Childhood

Being a child in American society can be problematic. Twenty percent of American children live in poverty, parents are divorcing at high rates, and educational institutions are not always fulfilling their goals. Against this backdrop, children are often patronized or idealized by adults. Rarely do we look for the strengths within children that can serve as the foundation for growth and development. In Rethinking Childhood, twenty contributors, coming from the disciplines of anthropology, government, law, psychology, education, religion, philosophy, and sociology, provide a multidisciplinary view of childhood by listening and understanding the ways children shape their own futures. Topics include education, poverty, family life, divorce, neighborhood life, sports, the internet, and legal status. In all these areas, children have both voice and agency. They construct their own social networks and social reality, sort out their own values, and assess and cope with the perplexing world around them. The contributors present ideas that lead not only to new analyses but also to innovative policy applications. Taken together, these essays develop a new paradigm for understanding childhood as children experience these years. This paradigm challenges readers to develop fresh ways of listening to children's voices that enable both children and adults to cross the barriers of age, experience, and stereotyping that make communication difficult. A volume in the Rutgers Series in Childhood Studies, edited by Myra Bluebond-Langner.

Distinguished authors detail cross-cultural issues affecting youngsters, including parenting practices, gender role socialization, risk and resilience in childhood, and more. The text challenges existing beliefs about childhood development, offers current research on childrearing and socialization practices in diverse cultures, and examines social and educational policies as they relate to children and adolescents. Socialization practices within families, communities, and educational settings are included.

Children and their parent's money are subject to an almost constant marketing pitch that sells games, videos, and a large volume of merchandise. The authors examine this modern consciousness changing culture in a multidisciplinary manner.

This text brings together a variety of perspectives on the study of childhood, how it has been treated historically and how such a concept is developing as we move into a new century.

Traditionally, psychology has concentrated on factors that contribute to individuals becoming unhealthy and has paid very little attention to those individuals who become healthy when all indications would predict the opposite. Many children overcome adverse conditions and become successful adults. Their stories often go untold, taking backseat to stories and investigations of failed lives and broken dreams. This book retrospectively explores the lives of several individuals who were able to overcome hardships and excel professionally. The authors believe that, through the lives of these individuals, the reader can learn how to help others overcome adverse life circumstances.

Connecting Children focuses on children's understandings of care and their views of different family lives. It portrays the lives of children aged 11-12 and shows how families connect children in different ways both in the household and also in their wider kinship networks.

This collection of essays offers a cross-disciplinary perspective on the skilful and varied ways in which young people of different ages, classes and ethnicities construct their world through language.

Winner of the Blanche Ittleson Award for her research on childhood trauma, clinical professor of psychiatry Terr examines the many ways that trauma has changed not only the children she's treated, but all of us. She demonstrates that traumatized children can be helped, showing that there is hope for the innocent victims of our frightening world.

A clear explanation of causes, diagnosis, and treatment of childhood obesity

This edition of James and Prout's seminal work on childhood study contains a collection of articles which draw on a variety of disciplines to show how childhood is constructed in society, and the direction in which childhood study is moving.

In this ground-breaking book, Alan Prout discusses the place of children and childhood in modern society. He critically examines 'the new social studies of childhood', reconsidering some of its key assumptions and positions, and arguing that childhood is heterogeneous and complex. The study of childhood requires a broad set of intellectual resources and an interdisciplinary approach. Chapters include discussion of: * the changing social and cultural character of contemporary childhood, and the weakening boundary between adulthood and childhood * a look back at the emergence of childhood studies in the nineteenth and twentieth century * the nature/culture dichotomy * the role of material artefacts and technologies in the construction of contemporary childhood. This book is essential reading for students and academics in the field of childhood studies, sociology, and education.