Childhood Studies

Childhood studies is an aim to understand the study of children; with examples including arts, humanities, natural and social sciences, medicine, and law. Emphasizing on an interdisciplinary and reasonable way to study the age range of young people between 0 -18; as well as using policy and practice to promote the rights of children.

The US National Children's Study was formulated by politicians who realized the importance of disciplines and the study of simple subjects. When compared to the British birth cohort studies, the US lacks a strong tradition for surveys of children. However, there have still been plenty of surveys focusing on their health.^[1] Certain theories claim that adults are mature and reasonable, children on the other hand are said to contrast from this as they are still developing.^[2] Methodological debates focus on seeing whether researching with young children is similar to researching with adults. Childhood studies is set up as a critical series of processes that has already been done, leading to the creations of mantras and how it focuses on the social construction and agency of young children; as well as valuing their voice, participation, and experience in life.

It is also said childhood studies retain a modernist agenda in doing this, but the rest of sociology has refused to place it as a primary role to instead search for complexity rather than social structures.^[2] Reports indicate that adults lack stability as they progress through their working lives and states they are trying to reach the goal of becoming a human being, while children are also in this pursuit as they grow.

Despite the beliefs that children aren't as capable of life as adults are, childhood studies have proven that young children are competent of certain abilities when emphasizing their own autonomy, an example being a social actor. The concept of children's agency is about the means to act, considering the fact that there are many misunderstandings, difficulties, and tribulations that children or young people will have to solve eventually. Due to children's position in society, there are multiple opportunities and ways for children to exercise their social agency.^[2] The research of childhood studies shows how young people are socially competent, and that a bigger importance is on their complexities and ambiguities across context; likewise, theoretical advances made by psychology emphasize the need to contextualize the development of children.^[2]

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