Social Construction

"Childhood is not a natural or universal experience, but a social construction".

Assess sociological views and evidence to support this statement.

Childhood is mainly seen as a social construction, rather than a natural stage of growing up. Childhood is seen as something that is created by society in which it can vary depending on different cultures, social class and time frame, therefore is not seen as a universal experience.

Philippe Aries suggested what we experience today as childhood is a recent social invention and that in the pre-industrial society, childhood did not exist, this is because children were seen as little adults. Aries also argues that children were regarded as an economic asset and work was the only priority for them. This idea differs from the childhood today and therefore we can see how childhood is socially constructed. However Aries work has been criticised as the basis of his argument were found in diares, documents and paintings which make it harder for us to interpret whether Aries findings were correct.

However after industrialization Aries argues middle class attitudes towards children changed as there was a growth in parental love while factories also banned children from working, this therefore meant children moved a step further away from adult lives.

Cunningham shows that the 19th century saw the social construction of childhood in having three characteristics, these are childhood was the opposite of adulthood, in which children were seen to be in need of protection and to be dependent on adults, the second characteristic was the world of the adult and the world of the child were kept seperate, this allowed the home and school to be the ideal place for children while they were banned from adult spaces such as the pub. And finally children were seen to have the right to happiness.

More so childhood in the 20th century saw the appearence of child centred society, in which there were an improvment in standards of living. This...