Families and Households - Childhood

Bradley - Five generational stages

1.Childhood

2. Adolescent/Youth 

3. Young adulthood 

4. Mid life 

5. Old age 

The social and cultural construction of age 

• Traditional societies, people's identities in terms of age go through three stages:

1. Children - dependant on adults 

2. Adults -  at puberty rite passage to adulthood 

3. Elders -acquire greater status and power 

Childhood in the past 

• Ideas vary greatly meaning sociologists believe that childhood is sociall contructed 

Children most commonly worked in the nineteenth century. Many factory workers were under the age of 11. Children worked the same amount as adults. Children were sometimes forced to be prostitutes 

Aries

• Claims childhood is a recent social invention 
• In pre industrial society, childhood did not exist

Childhood in the 20th century 

• Families had…