Concept of Childhood and Adolescence

About this chapter

This chapter builds the foundational CDP idea that childhood and adolescence are not fixed biological facts but social constructions that change with time, place and culture. It develops four perspectives on childhood (anthropological, sociological, historical, cultural — Philippe Aries, John Holt, Mayall, James & James, Kaluli and Japanese mother examples), then defines child through four lenses: age, legal view (UN-CRC below 18, NCPCR 0-18, Juvenile Justice Act below 14, Right to Education Act 2009 ages 6-14, Article 21A and Article 45 of the Constitution, Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act 1986, Indian Mines Act), child as labour, and child in social policy. It introduces adolescence as a term coined late 19th century, traces its origin from the Latin 'adolescere', distinguishes puberty and pubescence, lists the three stages — Early (10-13), Mid (14-15), Late (16-18) — and shows adolescence as a cultural construction through Samoa, Navajo, Tamil Nadu, Nair and Chuktia Bhunjia rituals. The chapter closes by differentiating child, adolescent and adult on age, identity, instability, self-focus, feeling-in-between, and three developmental domains. CTET Paper 1 tests this through direct recall (age limits in RTE, JJ Act, UN-CRC, Article 21A), conceptual items (social construction, cultural construction, puberty vs pubescence), and pedagogy items (a teacher in Rampur handling children from diverse backgrounds). The four tests — Practice 15, Quiz 15, Hard 15, Mastery 30 — cover all six topics at CTET depth.