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We describe an 18-month empirical investigation of three- and four-year-old children’s uses of technology at home, based on a survey of 346 families and 24 case studies. The findings are reported in the context of social commentators’ anxieties about the ways in which childhood is being transformed by technology. Although we report evidence of some parental disquiet about the role of technology in children’s lives, we illustrate some of the complexities in families’ attitudes to, and uses of, technology and conclude that it is not perceived by parents to be the threat to modern childhood that is claimed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The bio medical expert literature, although contested, associates the use of dummies, soothers or pacifiers, with illness, dental malformation, impaired speech and language, and working-class mothering. This article suggests this negative perspective has filtered, via experts and the media, into public narratives of ‘good’ mothering. Interviews with 20 disadvantaged mothers demonstrate the complex negotiations undertaken to integrate dummy use into their personal ‘good-mothering’ narratives. Representing their hitherto ignored voices in the dummy debate allows a consideration of the context of, and influences on, dummy use. The article argues that rather than a symbol of inadequate working-class mothering, dummy use is a complex, highly negotiated, situated mothering practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on research with children who provide care for parents with serious mental health problems and signals ongoing research that uses photographic participation methods with these groups of vulnerable children. The intention of this article is to highlight the need to move away from popular and simplistic representations of children with caring responsibilities (young carers) as victims of their parents’ illnesses, as ‘little angels’ whose caring work is condoned through rewards or as (exploited) informal domestic workers whose childhoods are inevitably compromised by the caring activity they undertake. Recommendations are made for generating deeper understanding about the lives and needs of children who are affected by parental impairment that is congruent with the thrust of current UK policy, Every Child Matters and the 2004 Children Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whilst the detrimental effects of forced separation through incarceration have been explored in the context of parent–child relationships, little is known about the social and psychological impact of having a sibling in custody. The present research was carried out in order to develop a better understanding of the needs and experiences of children who have a sibling in prison and is based on an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the accounts of eight young people (age 9–17, mean = 13 years) with an older brother in custody. The interviews revealed a series of themes, including the emotional response to a sibling being taken into custody, a reluctance to disclose information to teachers and peers, and perceptions of own behaviour in the light of the sibling's experiences of the criminal justice system. Findings are discussed in relation to policy implications and recommendations for those working with young people, and suggestions are made for future research directions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to explore the ways in which preadolescents associate smoking with transitions to adulthood, in the context of sociological theories of childhood, using data from the Liverpool Longitudinal Study of Smoking. The research found that at age 9 many of the cohort argued that smoking was more acceptable for adults because they had bigger bodies than children. Some children also suggested that smoking was appropriate for adults because adults were competent to make important decisions and to balance risks. By age 11, when several of the cohort had actually tried smoking, children's views about the risks smoking posed to their bodies had altered, and many children were aware of smoking-related disease among adults. The cohort also suggested that some children might take up smoking to demonstrate that they are ‘grown up’ too. In the UK, legal restrictions on the age of tobacco purchase are reinforced by social norms that construct smoking as an activity that is only suitable for adults. The goal of legal restrictions that ban the sale of cigarettes to children is to protect their health. The unintended outcome, however, is that for many young people smoking is a way of demonstrating maturity and adult status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notions of ‘being’ and ‘becoming’ are intrinsic to childhood research. Whilst the ‘being’ child is seen as a social actor actively constructing ‘childhood’, the ‘becoming’ child is seen as an ‘adult in the making’, lacking competencies of the ‘adult’ that he or she will ‘become’. However, I argue that both approaches are in themselves problematic. Instead, theorising children as ‘being and becomings’ not only addresses the temporality of childhood that children themselves voice, but presents a conceptually realistic construction suitable to both childhood researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children’s online experience, especially the risks to which they might be exposed, is an increasingly important policy and research concern. This article reports an analysis of the amount, nature and range of empirical research concerning children’s online experiences across 18 European countries. Research teams in each country have collaborated, as part of the ‘EU Kids Online’ network, to identify, code and compare studies. In all, 235 studies were identified and coded in a publicly accessible data repository. All countries had some available evidence regarding children’s online risky experiences, with strengths mainly in relation to research into access and use; several countries were found to have a richer evidence base encompassing research into online learning, literacy, participation, parental mediation and so forth. Regarding risks, more research focused on potentially harmful content than on risky forms of contact. Key research gaps included research on younger children, into mobile online platforms, and into certain types of online risk. The article concludes by observing the challenges facing researchers in this field, including the time-sensitivity of research that quickly dates, the difficulty of tailoring research to meet the needs of a demanding policy agenda, the complexity of designing projects that recognise the contextual and contingent factors that mediate children’s online activities, and the ethical considerations that apply when asking children about private, transgressive or upsetting experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]