Research Paper on:
Childhood as a Social Construct

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
  The social construct of childhood is something which can be seen to be dependent on a number of factors, including economic and cultural issues. Different societies, at different periods  in history, have perceived children in a number of diverse ways, from dependent and innocent to, in effect, miniature members of adult society. Baker et al (2001) make the point  that in cultures where there is a communal lifestyle in which children participate as soon as they are able, there is little distinction made between childhood and maturity. The tasks  which children perform are those which, however small, are of benefit to the community as a whole: the education they receive is in pragmatic matters and there is no deliberate  separation of child and adult behaviour. Some theorists consider that the high  infant mortality rates of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries indicated that children were not greatly valued, and that their demise was met with some indifference by the parents; however, Baker  et al note that in fact diarists of the period recorded their unhappiness and distress at the loss of their children and indicated that they were aware of childhood as  a period of dependency, and saw the period of childhood as something which was separate and distinct from later stages of development.  However, it would be fair to assert that the evidence which can be garnered from this period is based on the