The Open University E212 Childhood Block 4

Based on:

1) individual charitable work

2) ideas about social welfare, usually implemented by the state

3) children's rights

1) children deserve special protection

2) young people are highly dependent and in need of resources

3) can be seen as an investment in the future

- in many countries there remains an inadequate investment in children's welfare

- often seen as a critical period in development

- NGOs often have to step in when governments can't e.g. Vaccination programmes

1) Children's rights and ensuring a healthy
development

2) Economic reasons: reduced cost in the future, contribution to
economy

3) Social reasons: reducing social and economic disparities and gender inequalities

4) Political reasons: competencies set in early childhood; more
competent people, better position in global economy

e.g. Kindertransport: UK granted asylum to German Jewish children before WW2, adults left to die

e.g. Dr Thomas Barnardo opened homes for poor children, attempted to turn them into useful citizens. Encouraged mass emigration to British colonies of Australia and Canada

crit: (i) parents portrayed as bad, (ii) not saving children but teaching them to know their place, (iii) reinforcing their low status, (iv) little
interest in the causes of poor well-being

e.g. 'Crack babies' - moral panic created over babies born addicted to crack cocaine the the USA in the late 1980s/90s

crit: (i) simplistic solution to a very complex
social issue, (ii) demonised poor, African
American mothers, (iii) didn't tackle the root of the problem

crit: (i) assumptions made about family make-up, (ii) expectations fell short consistently due to lack of funding, (iii) very popular until 1970s until Thatcher suggested people should look after themselves

- Over 1/3 of all children in developing countries are living in absolute poverty

- US also defines its poverty in absolute
measures unlike most other developed
countries which use relative measures

This allows for measurements of an individual or household's lack of resources, as well as an
analysis of wider issues of social inequality. Depth and degree of poverty can also be
measured.

Certain groups of people are over-represented in the category of deep poverty:

- Children of asylum seekers

- Children of disabled parents

- Traveler children

Certain groups more likely to experience poverty and social exclusion

e.g. Child Poverty Action Group compared
ability of poorest and richest 1/5th's ability to participate in community activities. The poor group was less likely to be able to participate

Findings:

- none of the children regarded themselves as either rich or poor

- all identified as 'average'

- children did not want to be perceived as
different

e.g. - UNICEF state that more than 1 billion
children are severely deprived of essential goods and services they need to survive and develop

- CPAG state 18% of UK children suffer from multiple deprivations, lacking 2 or more
necessities

Global capitalism, legacy of colonialism, trade tariffs, allocation of funds by governments, dept, taking in refugees, HIV, international policy

- Wilkinson and Picket: highlight importance of income gaps

- Saunders: income gaps due to nature of
society, not vice versa. Argues income inequality is caused by cohesive society

e.g.

- often women and children get less

- household may be poor but parents sacrifice things for themselves thus protecting
themselves from poverty

-children may be materially rich but emotionally deprived

e.g. - the 1924 Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child: "the child that is hungry must be fed; the child that is sick must be nursed"

- ill-health can lead to death and has negative impact in socio-economic and demographic terms. Many diseases easily preventable.
Malnutrition has negative effects, short and long term

e.g. - UNICEF report 33% reduction in global under-five mortality rate, considerable improvements in access to primary schooling, safe water, routine immunizations

- UNICEF 2011 report highlighted importance of investing in adolescents in order to break the
intergenerational cycle of poverty and inequality

- Young people are socially and demographically important

- Good health is difficult to define and identify

- WHO defines good health as 'a state of
complete, physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity'

- Emotional health is more difficult to measure

crit: (i) some signs of health more difficult to measure, (ii) difficult to put into practice, normally doesn't focus on holistic health, narrow indic.

- Western biomedical model: prevalent in
minority-world countries. Sees healthy body as 'functioning like a machine'

- Non-Western models: often have a more holistic view of health, focus on personal,
spiritual or social experience of illness

e.g.

1) Is a child lively or showing disturbing

behaviour, hyperactive?

2) Hearing voices may be sign of schizophrenia by Western standards but considered normal for Shamans entering trances during rituals e.g. in Inuit cultures

e.g.

1) In 2011, 1 in 10 children aged 2-10 year classified as obese (Department of Health)

2) Rising levels of obesity in China. Parents tend to over-indulge children because of one child (two as of 2015) policy

e.g. Study of men during Dutch famine in 1944-45 showed high prevalence of becoming obese as adults when exposed to deprivation during 1st half of pregnancy

- being underweight has serious health implications

- weight issues also a way of defining and reinforcing social divisions and stigmatising the poor

- fat associated with being lazy

UNICEF:

- Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of child morality: 1 in 8 die
before the age of 5

- 50% of under-five deaths occur in India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and China

- Bangladesh has national commitment to invest in basic social services, resulting in considerable decrease in U5MR

e.g.

1) In USA over 3/4 children with HIV/AIDS are from ethnic minorities.

2) Parts of Glasgow life expectancy for men only 67.7 compared to 78.3 in East Dunbartonshire.

Priorities may be based on age, gender, birth
order or perceived health/disability.

Girls often have higher rates of malnutrition, greater rates of mortality.

e.g. higher risk of being aborted in India and China due to cultural expectations and practices

e.g. Oral rehrydration salts

- Low cost intervention, prevents death via
diarrhea

-Mothers in Papua New Guinea initially administered but grew skeptical of effectiveness as did not stop flow of diarrhea

crit: ORS did not address cause of diarrhea which was often related to poverty; access to clean drinking water, sewage system

Some regard smacking, overfeeding or smoking in front of children as violent while others don't. Definitions depends on personal ideology and social context. Fear that using the term to describe any undesirable behaviour may lead to loss of meaning.

Poll of UK teacher by Times Educational Supplement (2008) found that 22% secondary teachers would be OK with caning in extreme cases.

- Still legal in the UK

- Only punishment that causes visible marks has been outlawed.

- site-specific: some behaviour acceptable at home but not at school

- underpinned by different notions of
childhood: (i) romanticism; children inherently pure, (ii) puritan; children inherently evil/violent

- 49% of people regard children as danger to each other and other adults

- 43% agreed something needs to be done to protect us from children

- 35% agree the streets infested with children

- 45% agree people refer to children as feral
because they behave this way

- OFSTED (2008) found that between May 2007 and August 2008 there had been 210 child deaths attributable to violence, abuse or neglect.

- Fear of strangers may be due to media e.g. abduction of Madeleine McCann, which is quite rare

- Unclear statistics: problem only recently identified and acknowledged as health issue; difficult to know whether it has actually increased or just better diagnosed and recognised today.

- Seen as minority world problem but research shows incidents in Sri Lanka of self-poisoning

- Childline (2008) reported bullying as the
biggest problem they had encountered for the past 12 years

- Suggested that some people are not only materially poorer but also lack access to power due to having low social capital

- Today encompasses all forms of social
hierachies imposing values, beliffs and practices on non-dominant groups

- Works in an unconscious way, altering
aspirations and legitimising a particular social order

- Mills studied masculinity and violence; discusses how boys are socialised into cultures of violence within schools e.g. sport, power over women as seen as masculine and valued. People are bullied for deviating from the norm

- e.g. Gang culture and knife crime are prevalent in certain areas in the UK. Violence against young men, often by other young men, has been identified as a serious source of health inequality in Scotland

- According to WarChild (2011) there are an
estimated 250,000 child soldiers worldwide

- Child soldiers serve various roles e.g. plant mines, deliver food

- e.g. Child soldiers of Sierra Leone (1991); many children forced to join military but many volunteered. May have been influenced by need for food, protection and shelter.

- e.g. Children in Palestine throwing rocks at
Israeli soldiers could be regarded as violence if based on political ideology. Could also be
considered non-violent if intended as a part of play

- Gilligan states that resilience perspective is positive and pragmatic. Sees children as agents of change.

- Daniel states that risk and adversity doesn't
always lead to negative outcomes.
Over-protection may even prevent children from developing resilience

- Children adapted much faster to new surroundings

- Many showed resilience and active strategies for coping and supporting their parents

- need to consider: age, gender, birth order, temperament or personality, quality of relationships with family, friends or teachers

- They judged that the negative effect of the events was the same in only 31% of cases

- Demonstrates effects of economic adversity on children; many effects are social and emotional consequences of hardship for parents and has repercussions for children's feeling of security and quality of parent-child relationships

- resourcefulness - need/ability to help - curiosity

- flexibility and adaptability - problem-solving

- life goals - hopefulness for future

- capacity to engage in critical thinking

- trying to take control over own lives

Social: (i) family and community, (ii) secure
attachments, (iii) relationships

Cultural: (i) religious beliefs, (ii) cultural
expectations, (iii) value of education

- Daniel et al. states that children may appear resilient but internalising their symptoms, and thus denied much-needed support

- Most research has been carried out from a
minority world perspective.

- Not all close/peer relationships are positive

- McGregor (2007) states that well-being arises from:

(i) what a person has

(ii) what a person can do with what they have

(iii) how they think about what they have and can do

- Ross et al. describes how UK grandparents play key role in listening to grandchildren and mediating. Significant source of support,

contribute to well-being

- Punch et al. found everyday food practices are powerful way to demonstrate trust and predictability; promote social and emotional
well-being and building/sustaining relationships. LAC children could
experience sense of consistency and nurture, develop autonomy and sense of control

- Expands the focus to include children's
physiology and psychology

- Emphasises the importance of the local cultural context

- Addresses 'new' areas of well-being particularly important to children; autonomy,
enjoyment/fun, relatedness and status

- Morrow and Mayall; well-being is benign umbrella term which is 'conceptually muddy'. Problematic as it describes a state of being and an outcome of intervention

- Crivello et al.; well-being is socially contingent, culturally anchored and that changes over time. Differences of cultural and historical context and individual life phase are highly significant

- Cultural factors not taken in to account e.g. ownership of books used as indicator of material well-being

- Relative indicators used; e.g. poor child in UK may be less disadvantaged than poor child in Poland given UK's national wealth