Just who do we think children are? New Zealanders' attitudes about children, childhood and parenting: an analysis of submissions on the bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961.

AuthorDebski, Sophie

Abstract

A research project analysed a sample of the submissions to Parliament in 2006 on the Bill to repeal section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961. S.59 had provided a defence to parents accused of assaulting their children, the defence being that they used force for the purpose of correction. The project examined two particular contrasting social viewpoints of children--children as "human beings" and as "human becomings"--and whether these two viewpoints were implicated in people's views on the use of physical punishment. The research hypothesis was that people who advocate the use of physical punishment are more likely to conceptualise childhood as a phase of development, where the child is on his/her way to becoming an adult, unable to reason and in need of constant guidance from adults; in other words, that children are human becomings. Alongside this, we hypothesised that people who see childhood as a complete state in its own right, and see children as fully developed at whichever age and stage they are in, having full human rights and contributing to society--the human beings view--are more likely to reject physical punishment. We found that submitters expressing a view of children as human beings were more likely to oppose physical punishment and support repeal, whereas people who saw children as human becomings favoured physical punishment and opposed the Bill. There were also gender and location differences among the submitters. Lessons for parent education include the need to examine and address people's deepest beliefs and attitudes about children and childhood.

INTRODUCTION

This paper first describes two particular contrasting views of children and childhood. It then describes a research project that used the case of physical punishment of children to explore New Zealanders' views about children, childhood, and the roles, rights and responsibilities of parents and children. The research team analysed a sample of 170 written submissions (about one-tenth of the total submissions) sent to the New Zealand Parliament's Justice and Electoral Select Committee in 2006 on the Bill to repeal Section 59 of the Crimes Act. Both quantitative and qualitative results are presented. The concluding discussion includes the implications of the findings for children's human rights and for non-violent parenting education programmes.

Until 2007, Section 59 of the Crimes Act 1961 stated, under the heading "Domestic discipline":

Every parent of a child and ... every person in the place of the parent of a child is justified in using force by way of correction towards the child, if the force used is reasonable in the circumstances. Section 59 thus provided a defence for parents charged with assaulting their children; the defence was that they were using reasonable force for the purpose of correction.

TWO VIEWS OF CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD

Over the past 20 years, as part of debates within the social sciences about the nature of childhood, sociological theorists have developed social constructionist views of the child (Waksler 1991, Corsaro 1997, James and Prout 1997, Qvortrup 1994). In viewing childhood as a social construction, earlier views of the child became open to challenge and new views began to develop.

Earlier predominant ideas of children as on the way to adulthood had focused on their socialisation into an adult world, or their development--both physical and psychological--into adults. Socialisation is something that happens to the child; generally an adult-directed process whereby the child is shaped and guided to become a well-adjusted member of adult society. In the developmental view, the growing child is understood in terms of progress in acquiring emotional and cognitive skills and knowledge. In this view, children need to be "reared, raised etc. if they are to become adults just like us, if they are to support the world we've made, if they are to 'outgrow' or 'get over' their childish behaviour" (Waksler 1991:64).

The development of social constructionist views of children challenged accepted frameworks and ideas about what children are, one of the outcomes being a new focus on children as "social actors":

Childhood is recognised as a structural form and children are social agents who contribute to the reproduction of childhood and society through their negotiations with adults and through their creative production of a series of peer cultures with other children. (Corsaro 1997:43)

In this view, children are already fully developed human beings, who have rights, who can and do make decisions about their lives, and who contribute to society. Qvortrup further argues that if children are indeed social actors, like adults, then the relationship between adults and children is most likely not regulated philosophically, but by power and interests (Qvortrup 1994). The two divergent views were pithily summarised by Qvortrup as follows:

children are "human beings" whose status as children now is just as important as their future adulthood; who are active social beings, engaged in everyday real life, and requiring the same respect that adults receive children are "human becomings", where the key aspect of children is that they are not yet competent, not yet able to reason, not yet knowledgeable, and in need of constant guidance from adults. (Qvortrup 1994:4).

Looking at these issues using the case of physical punishment is instructive. In their review of the literature on physical punishment, Phillips and Alderson found two underlying reasons for the apparent anomaly whereby, in spite of evidence that smacking is unnecessary and dangerous, it is "widely practised and accepted in Britain". These reasons were beliefs that children are human becomings rather than full human beings, and support for parents' rights over children's human fights (Phillips and Alderson 2003:282). Views of children as human becomings and as human beings appear to co-exist within New Zealand. We wondered how they might affect people's support for, or opposition to, the use of physical punishment here.

POLICY ABOUT CHILDREN

Increasing acceptance of new views of childhood and concerns about the consequences of children's relative powerlessness have led to such international developments as the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCROC), and, within New Zealand, the 2002 Whole Child Approach (Ministry of Social Development 2002b), the Agenda for Children (Ministry of Social Development 2002a) and the Youth Development Strategy Aotearoa (Ministry of Youth Affairs 2002).

In the Ministers' foreword to the 2002 Agenda for Children (Agenda), they wrote: "We need to treat children as respected citizens who can contribute to society now and not just as 'adults in the making'"(Ministry of Social Development 2002a:2). This view, and the Agenda's promotion of the "whole child" approach, constitutes "a new view of children and childhood". The view is reflected in research and policy that emphasises:

... the need to consider children as social actors, stakeholders with participation rights, and not just passive dependants [and which] argues children's voices, views and rights need to be ... central to policy and research conceptions of children. (Smithies and Bidrose 2000:51)

While the new view of children may have currency with some policy makers and child welfare practitioners, it is by no means universally or even widely held among these groups, nor among New Zealand's communities.

The different ways of viewing children have implications for how children should be raised and what sorts of fights children should have within society. In the developing adult view of childhood, where children are seen as on the road to adulthood, their status as children now is less important than what they will become in the future. Viewing children as social actors and childhood as a structural form has implications for the roles and relationships of parents and children. Here, adults are no longer seen as all-knowing and all-powerful, and children are no longer viewed as incompetent, ignorant and unable or unwilling to reason, or in need of constant adult guidance in their development towards becoming complete human adults.

RESEARCHING NEW ZEALANDERS' VIEWS OF CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD

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