Approaches to Childhood

It can be said that approaches to childhood have gone through three intertwined stages. Children, who were considered a part of the adult world as an extension of it, evolved over time into a social group that received special protection and education. In the 18th century, a protection-oriented approach emerged as children were subjected to harsh working conditions. In the 20th century, the value of children was determined more by their conceptualization as the future of society and the state.  Following this period, also known as the child welfare era, the child began to be perceived as an individual, independent of social and political ideals and valuable in its own right. The idea that children have rights not only in the future but also in the present conditions became widespread. In addition to the changes in approaches to children and childhood, there have also been changes in the position of the child in research. For many years until the 90s, research on children and childhood was conducted from the perspective of adults, under the assumption that unbiased and reliable information on children would be obtained from adults.

This view of children and young people as passive recipients was criticized in the 90s, and researchers began to explore new ways to study children’s lives. This paradigm shift in this period is closely related to two important developments. The first one is the developments in the child rights movement. In 1989, the Convention on the Rights of the Child emerged, defining children’s rights and especially participation as a right. In the 20th century, which can be referred to as the century of childhood, there was an increase in studies in the field of determining the situation of children with various indicators and monitoring their situation in changing living conditions (Uyan-Semerci et al., 2012). Another development was that in the sociology of childhood, childhood began to be seen as a situation that should be researched alone. With this change, there has been an increase in research that tries to understand children’s own views and experiences through the eyes of children. Children and young people have ceased to be the objects of research; they have become direct subjects and children’s perspectives have become an important point of research (Ben-Arieh & Kosher, 2019). The child well-being approach has made significant contributions to the development of the perception of children and childhood. With this approach, criteria related to children’s subjective experiences began to be taken into account, rather than the objective conditions in which children live and which are determined from the outside (Uyan-Semerci et al., 2012)

Child Welfare → Child Well-being (welfare to well-being)

Child well-being is an approach that prioritizes the child’s quality of life and satisfaction and aims to increase their capabilities within the framework of the indicators tried to be determined (Uyan-Semerci et al., 2012).

Children are referred to as social actors who are the subjects of their own well-being within the social conditions, resources and relational networks that affect their lives. Child well-being offers a perspective that contributes to the realization of children’s rights. With this perspective, it includes not only the perspective of adults but also the voices of children in order to understand the situation of the child. The approach from child welfare to child well-being, formulated by Ben-Arieh (2010), has opened new horizons. Ben Arieh (2010) states that this process, which we can call the “child indicators movement”, has experienced 6 fundamental changes in the last 25 years and emphasizes the difference between child well-being and welfare.

• While earlier indicators focused on the child’s survival, the new indicators focus on the child’s well-being. While the welfare perspective focuses more on maintenance, the child’s well-being seeks to ensure that the child is “doing well” rather than “being” well.
• While indicators in the past took into account negative outcomes in the child’s life, the new indicators have started to take into account positive outcomes. For example, not only negative outcomes such as lack of vaccination or lack of access to clean water are emphasized, but also positive outcomes. When looking at education, a child’s relationship with his/her teacher or peers can be a positive indicator.
• Whereas indicators in the past took into account children’s future achievements and well-being, indicators developed in recent years take into account children’s current well-being. This means that the child’s well-being today and tomorrow is equally important, rather than an understanding that is based on the child becoming a good adult and a successful person in the future.
• In addition to the traditional areas of child welfare such as material well-being, health and education, new areas such as relationships and participation are included in the child well-being approach. The interrelatedness of these areas and a holistic approach gain importance. In addition to issues such as the physical conditions of the school, where we can obtain data with much clearer observations, there is an effort to understand and evaluate how the child feels, whether they are happy at school or not. For this reason, new indicators are added that focus more on hearing the voice and experience of the child.
• While the understanding of child well-being was adult-centered, today’s indicators are more child-centered. They try to understand the child’s experience through the child’s eyes.
• With the child well-being approach, combined indices are attempted to create a more holistic picture of the situation and provide a framework for policy makers to make policies that focus more on the child (Ben-Arieh, 2010)

   

References

Ben-Arieh, A. 2010. “From child welfare to children well-being: The child indicator perspective”. From child welfare to child well-being: An international perspective on knowledge in the service of policy making. Editors: Ben Arieh, A., Phipps, S., Kamerman, S. B. New York: Springer.

Ben-Arieh, A., Kosher, H. 2019. “Child Study Movement”, The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development, 1-15.

Uyan-Semerci, P., Müderrisoğlu, S., Karatay, A., Akkan, B.E., Kılıç, Z., Oy, B. and Uran, S. 2012. Developing Child Well-Being Indicators for Türkiye: The Case of Istanbul. Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Press.