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The subject of the case study is me, 19 years old and an undergraduate student. I spent the first 6 years of my life in Sri Lanka and then moved to the United Kingdom. By unraveling my childhood and the youth period of my life course I will be able to analyze my experiences. Gender, place, culture, and ethnicity will be explored to see if they contributed to my experiences of childhood and my youth now. Both childhood and youth of individuals born in the same era differ depending on where and when they traveled through these life stages. Childhood is the period where you are free from any worries or anxieties, but when you transit into youth responsibilities are set upon you.
Childhood is the first stage of life. I believe that childhood is the best period in an individual’s life as they have the purest heart and their only expectation is love and affection. The beginning of my childhood was spent in Sri Lanka near the coastline. My memories of childhood included playing in the never-ending white sand with my friends and picking mangos from my garden. Even though in the 21st century children had an increased attraction to technology, growing up in Sri Lanka I was always connected with nature. When I was 5 years old in 2004 the Indian Ocean tsunami occurred. It had destroyed our home, the place where I was content and happy, the place where I made memories. At this critical time, I sensed unity, everyone was aiding each other. But I also realized the destructive power of nature.
Sociologists recognize childhood as being socially constructed (created and defined by society). It is argued that childhood and the status of children in society are not fixed but determined by place, time, and culture. Phillippe Aries (1962) states that ‘the idea of childhood did not exist’ in pre-industrial society. In medieval society, children were portrayed as ‘little adults’ who would take on adult responsibilities as young as 7 or 8 as life was very ‘hand to mouth’ (Aries, 1962). Figure 1 shows that child labor is continuing, 19.3% of the children in the world are in employment. Most of these children are from less economically developed countries (LEDC) where the children have to work to provide and support their families. Morden notion of childhood is described as being different from adulthood (Pilcher, 1995). Childhood is seen as a separate, distinct life stage and Pilcher (1995) emphasizes this through laws that regulate what children are allowed and forbidden to do. Childhood is portrayed as a ‘golden age’ of happiness and innocence. Innocence makes children vulnerable therefore they require protection from adults forcing them to live within the surroundings of family and education.
When moving to England I thought I was going on a day trip, but only when I landed in the UK, did I realize that this move was permanent. I was devasted, England was not home. It was also the first time I met my dad, it felt odd, I was only used to my mum being my protector and disciplinarian, but now there is my dad too. But as time went on, more than a father-daughter relationship, and still have a special friendship. As I didn’t know English at the time, I was pushed to learn English fast. School was difficult at the start; pupils would tease me for my pronunciation of words and the accent I had at that time. Childhood is the period where the child attempts to recognize the world around them. I had to stop exploring Sri Lanka and begin a new exploring journey in England, where the food, people, language, and surroundings are different.
The place where I lived was important in shaping my childhood. In Sri Lanka I was living in a carefree environment where I had no responsibilities, it involved eating, playing, and being happy. However, after my move to England, my childhood had changed. I had to become more sensible and my priorities changed from playing to education. Coming from an Asian community there was always competition between each child in everything and it is always set in your mind that the only option is to be the best. The pressure to achieve high progressively increased each year.
The transition from childhood to youth is when the child matures and becomes independent from dependent. Youth is described as the ‘life stages between childhood and adulthood’ (Kehily, 2007). Different sources define youth by age differently for example the UN defines ‘youth’ as those between the ages of 15 and 24 years (Unesco.org, 2019). It is the stage in the life course that brings you out of childhood and prepares you for adulthood. My shift from childhood to youth began in year 7 when I started secondary school. This was the period where I had to wake up on my own, make my lunch, travel to school on my own, do homework by myself, and make decisions independently. I realized here that responsibilities and expectations are going to rise. From primary school to secondary school I was the only Sri Lankan in the year group, so my way of thinking and approaching things mimicked my peers. As a result, I became very open-minded about situations as everyone was different whereas if I were to be educated in Sri Lanka, I feel like my approach to situations and conditions would have been narrow.
Being a female in Sri Lanka you are expected to complete your education and marry. This is not the case all the time in some regions there is the occurrence of child marriages. However, my parents treat my brother and me equally they do not expect any less from me. Going to an all-girls school and having talks about inequalities between men and women as well as learning about the need for more women in various careers has urged me to succeed in my education and reach a highly valued, respectable position in the medical field. As a youth, the emotional memories of any events during this period make a huge impact on their life as they can remember and store them. This can shape how the rest of their youth will span out as some events may have negative impacts while others may have positive impacts.
In conclusion, the ideas about childhood and the experiences of childhood can be easily changed and it varies as factors such as culture, ethnicity, religion, and gender construct an individual’s life stage. It cannot be argued that their experience of childhood is entirely shaped by social construction, however, the structure created by society exhibits the expectations of what is accepted. The experiences during my childhood and my youth now have modeled my character and personality, as the experiences allowed me to improve and change myself. Furthermore, the concepts of childhood and youth will not remain it will continue to change.
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