The nature of childhood and changes in the status of children, the social construction of childhood, the march of progress versus conflict view, and debates about whether childhood is disappearing.

What this dot point is asking

AQA wants you to evaluate the claim that childhood is socially constructed, using cross-cultural and historical evidence, the march of progress versus conflict debate, and arguments about whether childhood is disappearing. The examiner rewards candidates who hold the "improvement" and "inequality" views in tension.

The social construction of childhood

• Cross-cultural variation: Benedict argued children in non-industrial societies are treated very differently (more responsibility, less subordination, sexual behaviour viewed differently), showing childhood is not universal. Punch's study of rural Bolivia found children expected to take work responsibility from about five.
• Historical change: Aries argued that in the Middle Ages childhood as a separate status did not exist; children were "little adults" who worked and were not treated as fundamentally different. The modern, protected, child-centred childhood emerged gradually with industrialisation, schooling and falling family size. De Mause went further, arguing the history of childhood is one of slowly improving treatment.

The march of progress view

The march of progress view (Aries, Shorter) holds that childhood has steadily improved. Children are now better protected (child protection laws, restrictions on labour), healthier (lower infant mortality), more educated and more valued. The family has become child-centred, with parents investing heavily (emotionally and financially) in fewer children, and society has become "child-obsessed".

The conflict view and child liberationism

The conflict view challenges the march of progress as too rosy.

• Marxists and feminists argue inequalities remain: between adults and children, and between different children (by class, gender and ethnicity, as the question above shows).
• Child liberationists (Firestone, Holt) argue that "protection" is really control and oppression: adults regulate children's time (the school day), space (where they may go), bodies and resources, and "care" can mask neglect and abuse. They call for children's rights and freedoms.

The conflict view does not deny childhood is constructed; it disputes the claim that the construction has simply got better for children.

Is childhood disappearing?

Postman argues childhood is disappearing because television and digital media erode the information hierarchy that once separated children from adult knowledge (print culture required reading skills that excluded children; screens do not). Critics argue childhood is changing rather than vanishing: Opie stressed children's continuing separate play culture, and Jenks argues childhood persists because, in an insecure postmodern world, parents cling to it as a source of stability and identity. Some argue we are seeing separate childhoods (toxic, mediatised, supervised) rather than a single trend.