Sociology of Childhood & Youth

(4 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

This unit of study examines the main sociological approaches to childhood and youth in modern industrial societies, as well as the ways in which particular perspectives on childhood are central to all social theory. It will examine the debates surrounding the historical development of childhood, and the various approaches to the impact of state intervention and social policies on both the experiences of childhood and youth and the transition to adulthood. Specific topics discussed include; the social construction of child abuse, youth homelessness and youth criminality as social problems, the stolen generations, children and the law, the fertility decline, and the differentiation of childhood experience along lines of class, gender, race and ethnicity.