The Limits of Childhood: Conceptions of Child Development and Social Context

Skolnick, Arlene

doi:10.2307/1191268

Cited by 50 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Children in Western European societies are increasingly restricted both ideologically and in practice to the supervision of adults in the home and the school (together with pre-school and out-of-school institutions) (Skolnick 1975;Liljestrom 1981). This restriction has been explained in terms of adult demands for the controlled socialisation of children (Aianen 1987;Dencik 1989;Cunningham 1991).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Keeping healthy at home and school: ‘it's my body, so it's my job‘

Mayall¹

1993

Sociology Health & Illness

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper focusses on children as a social group, in order to discuss the division of labour in health care between children, parents and teachers. It draws on data from a qualitative study of children's, parents' and teachers' perspectives on the health care of primary school children. The paper argues that the distinctive social and emotional context of the home and the school are critical for the structuring of children's health care activities and experience. In particular the paper considers children's own contributions to health care and the functions of their own social worlds in the division of labour.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Keeping healthy at home and school: ‘it's my body, so it's my job‘

Mayall¹

1993

Sociology Health & Illness

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Mackay, 1973;Skolnick, 1974;Fine and Glassner, 1979;May and Strong, 1980;Prout, 1980). Although there is a great deal of research which purports to be about children, much of this, on examination, merely seems to offer a quasi-scientific warrant for current adult common sense.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Categorization in accident departments: ‘good’ patients, ‘bad’ patients and ‘children’

Dingwall¹,

Murray²

1983

Sociology Health & Illness

100

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Qiildren form a significant proportion of accident services' clientele but have received relatively little attention in the growing ethnographic literature on such organizations. This paper uses data from observation and interviews in four English acddent departments to review Jeffery's influential analysis of medical staffs categorization of patients. After pointing to certain logical difficulties with this account, it is argued that an analysis of the way children are treated allows for these to be remedied by the development of a more sophisticated model of professional decision-making. The paper concludes with a discussion of the way in which the categorization rests on the practical contingencies of accident work and the social organization of emergency work. Attention is drawn to the variation between high-prestige units in teaching hosppitals and lower-status units in general hospitals and the way this limits the ability of the former to identify conditions like child abuse or neglect. IntroductionThe invisibility of children in social scientific work has been a matter for increasing comment (e.g. Mackay, 1973;Skolnick, 1974;Fine and Glassner, 1979;May and Strong, 1980;Prout, 1980). Although there is a great deal of research which purports to be about children, much of this, on examination, merely seems to offer a quasi-scientific warrant for current adult common sense. Such responses as these critiques have provoked, goes mostly in one or other of two directions: first, some investigators (e.g. Speier, 1969Speier, , 1971Qcourel et al. 1974;Fine and Glassner, 1979) have tried to produce descriptions of children's own culture, social competences and practical reasoning; second, other researchers (e.g. Davis and Strong, 1976;Silverman, 1981) have looked at the ways in which adults formulate and assign specific social identities to diildren. While these approaches are undoubtedly extending a sociological understanding of childhood, however, they remain open to Our intention in this paper is to show how 'taking children seriously' requires us to revise some influential recent analyses of the processes by which patients are classified in accident and emergency departments and allows us to bring out the oi^anizational and occupational logic of the scheme which members appear to use.

show abstract

“…These are seen as perpetuated by traditional sociology and developmental psychology, which over-relied on the development metaphor (Hogan, 2005;De Castro, 1996;Skolnick, 1975). In comparison, the 'new social studies' of childhood, sees children as actors and childhood as a participatory and not just preparatory phase of life.…”

Section: Childhood As a Social Constructmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who is A Child?: The Adults’ Perspective within Adult-Child Relationship in India

Bisht

2008

IJPR

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Based on the assumption that childhood is a social construct, this qualitative study explores how children across ages, are perceived by adults. Using modified grounded theory approach, seven adults, teachers by profession, were informally interviewed over several sessions, supplemented by TAT-like picture cards. Theoretical coding led to the extraction of the following key themes. To begin with, participants divided childhood into several phases, each characterized by distinct adult-child relationship and interaction. Secondly, compared to earlier times, children of today were seen as maturing faster along with greater democratization in adult-child relationships. And finally, analysis of social position of children in participants' interviews showed that children were being perceived using an ideology of dependency and incompetency that manifested in various marginalizing practices within adult-child relationship.

show abstract

The Limits of Childhood: Conceptions of Child Development and Social Context

Cited by 50 publications

References 2 publications

Keeping healthy at home and school: ‘it's my body, so it's my job‘

Keeping healthy at home and school: ‘it's my body, so it's my job‘

Categorization in accident departments: ‘good’ patients, ‘bad’ patients and ‘children’

Who is A Child?: The Adults’ Perspective within Adult-Child Relationship in India

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About