

A 10 mark ‘analyse with item’ practice question and answer for the AQA’s A-level paper 2: families

Applying material from Item A, analyse two changes in the position of children in society over the last 100 years (10)

How to answer this question?

It’s pretty obscure (IMO) but the item gives you TWO obvious ‘hooks’:

Time/ money/ comfortable upbringing which is pointing to ‘improving living standards’
Improved opportunities – education being the most obvious!

The above two should be your two points, analysed in both cases from the March of progress view (how have these improved the position of children), and to my mind this question is also screaming for you to evaluate each of these points (unlike the not item outline and explain 10 mark questions, you do get marks for evaluating in these ’10 mark with the item’ question.

You might like to review these two posts before attempting this question:

The March of Progress View of Childhood .
Criticisisms of the March of Progress View of Childhood .

The Mark scheme

A brief model answer..

I advise developing each of the points below still further!

Point 1: As it says in item A, one change in children’s position in society is that parents spend more time and money on them, and so they have a more comfortable life… the average child now costs about £250K to raise, much more than 100 years ago.

Development – this is because of economic growth over the last 100 years, parents now earn more money and so are able to spend more on children’s toys and ‘educational experiences’ which can further child development; as well as more nutritional food, which means children are healthier.

Further development – parents are also more involved with the socialisation of their children; this is especially true of middle class parents who invest a lot time ‘injecting cultural capital’ into their children.

Further development – lying behind all of this is the fact that children are no longer seen as economic assets: they no longer have to work, but rather there has been a cultural shift in which children have rights and should be allowed a lengthy childhood in which they are cared for.

Evaluation – However there are critics of this ‘march of progress view’ – not all parents are able to afford products for their children (lone parents for example) which can create a sense of marginalisation; also there is a sense in which parents spend time with their kids because they are paranoid about their safety in a risk society – Frank Furedi for example argues that this might stifle child development by preventing them from becoming independent.

Point 2: The second social change which can be said to have improved the lives of children is improved opportunities for children – such as with the expansion of education.

Development – 100 years ago (early 19th century) schooling was only compulsory up until about the age of 14, and this was gradually extended through the decades until today children are expected to be in education or training until the age of 18.

Further Development – From a functionalist point of view, education is meritocratic today and so provides opportunities for all children to achieve qualifications and get jobs appropriate to their skills. Children also benefit from the secondary socialisation schools provide, which many uneducated parents may not be able to provide effectively. We now have National Curriculum which ensures all children learn maths English and a broad range of other subjects

Further development – The expansion of education has been combined with the expansion of child welfare more generally – so schools are about improving child well being and safety more generally, meaning children have more opportunities to escape abuse than in the past.

Evaluation – However, from a Marxist point of view, not everyone has the same opportunities in school, and from a Feminist perspective gendered socialisation and stereotyping in school means that girls do not have equality of opportunity with boys.

A Level Sociology Families and Households Revision Bundle

50 pages of revision notes covering all of the sub-topics within families and households
mind maps in pdf and png format – 9 in total, covering perspectives on the family
short answer exam practice questions and exemplar answers – 3 examples of the 10 mark, ‘outline and explain’ question.
9 essays/ essay plans spanning all the topics within the families and households topic.

From Parenting to Sharenting

In a recent poll , 42% of parents said they happily engage in the practice of ‘sharenting’ – or posting pictures and images of their adorable children online.

No doubt this brings joy to parents and relatives alike, but this practice can become obsessive…

A 2010 survey showed found that 92% of children in America had an online presence by the age of two; the digital records of many began even before birth, with 34% of parents posting ultrasound pictures online.

In some extreme cases, this can take the hyper-obsessive form a family documenting their entire (santized) lives on YouTube – as with the example of ‘ Family Fizz ‘…. in which two parents commodify their children (or encourage their children to commodify themselves) in order to avoid working for a living…

The problem with such postings is that they present an idealised version of childhood, a narrative minus the vomit, shitty nappies, and screaming tantrums.

Then of course there’s a deeper problem – why waste time recording parenting online in a vain effort to capture the moment as it never really was, why not just throw yourself into it and fully enjoy the experience, actually in the moment?!

Neoliberal Policies harming Children

In 2005 New Labour liberalised the gambling the laws, ending the ban on T.V. advertising, which is in line with neoliberal policies of decreasing state regulation of private companies.

12 years later and we have a situation where endless T.V. adverts glamorise gambling and hook new converts, and where online gambling companies such as 888 Sport and Paddy Power are targeting children with their online gambling games – exploiting a loophole in the law in which allows online games to advertise to children, but not casinos etc.

According to the industry’s own regulator, the Gambling Commission, around 450 000 children, or one in six of all those aged 11-15 now gamble at least once a week.

It seems that in this case, the right of gambling companies to make a profit trumps the well being of our children (*), and there’s also a nice example of Toxic Childhood here…. not only do our kids now have to deal with information overload, the contradictions of staying thin while being surrounded by junk and the pressures of over-testing, they’ve now got to deal with a potential life time of gambling addiction.

*Come on, that was good.

Is There a Crisis in Youth Mental Ill Health?

Girls are more than twice as likely to report mental health problems as boys
Poor girls are nearly twice as likely to report mental health problems than rich girls.

One in four teenage girls believe they are suffering from depression , according to a major study by University College London the children’s charity the National Children’s Bureau (NCB).

The research which tracked more than 10,000 teenagers found widespread emotional problems among today’s youth, with misery, loneliness and self-hate rife.

24 per cent of 14-year-old girls and 9% of 17-year-old boys reported high levels of depressive symptoms compared to only 9% of boys.

However, when parents were asked about their perceptions of mental-health problems in their children, only 9% of parents reported that their 14 year old girls had any mental health issue, compared to 12% of boys. (Possibly because boys manifest in more overt ways, or because boys are simply under-reporting)

Anna Feuchtwang, NCB chief executive said: “This study of thousands of children gives us the most compelling evidence available about the extent of mental ill health among children in the UK, and Lead author of the study Dr Praveetha Patalay said the mental health difficulties faced by girls had reached “worryingly high” proportions.

Ms Feuchtwang said: “Worryingly there is evidence that parents may be underestimating their daughters’ mental health needs.

Dr Marc Bush, chief policy adviser at the charity YoungMinds , said: “We know that teenage girls face a huge range of pressures, including stress at school, body image issues, bullying and the pressure created by social media.

The above data is based on more than 10,000 children born in 2000/01 who are taking part in the Millennium Cohort Study .

Parents were questioned about their children’s mental health when their youngsters were aged three, five, seven, 11 and 14. When the participants were 14, the children were themselves asked questions about mental health difficulties.

The research showed that girls and boys had similar levels of mental ill-health throughout childhood, but stark differences were seen between gender by adolescence, when problems became more prevalent in girls.

Variations by class and ethnicity

Among 14-year-old girls, those from mixed race (28.6%) and white (25.2%) backgrounds were most likely to be depressed, with those from black African (9.7%) and Bangladeshi (15.4%) families the least likely to suffer from it.

Girls that age from the second lowest fifth of the population, based on family income, were most likely to be depressed (29.4%), while those from the highest quintile were the least likely (19.8%).

The research also showed that children from richer families were less likely to report depression compared to poorer peers.

Links to Sociology

What you make of this data very much depends on how much you trust it – if you take it at face value, then it seems that poor white girls are suffering a real crisis in mental health, which suggests we need urgent research into why this is… and possibly some extra cash to help deal with it.

Again, if you accept the data, possibly the most interesting question here is why do black African girls have such low rates of depression compared to white girls?

Of course you also need to be skeptical about this data – it’s possible that boys are under-reporting, given the whole ‘masculinity thing’.

On the question of what we do about all of this, many of the articles point to guess what sector….. the education sector to sort out the differences. So once again, it’s down to schools to sort out the mess caused by living in a frantic post-modern society, on top of, oh yeah, educating!

Finally, there’s an obvious critical link to Toxic Childhood – this shows you that the elements of toxic childhood are not evenly distributed – poor white girls get it much worse than rich white girls, African British girls, and boys.

Sources and a note on media bias

You might want to read through the two articles below – note how the stats on class and ethnicity feature much more prominently in the left wing Guardian and yet how the right wing Telegraph doesn’t even mention ethnicity and drops in one sentence about class at the the end of the article without mentioning the stats.

Telegraph Article

Guardian Article

IMAGES

📚 Sociology of Childhood, Essay Example for Students
The Sociology of Childhood eBook
(PDF) The Sociology of Early Childhood: Young Children’s Lives and Worlds
(PDF) A Sociology of Early Childhood Education
Childhood AQA A level sociology Paper 2 Families and Households
Childhood Essay

VIDEO

A-level Sociology: Childhood & cross cultural comparison
childhood essay in urdu || short essay onchildhood memories
2023: School of Education and Sociology , School of Architecture & School of Creative Technologies
EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE & EDUCATION (UNIT-06) II JKSSB FEMALE SUPERVISOR II #jkssb
Charley says... Dont Talk To Strangers (Child Centred Society)
Essay On My Childhood In English || My Childhood Essay In English || My Childhood Days ||

COMMENTS

The Social Construction of Childhood
9 essays/ essay plans spanning all the topics within the families and households topic. Signposting and Related Posts. The social construction of childhood is one of the major topics taught as part of the A-level sociology families and households module (AQA specification).
Sociology of Childhood: Significance, Social Construction, Examples
Social Construction of Childhood. Social construction is usually defined as "a theoretical perspective that explores the ways in which 'reality' is negotiated in everyday life through people's interactions and through sets of discourses" (Norozi & Moen, 2016). The consensus is that children and childhood knowledge is a social construct, and it is not rooted in organic realities.
The Sociology of Childhood
5.5 - Reasons for changes to childhood and parenting practices. Key Concepts. • The social construction of childhood. • The golden age of childhood. • Child centred society. • The cult of childhood. • The March of progress view. • Conflict perspective. • Child liberationism.
(PDF) Childhood as a Social Construction
Abstract. Based on the notion of childhood as a social construction this paper aims to present and explore theoretically, the ideas and arguments, being offered by central theories within the ...
Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Childhood
The first of three chapters in this section both celebrates and critiques social constructionism as a theoretical approach in the sociology of childhood. The second chapter explores the generational differences between the structural categories of child and adult, emphasising that children are an ever-present but often 'invisible' social group.
PDF Sociology The oF Children, Childhood and Generation
Sociology The oF Children, Childhood and Generation. SAGE was founded in 1965 by Sara Miller McCune to support the dissemination of usable knowledge by publishing innovative and high-quality research and teaching content. Today, we publish more than 850 journals, including those of more than 300 learned societies, more than 800 new books per ...
The critique of Sociology of Childhood: Human capital as the concrete
The NP was mainly formed in British academia (for an historical reconstruction, see Woodhead, 2009 and Mayall, 2013) and in the last couple of decades it has been hugely influential for the international development of Sociology of Childhood, to the point that it now constitutes the mainstream sociological view on childhood.Textbooks of Sociology of Childhood (e.g. Allison and Adrian, 2011 ...
(PDF) Childhood and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of
The scope of the book is impressive, as Wyness enables us to see how the sociology of childhood can be clearly located within these wider sociological theories and concepts. Part II of the book explores the notion of childhood as a social problem, particularly in relation to street children, cyber children, child soldiers, child carers, child ...
Review Essay: Visions of a Social Theory of Childhood
References. Lee, N. (1998) `Towards an Immature Sociology', The Sociological Review 46 (3): 458-482. Google Scholar. Prout, A. and A. James (1990) `A New Paradigm for the Sociology of Childhood? Provenance, Promise and Problems', in A. James and A. Prout (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological ...
(PDF) Childhood and society: an introduction to the sociology of
Related Papers. Sociology of Health & Illness. Connecting a sociology of childhood perspective with the study of child health, illness and wellbeing: introduction. ... social positioning and lived citizenship among others that have been developed by the 'new' sociology of childhood. Failure to build bridges with other areas of scholarship such ...
The Sociology of Childhood by William Corsaro, Essay Example
The period of socialization presupposes formation of gender roles and the formation of racial identity that cannot help affecting the child's vision in future. (Corsaro 93). However, depending on how skillfully and tolerantly they are formed the child may mostly overcome the possible stereotypes. 10.Children try to deal with the conflicts ...
PDF THE SOCIOLOGY OF EARLY CHILDHOOD
early childhood, the vast majority of international researchers consider early childhood or the early years as embracing birth to age eight years (Farrell et al., 2015). The early years sector in the UK can be characterised as a mixed economy of provision marked by variation in quality, poor qualification levels, low pay and low status.
Full article: The influence of changing discourses of childhood on
The new sociology of childhood, in viewing childhood as a culturally contingent phenomenon, suggests that it should be seen as a social variable for analysis in its own right. ... For instance, in an 1859 essay on the education of the labouring classes, George Kersey Cooper recognised that in large families children's wages were 'absolutely ...
Childhood
The sociological perspective. Sociologists see childhood as a social construction, created by the social structure and culture, people's interpretations and dominant social attitudes, norms and traditions. Evidence supporting the social construction of childhood comes from cross-cultural differences, historical changes and differences within ...
Understanding The Childhood And The State Sociology Essay
The aim of this essay is to critically analyse both case studies by Virginia Morrow using arguments from the New Sociology of Childhood. The first part of the essay will discuss the concept of new sociology of childhood by explaining what it is, why it came about and what it main claims are. It will then move on to explore the findings of the ...
Assess the View that the Family has Become More Child Centred (20)
The essay plan below has been written to help students revising for the families and households topic within A-level sociology.. The family is more child centred: arguments and evidence for. The view in the question is associated with the 'March of Progress view' of childhood - that society and the family have both become more child centred. Point 1 - Child welfare policies protect ...
A* Sociology: 20 Mark childhood essay
How to structure a 20 mark answer for a childhood question: Evaluate the view that the modern family is more child centred. This video tutorial focuses on - ...
Good videos showing the social construction of childhood
Below are some relatively recent examples of documentary video evidence which demonstrate how attitudes to children vary across cultures, supporting the view that childhood is socially constructed. This post has been written primarily for students studying the families and households module within A-level sociology Child Brides In India, teenage girls aged 14-15 are sometimes pressurized
Sociology Childhood Essay
Sociology Childhood Essay. A. JennyShergold. I wrote this essay as a form of revision for my sociology unit 1 exam in January. Would be really helpful if someone could read over it, give me some feedback and a grade if possible. 'Assess sociological explanations of the change in status of childhood'. March of progress sociologists say that ...
Childhood Essay ⋆ Sociology Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire
Today, there are three trends in the contemporary sociological literature on childhood. First, a burgeoning literature on childhood focuses on children as actors. While previous literature has studied childhood from the perspectives of parents, educators and adults, the views and perspectives of children were rarely acknowledged.
Is Childhood Disappearing?
There is an argument that childhood as we know it is disappearing with the the distinction between adulthood and childhood narrowing. Neil Postman (1994) argued that childhood is 'disappearing at a dazzling speed'. As supporting evidence Postman looked at the trend towards giving children the same rights as adults, the growing similarity of ...
Childhood Sociology Essay
1060 Words. 4 Pages. Open Document. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Historically, children and the sociology of childhood were understood as a passive, instable phase whilst undergoing the process of "becoming" a competent adult. Until that occurs, the children are considered insignificance in that their voices and ...
Childhood
This is of relevance to the sociology of childhood, especially toxic childhood, and also research methods: we need to question whether these anxiety stats are valid or whether they're socially constructed. The growth of anxiety might just be because there are more experts more willing to diagnose anxiety. ... 9 essays/ essay plans spanning ...