How childhood is changing

POSTMAN (1994)

• media exposes children to secrets of adulthood, encourgaing them to grow up too quickly
• access to music videos and celebrity culture is blamedfor children having access to material that is not appropriate for their age
• The distinction between childhood and adulthood is disappearing (Social Blurring)
• Censorship on TV, internet and video games needs to be implimented

SUPPORT

• the BBC (2011) and Cambridge University (2007) did surveys which found that children are becoming increasingly anxious about issues such as terrorism and being a victim of crime
• studies like these have led to concerns over the youth in the UK, with the UK having high rates of obesity, self-harm, depression and teenage pregnancy compared with other countries

PALMER (2007)

• children are being deprived of traditional upbringing because their parents do not spend enough quality time with them
• Instead the focus is on technology and junk food to appease their children
• Children are spending more time with their friends and media than their parents

THE SIX WAYS

1. The decline of outdoor play - childhood obesity

2. The commercialisation of early childhood - children being exploited by advertisers

3. The "schoolification" of childhood - reducing independancy

4. Decline of listening, language and communication skills - shortened attention spans

5. Screen Saturation - face to face contact

6. Tests, targets and education - increases anxiety

MELANIE PHILLIPS (1997)

• culture of parenting in the UK is being undermined by the amount of rights children have been given compared with adults, resulting in children no longer accept authority and become devient
• children forced to grow up too quickly as they fall into problems such as teenage pregnancy and therefore do not develop "emotional maturity" needed to succeed
• Blames parents for using this as an excuse and therefore avoiding the responsibility of their own children.

Changes to the lives of children has improved for children and for the better

eg.

Work - children no longer work at a young age, like in factories, thanks to laws which have been implimented

Education - the introduction of compulsory education increased the funding for education and the school leaving age

Child Welfare - Child Protection and wefare legislations to keep children safe and to live a life with alll necessities taken care of, Also safe-guarding within schools and other businesses.

Childhood is not a shared experience and it can be negative for some children (pt 1)

Ethnicity

• Children form ethnic-minority background may suffer from racism in the education system and wider society
• Jasper (2002) white female teachers fear African-Caribbean boys and therefore ignore then in class while having low educational expectations

Social Class and Poverty

• Children from poorer backgrounds have different experiences to those from wealthy backgrounds
• Howard (2001) children from materially deprived areas are more likely to have poorer nutrition, lower levels of energy and therefore weaker immune systems

Emotional Terrorism

• Leach (1968) families are the source of all our emotional discontents and prejudices as spouses demand too much of one another and children fail to live up to their parents expectations
• Cooper (1971) the family terrorises children by teaching them to be blindly obedient to authority and intolerant of others

Child Abuse

• NSPCC states that one child a week was killed by their parents in 2015, clearly indicating that some children have negative experiences of family life
• Gittens (1998) it is not only women who sufffer from the patriarchy but children can also be victims of their father's need to dominate the family

Gender

• Boys have less parental supervision and girls are subjected to more social behavioural control
• McRobbie and Garber (1976) Bedroom culture study 

Personal life perspective and interactionalists believe each child has a unique experience of childhood

Children have the power to determine their own concept of family

Mason and Tipper (2008)

• Children are active agents of their upbringing and so therefore can shape their own experiences of family life. In some cases they may hold the balance of power in the household as parents revolve their lives around their children
• Children have the power to determine who is part of their family and who is not. Biological ties are not significant to children, so anyone could be deemed a family member in their eyes

Each child is unique - their experiences cannot be generalised

Womack (2011)

• Most state policies have aimed to improve childhood, based off the idea that if families are more financially stable then children will be happier
• However, there is no association between the reduction in child poverty and children's life satisfaction
• Research suggests that few of the governments list of what is important to children make a real difference to their lives (holidays, own bedroom by the age of 10)