Parenting & Childhood

How are the contexts of parenthood and childhood characterized?

The contexts of parenthood and childhood are dynamic.

What does the dynamism of parenting implicate?

Social change.

How are biological and social explanations of natality characterized?

They are intricate.

How are childhood and parenting understood sociologically?

Childhood and parenting are socially constructed.

What is the relationship between parenting practices and child development?

Parenting practices and child development are interlinked.

What role does gender play in parenting?

Gender affects parenting.

What key topics are identified in the lecture's key ideas?

The social construction of childhood and parenting; the relationship between parenting practices and child development; the influence of gender on parenting; and social statuses.

What is parenthood?

The state of being a parent and all the social, psychological, emotional, physical, and economic implications that come with it.

What is childhood?

The state of being a child; it is the inevitable stage between infancy and adolescence.

What age range does childhood generally cover according to the lecture notes?

From approximately one or two years of age until the onset of adolescence at age 12 or 13.

What characterizes the early years of childhood in relation to language?

The early years of childhood are marked by enormous strides in the understanding and use of language.

How are parenthood and childhood intertwined?

Parenthood and childhood are intertwined because parenting involves the responsibility of child-raising or child-rearing.

What does the transition to parenthood mean for families?

It opens up a whole new world of experiences that can be both joyful and stressful.

How have expectations facing parents changed at home and in the workplace?

Research suggests that expectations facing parents both at home and in the workplace are rising.

How have many family scholars characterized contemporary parenting?

As "intensive parenting" and "concerted" parenting.

What is the relationship between gender debates and parenting and childhood?

Gender debates concerning parenting and childhood are expanding.

What is the nature versus nurture debate about?

It concerns whether human development and behaviour are primarily shaped by environmental influences and learning or by biological and genetic influences.

Who is associated with the nurture proposition, and in what year?

John Locke (1689).

What is John Locke's proposition about how human beings are born?

Humans are born in a state of tabula rasa, meaning a blank slate.

What does tabula rasa mean?

Blank slate.

According to John Locke's nurture proposition, how do humans acquire ideas and language?

Ideas and language are acquired from the already existing world.

What is the central belief of nature proponents regarding human growth and development?

They believe in genetic explanations of human growth and development.

What do nature proponents believe about human behaviour?

They believe humans are pre-wired to act or behave in certain ways.

Whose thesis on evolution is associated with the development of nature explanations in the lecture notes?

Charles Darwin's thesis on evolution.

How does the social construction perspective understand childhood?

Childhood is socially constructed because societies interpret this stage of life in different ways.

How do societies vary in their understanding of childhood and parenting?

Societies vary in how they define childhood and how they do or do not parent children.

Who is Michael Wyness, and what year is associated with his work in the lecture?

Michael Wyness (2006).

What did Michael Wyness (2006) note about children's work in some societies?

In some societies, it is still considered quite normal for children to do substantial jobs.

What did Wyness find about teenage children in Mexico?

Teenage children spent their teenage years in domestic employment.

What organization and year are associated with the lecture's statistic about child soldiers?

Amnesty International (2007).

According to Amnesty International (2007), approximately how many child soldiers were actively involved in fighting around the world?

About 300,000 child soldiers.

What did Ruth Benedict (1955) report about children in Samoa?

Children were not considered too little to do dangerous jobs.

What did Ruth Benedict (1955) report about children in Tikopia?

The individuality of children was respected.

What did Ruth Benedict (1955) report about children among Aboriginal peoples in Australia?

Children were allowed to play sexual games.

Who studied the historical development of childhood in medieval times, and in what year?

Philippe Aries (1973).

According to Philippe Aries, when did medieval times roughly occur in the lecture's discussion of childhood?

Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries.

According to Aries, did the modern concept of childhood exist in medieval times?

No. Aries argued that the modern concept of childhood did not exist in medieval times.

What significance did age have in medieval times according to Aries?

Age had little or no significance.

What was the relationship between childhood mortality and adulthood in Aries's account of medieval society?

Children often died before reaching adulthood.

When was a child considered an adult in medieval society according to Aries?

As soon as a child could live without the support of their mother, nanny, or cradle rocker, they were seen as an adult.

How were children viewed in medieval times according to Aries?

They were seen as insignificant and complete.

How were children dressed in medieval times according to Aries?

They were seen and dressed as miniature adults.

How did children's games compare with adult games in medieval times according to Aries?

There was little difference between children's and adults' games.

What does Aries claim about parents commissioning portraits of their children in medieval times?

Parents did not get painters to paint portraits of their children.

What did Aries claim about the emergence of childhood?

Childhood began to emerge as children's toys and clothes were introduced.

What developments partly contributed to the emergence of childhood according to Aries?

The activities of churchmen and seventeenth-century moralists.

How did the introduction of schools contribute to the emergence of childhood?

Schools were introduced to segregate children from the adult world.

What are the main criticisms of Philippe Aries's work?

His work was value-laden and highly controversial; he was criticized for claiming that childhood did not exist at certain points in human history and for overgeneralization.

Why has Aries been criticized for claiming that childhood did not exist at certain points in human history?

Other sources have suggested that childhood did exist but was understood differently.

What other criticism has been directed at Aries's work?

He has been criticized for overgeneralization.

What is one development associated with changing attitudes toward children?

The development of the idea of romantic love.

Which Enlightenment thinker is associated with changing attitudes toward children in the lecture notes?

Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

How has the understanding of childhood changed over time in Western society and elsewhere?

Childhood has increasingly been understood as a distinct stage of life, including the recognition of adolescence and the teenage years as distinct transitional periods, along with longer periods of dependency on adults.

How has adolescence come to be understood in relation to the life course?

Adolescence is increasingly understood as a distinct period in the life course.

How have the teenage years come to be understood?

They are understood as a distinct transitional period.

How has children's dependency on adults changed over time?

Periods of dependency on adults have become longer.

How have changing understandings of childhood affected ideas about good parenthood?

Changes in understandings of the nature of childhood have also changed ideas about what constitutes good parenthood.

What happened to mothers' participation in the labour force during the 1980s?

Research shows that mothers in the 1980s ventured more into the labour force.

How did expectations of mothers' parenting change as more mothers entered the labour force in the 1980s?

Expectations of their parenting also changed.

How were children presented in the 1980s in relation to capability and independence?

Children were presented as more capable and independent.

How were employed mothers viewed as role models in the 1980s?

Mothers in the labour force were more likely to be understood as good role models who were creating future opportunities for their children.

How did attitudes toward employed mothers of young children change in the 2000s?

Employed mothers of young children became much more the norm, but their paid work was also more likely to be positioned as detracting from children's well-being.

How has the ideal of good parenting changed over the last three to four decades?

Good parenting has become much more child-centred and intensive.

Who coined the term "intensive mothering"?

Sharon Hays.

What book is associated with Sharon Hays's concept of intensive mothering?

The Cultural Contradictions of Motherhood.

What does Sharon Hays mean by "intensive mothering"?

It describes the unprecedented attentiveness to children's development that had come to be expected of good mothers.

What conflict can arise from intensive mothering expectations?

The expectations can conflict with mothers' labour force participation expectations.

Who conducted an ethnographic study associated with "concerted cultivation," and when?

Annette Lareau (2002, 2003).

What is concerted cultivation?

A parenting approach identified in Annette Lareau's ethnographic study in which middle-class parents actively cultivate their children's development; the concept is similar to intensive parenting.

Which social group did Lareau's ethnographic study identify as practising concerted cultivation?

Middle-class parents.

How is concerted cultivation related to intensive parenting?

Concerted cultivation is a concept similar to intensive parenting.

What do many authors argue about intensive parenting expectations in Canada and other Western societies?

They now set the standard for good parenting.

When is the historical and cultural development of intensive parenting associated with in the lecture notes?

The mid-twentieth century, after the end of the Second World War.

How did post-Second World War prosperity contribute to changes in parenting advice?

The relative prosperity of the postwar period, along with medical advancements in vaccines and disease control, contributed to a shift in child-rearing advice literature toward children's psychological and emotional well-being.

Which medical advancements are identified as contributing to changing child-rearing advice after the Second World War?

Advancements in vaccines and disease control.

How did child-rearing advice literature change after the Second World War?

It placed greater focus on children's psychological and emotional well-being.

What notable change occurred in how mothers' and children's needs were understood in newer parenting advice?

Mothers' and children's needs were increasingly seen as opposed rather than complementary.

Which major psychological theories are associated with this historical change in parenting advice?

John Bowlby's theories of maternal deprivation and attachment.

Who proposed the theories of maternal deprivation and attachment?

John Bowlby.

According to the lecture notes, what can happen when there is a disruption or discontinuation between a primary caregiver or mother and an infant?

The infant can experience cognitive, emotional, and social dysfunction.

What is neoliberalism's general approach to responsibility for social problems?

Neoliberal political ideas stress individual rather than collective responsibility for social ills.

What cultural change occurs as neoliberal politics spread?

Cultural acceptance of individual responsibility for success in life increases.

What does neoliberalism mean for parenting?

It means careful planning based on expert advice to ensure children's future success.

How did child-rearing advice literature change in a neoliberal risk culture?

It focused much more on risks to children and parents' responsibility to manage those risks, becoming even more child-centred in the process.

How has the threshold of acceptable risk to children changed?

The threshold of what is considered an acceptable risk to children has notably lowered.

What do proponents of the brain development thesis argue about parenting and children's brains?

They argue that parents could literally affect how their children's brains are wired and their future brain potential by providing ample and appropriate cognitive stimulation in the early years.

How can parents influence children's future brain potential according to the brain development thesis?

By providing ample and appropriate cognitive stimulation during the early years.

What theory's assumptions underpin brain development advice according to the lecture notes?

Attachment theory.

What does attachment theory assume about parental attention?

It assumes that continually responsive parental attention is needed to build secure attachment.

What responsibilities were added to parents' growing responsibilities through brain development advice?

Responsibility for children's cognitive development, academic achievement, and future brain potential, in addition to their emotional, psychological, and physical well-being.

How is involvement in a child's school life viewed in contemporary parenting?

It is viewed as an essential component of good parenting.

Which Ontario initiatives are identified as products of the brain development movement?

Ontario's Early Years Centres and the Invest in Kids Foundation's "Years Before 5" campaigns.

Despite criticism, how popular did brain development advice become?

It became very popular in the media and among those providing parenting education.

What concerns did experts begin to raise in the 2000s about excessive parental attention?

They began to raise concerns about possible negative effects of excessive parental attention on children, particularly that children were not developing resilience as expected.

What does "denied parenthood" refer to in the lecture's examples?

It refers to historical cases and institutions in which children's family care and parent-child relationships were disrupted or denied, including the Duplessis Orphans, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children, and the Indian Residential School System.

Who were the Duplessis Orphans according to the lecture notes?

Children moved from orphanage homes to psychiatric hospitals in Quebec because of institutional reclassification resulting from a lack of funding during the 1940s and 1950s.

When did the Duplessis Orphans case occur according to the lecture notes?

During the 1940s and 1950s.

Why were the Duplessis Orphans moved from orphanage homes to psychiatric hospitals according to the lecture notes?

Because of institutional reclassification resulting from a lack of funding.

What was the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NSHCC)?

An institution in Halifax identified in the lecture notes under denied parenthood.

When is the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (NSHCC) placed in the lecture's historical discussion?

The 1920s.