The Social Construction of Childhood

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While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed. In How Children Succeed, Paul Tough attempts to unravel what he identifies to be, “some of the most pervasive mysteries of life: Who succeeds and who fails? Why do some children thrive while others lose their way? And what can any of us do to steer an individual child – or a whole generation of children – away from failure and toward success?” (Tough, 2012). Children are born into environments of varying circumstances, good and bad, influencing their development. Through direct encounters with researchers, educators and children of different environments, Paul Tough approaches his questions by ex... ... middle of paper ... ...//www.jrf.org.uk/sites/files/jrf/parenting-resilience-children.pdf. James, A. (1998). From the child's point of view: Issues in the social construction of childhood. Biosocial perspectives on children, 45-65. Miller-Lewis, Lauren R., Amelia K. Searle, Michael G. Sawyer, Peter A. Baghurst, and Darren Hedley. "Resource Factors for Mental Health Resilience in Early Childhood: An Analysis with Multiple Methodologies." Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health7.6 (2013): n. pag. Online. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598384/. Solomon, Andrew. FAR FROM THE TREE: Parents, Children and the Search For Identity. First Scribner Hardcover Edition November 2012 ed. New York: Scribner, 2012. Print. Tough, Paul. How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character. First Mariner Books Edition 2013 ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2012. Print.

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