Social Construction Of Childhood: A Comparative Analysis

The idea of social constructionism comes from the concept of social interactions within society. It is the idea that people in society create meanings for specific things (such as girls should have long hair and boys should have short hair) and then tend to behave in those ways because of the meanings that have been created. It focuses on what we seem to be the norms of society and cultural practices.
To understand the social construction of childhood, an insight into the different structures within society can be helpful. Society does not work well without having this structure. Wells (2009, p. 15) believes that structure plays a big role in either restricting or enhancing the lives of children. Children’s lives are not just seen to be controlled by these structures of society but are seen to be influenced by both the social and cultural ideas adults have of them. Wells (2009, p. 2) Adults view children and childhood in a specific way and will shape this view onto their own children. This is known as a process called social reproduction.

Corsaro (2005 cited James 2009, p 41) discusses this idea of social reproduction within children. It is seen that social reproduction can have two main processes when relating to children. Corsaro (2005) states children will be ‘contributing to cultural production and change’ but also will be ‘constrained by the society and cultures of which they are member of’. An example of this could be if a child’s parents are deemed to be on a low income (classed as poor), then there is evidence to suggest the child will not be as successful as a child whose parents were very wealthy. It is because we socially reproduce the inequality between the working class and the wealthy and keep this gap very