Thursday, November 6, 2008

How has the concept of childhood changed over the past 100 years?

The concept of childhood is difficult to describe, there are so many factors that can vary the experience of childhood. To such a degree that each persons definition of childhood is different. People tend to talk about childhood and adulthood like they are completely distinct phases of life.
According to our legal system, there is a definitive end of childhood. Our government has determined that people who are 18 should be able to take on adult privileges. But this does not necessarily imply that 18 year-olds are adults; nor does it even imply that society considers them so. The purpose of this definition of adulthood is practical only. It is a rough estimation that lawmakers were willing to settle on because they believed that most people in this age range could handle adult responsibilities.
There are many possible answers to the question of when exactly a child becomes an adult. People have said that childhood ends with financial independence, with the end of formal schooling, with getting married. Some have even suggested that childhood ends when you stop wishing that you were older.
In fact, there is truth to all these statements, but they have a common thread. Childhood ends when you lose the feeling of protection you have had all your life, giving way to a security of your own. When you arrive at a state of independence.

James & Prout (1997) recognise the beginning of the twentieth century as the 'Century of Child' there came a recognition that the future of any nation was dependent on its children. The health of children began to receive serious attention, as did their education. There were campaigns to relieve children from poverty, the first major success being the Family Allowances Act of 1946. But tying the future of the nation so closely to the treatment of children also had a darker side to it.
There was much fear of a ‘degeneration of the race’. In the 1920s and 1930s behaviourism dominated as the method of child rearing, the emphasis on producing an obedient child. There was a reaction against behaviourism in the 1940s and afterwards, but its replacement by a fear of the consequences of ‘maternal deprivation’ did little to alleviate the worries of parents.
Rising standards of living from the post-war economic boom enabled parents to begin to invest hopes and resources in children on an unprecedented scale. The flow of cash now went from parents to children, and by the end of the century children in many families could expect parental support up to their twenties, something unimaginable in previous centuries. At the same time, from the 1970s onwards, children began to acquire new rights. The U.N. Convention on the rights of the child and other supporting Acts established here in this country give children rights in relation to the state and to their families: the right not to be beaten in school (1986), the right to be consulted in the event of parental divorce, and so on. Consequently, childhood itself had in many ways become prolonged, but children had gained a higher status both within the family and in society at large.

Palmer (2006) claims that more recently, in the last decade or so. The modern world has become a 'toxic' environment for children, potentially leading to the 'death of childhood'. She describes the factors leading to this crisis as first and foremost, the television. There is now a whole menu of 24 hour channels dedicated to children, which not only serves as a round the clock baby-sitter, but they are also packed with adverts which are actually designed to make children nag their parents. The industry calls this 'pester power'. Additionally, these clever manipulative adverts impart status creating the idea of 'cool'. Referring to brands which tend to be either imagination-stunting media merchandise or junk-food - which have been shown to be damaging to children's physical and mental development. Another factor Palmer (2006) claims is contributing to this toxifying of childhood is the medicating of childhood. These days parents are choosing to medicalise problems once simply labelled under-achievement or over-enthusiastic. In 2004 the American Academy of Pediatrics recorded on their website that '1 in 6 children were medicated for a developmental disorder and/or behavioural problem' which sets a worrying precedent as our culture becomes more Americanized by the day.

To sum up, 'Century of Child' began with many diverse and revolutionary changes in how we view childhood. However, as our understanding of how children learn and view the world improved from an educational perspective, the mass media exploded using this new understanding to manipulate and market to children 24 hours a day, turning them into ravenous brand-happy consumers. The excess of choice in technological entertainment is killing the concept of childhood as a time full of imaginative energetic play. This has resulted in a phenomenal increase in the number of cases of: obesity, depression, mental-health problems and behavioural disorders than ever seen before. It is clear that the post-modern digital age is not providing and actually appears to be denying children the real-world activity and experience they need to grow up happy and healthy. The concept of childhood is truly at a crisis-point.



References.


James, A. & Prout, A. (1997) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood. 2nd Edition. Falmer press.

Palmer, S. (2006) Toxic Childhood. Orion Books Ltd.

Kehily, M.J. (2007) An Introduction to Childhood Studies. Open University Press.

Mills, J. & Mills, R. (2000) Childhood Studies – A reader in perspectives of childhood. Routledge: London and New York.

Yeo, A & Lovell, T. (2002) Sociology and Social Policy for the Early Years. 2nd Edition. Hodder Arnold.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/1632874.stm - 3/11/2008

ADHD statistics: American Academy of Pediatrics website, (www.aap.org) - 3/11/2008

Sunday, November 2, 2008

How has the concept of family changed over the past 100 years?

When we use the term 'family', there are two broad interpretations of what we mean. First, there is the sense of family as our universal kinship, everyone we are related to by blood or marriage. Second, the term family is virtually synonymous with household. The kinship link remains important, but additionally there is implicit reference to a shared housekeeping and a common domestic economy.

O'Donnell (1993) asserts that over the past 100 years the Extended family is gradually disappearing as it is being replaced by the Nuclear family as the main operating family unit. The Extended family is a group that consists of parents, children, and other close relatives, living in close proximity. While the Nuclear family is just parents and their children.
In that time there have been dramatic improvements in transport, making it more simple and accessible, allowing families to move further away from their traditional areas without the fear of feeling isolated. Additionally, Improved educational opportunities have increased job prospects that may require relocation.
The women's role within the family was greatly affected by World War II. They picked up the slack as the men went off to fight and the taste of independence and self-reliance they felt from earning their own money would stay with them after the War ended with many of them continuing to work. However, this was only really made possible with the invention and mass-production of the time saving mod-cons that todays families take for granted like the vacuum cleaner, washing machines, refrigerators etc. which greatly reduced the burden of the household chores.
Since WWII, this more affluent population demanded larger and more widely spaced houses accommodating the increased car usage for which terraced streets were unsuitable. Resulting in the ubiquity of housing estates now seen across the country, serving to further tempt young families away from areas where they grew up.
Innovations in contraception resulted in smaller, more manageable families. Coupled with the improvements in state welfare for young families resulting in less need to depend on the extended family for support.
Finally O'Donnell claims that improved standards of health which has dramatically cut infant mortality rates has shifted families perspective away from having many children in order that a few may survive.

However, In the latter part of the 20th century, family life has become increasingly more complex than the Extended and Nuclear family types that it had been earlier. With most western societies experiencing significant shifts in demography of family life. A. Kuper & J. Kuper (1996) argue that a major reason for this increasing complexity is the rising rates of divorce, cohabitation, births to unmarried mothers and reconstituted families. It is because of this that there are more diverse family pathways than in the recent past.
“In particular, the increased incidence of divorce and remarriage has meant that many more people have ex-spouses, absent parents, step-parents, half-sibling, step-siblings and the like.” (A. Kuper & J. Kuper 1996)
These changes have resulted in complicated networks of family relationships which affect the form and content of relationships with the extended family to the point where there can be confusion within a family over who is part of it. Edward Shorter suggests that one of the main reasons for these breakdowns in the modern marriage is the high expectation of the romanticism surrounding it.

Finally, there is the social institution which according to Baudrillard(1983) has affected society above all else; the mass media. He claims that the mass media has become the most important part of our lives in the latter half of the 20th century, especially the television. The media no longer report and reflect reality. Instead, they now shape it. How we think about the world and what we understand as important and relevant is fed to us by the media creating what Baudrillard calls 'hyper-reality'. The Simpsons Family for instance is now the most famous example of a family in the western world, despite being a cartoon. One consequence of this is that people look to hyper-real images as role models, when the images don’t even represent real people. This can cause people to strive for an unattainable ideal, or lead to a lack of healthy role models. The domination of television has taken us to the point where traditional family rituals like sitting round a table at meal-times talking about each others day has been replaced with eating in front of the television watching imaginary families interact. Superbly illustrated in any episode of the BBC sitcom 'The Royle Family'.

In conclusion, we can see that there have been radical changes in the concept of family over the past 100 years. We have gone from a time when the family had clearly defined gender roles; men as the head of the household and bread-winner, women stayed at home as the home-maker and child-carer. Inaccessibility of transport meant that many generations of families lived nearby often under the same roof. The women shared in the household tasks which were labourious, time-consuming and done by hand. Furthermore, children dying of ill-health was a relatively common occurrence. Over the years technology made household tasks less time consuming and travel less daunting. Education shifted perspectives and increased opportunities in employment. Improved contraception has lowered the number of children being born into families although health-care advances has meant that the vast majority of these children live to see adulthood. Legislative changes recognised women as equal to men. While at the same time, the mass media permeated and now dominates all aspects of family life to the point where our concept of family is no longer based on reality but on hyper-real imitations.


References.

O'Donnell, G. (1993) Sociology Today. Cambridge

Kuper, A. & Kuper, J. (1996) The Social Science Encyclopedia. 2nd Edition. Routledge: London & New York.

Shorter, E. (1977) The Making of the Modern Family. Fontana.

O'Donnell, M. (1992) A New Introduction to Sociology 3rd Edition. Nelson Thornes Ltd

Baudrillard, J. (1983) Simulations Trans. Foss, P. Patton, P. Beitchman, P. Semiotext(e) Foreign Agents Series