Childhood as a Social Construction

Childhood, as we know it today in the U.S., is a recent social construction that arose after the Industrial Revolution. During the Industrial Revolution, it was expected that children as well as adults would work for a wage in order to help support their families.


















source: http://www.mhslibrary.org/Teacher%20Projects/Teacher%20Projects/Social%20Studies/D%27Acquisto/Industrial%20Revolution/childworker.jpg

After the Industrial Revolution, there was a shift to emphasizing importance of education for young children, creating opportunities for more leisure and play time for children. In addition to this change were changes in the perception of children. Children were viewed as "dependent" and "fragile" beings by adults2, thus creating a belief that children need adults to protect them.²

To some extent, childhood is popularly seen as something universal and salient in all cultures, yet it is difficult to define. In many ways, it may be easier to describe childhood by contrasting it with what it is not: neglect, abuse, and exploitation. In this sense, childhood is seen as something that one can have or not have, depending upon their circumstances.³ . According to adults, children who experience hardship, neglect, abuse, or exploitation are deprived of their childhood and it is considered their duty as adults to protect children from such deprivation.⁴




source: http://listverse.com/2009/07/06/top-10-terrible-issues-facing-children-worldwide/

Depending upon a child's socioeconomic position within the U.S., one is generally aware of inequalities of the distribution of wealth. According to research, middle-class children are particularly conscious of greater gaps in wealth, while children across the wealth spectrum generally come to accept these inequalities as "fair.”⁵ This may be related to the common ideology in the U.S. that poverty is the result of personal deficits rather than the symptom of social, political, and economic factors.⁶