Toxic Childhood versus March of Progress

Childhood has improved (March of Progress)

De Mause (1974)

  • ‘Childhood is nightmare from which we have recently awoken’

Aries and Shorter

  • Now children are more…and have

    • Valued

    • Cared for

    • Protected

    • Educated

    • Better healthcare

    • More rights

  • There are laws against child labour and abuse

  • Professionals cater for their educational, psychological and medical needs

FLAW:

  • These improvements are not applicable to all children

    • Children’s experiences of childhood vary by their class, ethnicity and gender

Child-centred family

  • The decrease in family size has led to children having better living standards

    • Parents can afford their child’s living expenses and needs

Toxic Childhood

Sue Palmer (2007, 2010)

  • Rapid cultural and technological changes in the past 25 years have damaged children’s development

    • Physical: junk/fast food

    • Emotional: computer games, long parental working hours

    • Intellectual: intensive marketing directed at children, growing emphasis on testing in education

UNICEF (2013)

  • The UK is ranked 16th out of 20 countries for children’s wellbeing

  • The UK is above international averages for young people’s health and behaviour, including

    • Obesity

    • Self-harm

    • Drug/alcohol abuse

    • Violence

    • Early sexual experience

    • Teen pregnancy

Conflict sociologists (such as Marxists and feminists)

  • MoP view of childhood is based on a false idealised image and ignores inequalities

    • Inequalities among children

      • Opportunities

      • Risks

      • Many are unprotected and uncared for

    • Inequalities between adults and children

      • Domination (oppression)/subordination

Inequalities among children

Nationality

  • Children of different nationalities have different life chances, as well as experiences of childhood

  • 90% of low-weight babies globally are born in developing countries

Gender

  • Hillman (1993)

    • Boys are more likely to be allowed to…, giving them more independence

      • Cross roads alone

      • Cycle on roads

      • Use buses

      • Go out after dark unaccompanied

  • Banke (1999)

    • Girls do more domestic labour, especially in single parent families

    • They can do up to 5 times more housework than boys

Ethnicity

  • Brannen (1994)

    • 15-16 year old children

      • Asian parents are more likely to be strict towards their daughters

  • Bhatti (1999)

    • Idea of izzat (family honour) restricts the behaviour of children, especially girls

Social class

  • Poor mothers are more likely to have low birth weight babies

    • This is then linked to delayed physical and intellectual development later in life

  • Children of unskilled manual workers are more than 3 times more likely to suffer from hyperactivity and 4 times more likely to suffer from conduct disorders than children of professionals

  • Children born into poor families are more likely to

    • Die in infancy or childhood

    • Suffer chronic illness

    • Be shorter

    • Fall behind at school

    • Be placed on the child protection register

Inequalities between adults and children

Firestone (1979), Holt (1974)

  • Many things viewed as progress, care and protection are actually new ways of oppressing and controlling children

  • Firestone- ‘protection’ from paid work forcibly segregates children, making them more dependent, powerless and subject to adult control

Freeing children from adult control is known as child liberationism.

2013 Child Protection Plans- the Dark Side of Family Life

  • Total 43 000 children subject of a CPP from their parents due to extreme abuse

    • Physical- 4 670

    • Neglect- 17 930

    • Sexual- 2 030

    • Emotional- 13 640

    • Multiple types of abuse- 4 870

  • Childline receives 20 000 calls a year from children saying they’ve been sexually or physically abused

Controls over children’s…, Katz (2004)

Katz studied differences in childhood in developing countries

Space

  • ‘No schoolchildren’ signs in shops

  • Forbidden from playing in some areas

  • Close surveillance in some public spaces such as shopping centres, especially when expected to be in school

    • Different to developing countries

      • Rural sudanese children roam freely within the village and several km outside of it

  • Road safety and stranger danger

    • More children are driven to school now

    • 1971- 86% of children travelled home from school alone

    • 2010- 25% of children travelled home from school alone

    • Cunningham (2007)

      • The home habitat (area in which one can travel alone) of an 8y/o is 1/9 of the size that it was 25 years earlier

Time

  • Adults control children’s daily routines and the speed at which children grow up

    • ‘You’re too young for (insert activity/responsibility/behaviour)

  • Holmes

    • Among Samoans, ‘too young’ is not a thing

Bodies

  • Adult control over how we sit/walk/run, what we wear, how we do our hair, if we have piercings

  • It’s taken for granted that children can be touched by adults

    • Washed/fed/dressed/head patted/hand held/picked up/cuddled/kissed/smacked

  • Children restricted in touching their own bodies

    • Nose picking/sucking thumb/playing with genitals

      • Children in the Trobriand Islands (non-industrial culture) have more sexual freedoms (RESEARCH)

Access to resources

  • Children are limited in earning so financially dependent on adults

    • Labour and schooling laws

      • Children commonly do marginal, low-paid, part-time employment

        • Katz

          • Sudanese children engaged in productive work at 3-4 years old

    • Child benefits are paid to the parent

    • Pocket money dependent on good behaviour and there are restrictions on what it can be spent on

Age patriarchy

  • Term coined by Gittins (1998) that describes inequalities between adults and children

    • Domination/depedency

    • The patriarchy oppresses both women and children

      • Patriarchy: ruled by the father

      • Family: power of male head over all other members of the household

        • Form of violence against women and children

  • Humphrey’s and Thiarin (2002)

    • ¼ of 200 women left their abusive partner as they feared for their children’s lives

  • Strategies used by children to resist the status of child and accompanying restrictions

    • Hockey and James (1993)

      • ‘Acting up’

        • Acting like adults-drinking/swearing/smoking/sex

        • Exaggerating their age- ‘I’m nearly 9’

      • ‘Acting down’

        • Age regression- wanting to be carried, baby talk

      • Conclusion: modern childhood is a status from which children want to escape

CRITICISM:

  • Children cannot make rational decisions and so are unable to safeguard their interests themselves

  • Children are not powerless as liberationists claim

    • 1989- Children Act establishes the principle that children have legal rights to be protected and consulted

New sociology of childhood

  • Children are not ‘adults in the making’

    • They’re active agents who play a major part in creating their own childhoods

  • Mayall (2004) ‘adultist viewpoint’

    • See children as passive objects (no interest in themselves)/’socialisation projects’ for adults to mould/shape/develop’

      • They’re only interested in their futures

Child’s point of view

  • Research methods

    • Informal, unstructured interviews to empower the child

    • Explore diverse and multiple forms of childhood

    • Express child’s point of view

    • Draws attention to the fact that children lack power in relation to adults

  • Smart (2011)

    • Aimed to include views and experiences of children while living through childhood

    • Focused on the ‘present tense’ of childhood

  • Mason and Tipper (2008)

    • Children define family and include ‘close’ people like aunts and grandparents

  • Smart et al (2001)

    • Children are not passive victims of divorce

      • They’re actively involved in making the situation better for everyone