Elkind, D 1979 The Child and Society, New York: Oxford University Press

Looks at the affects that social change has on a child’s development. How adults consider social change and the way their attitudes have an affect on children.

The ways, in which generations consider themselves, youths of today are considered as “wilder, freer, more boisterous, and more disrespectful” (1979: 4). Older generations do not remember themselves as being this ‘bad’ when they were youths.
Elkind describes three adult illusions; generational illusion is described as above.

Immediacy illusion, which looks again at the difference between adults and youths, an example given on page 4-5, adults see waiting in a queue or waiting in traffic as a long time, it seems to take an age. Yet, when reflecting on their own lives and their years of growing up, the time seems to have gone so quickly, with the older generation as well, Elkind talks about “The sense of urgency” that time is running out and that something needs to be done now. Adults may believe that youths share this idea. However, Elkind states that youths do not have this sense of urgency. They understand and appreciate the dangers of pollution, global warming, but they do not see the urgency to act and do something about it now!
This links in with the generational illusion as the older generation believe that the younger generation should have the same priorities when, according to Elkind it is not essential that they do.

Homogeneity illusion – Being stereotypical about youths, grouping them as all being the same. When in actual fact, youths are just as diverse as adults. For example on page 6, there are youths who attend church as part of their social life, in comparison to youths who hang out down the park or at the local bowling alley.
The media having an effect on the stereotypical view of youths, as the majority of the time, youths are only talked about as being one type or another. There are no variations or talk about the different types.

Social change affects adults and those adults that are parents then pass this affect onto their children.

The change in schools, “schools too have focused more and more upon making academic achievements, rather than personal adjustment, their primary goal.” (1979: 7). A result of this is the child having to become “competent at an early age”. This happens in both academic areas such as Mathematics, Science and English as well as in sports and outdoor activities, Elkind phrases it as creating “a miniature adult”. This then leads to competition and with this comes the positive and the negative, the failure as well as the success. Many parents urge their children to compete without considering the affects and frustrations it may be causing the child.

Elkind believes that the child’s wants and needs, that were always considered to come above a parents’ is now changing. He names the “child-centred approach to child rearing is rapidly disappearing” (1979: 8). With mother’s going to work instead of staying at home with their children, in this case, Elkind sees the child’s needs and wants becoming second to the parents’. This then leads onto the child, having to gain “emotional independence” at an early stage. A link is then made to divorce, and the divorce rate having increased over the years, and the fact that parents are willing to separate if they are unhappy, not staying together for the sake of the family or for the children.

The use of frames between parents and children, the “rules, expectancies and understandings that operate in repetitive social situations.” (1979: 79) The way frames are formed and established through a child’s social interaction. How these frames vary and differ within different social settings. For example, the lunchtime period at a child’s school has a different frame and a more relaxed ruling than the setting within a classroom.