Lapsuusikä ja ikä lapsuudessa : tutkimus 6-12-vuotiaiden sosiokulttuurisesta ikätiedosta

Abstract

Viime aikoina on keskusteltu huolestuneeseen sävyyn siitä, että lapset eivät enää "osaa" olla lapsia, vaan heillä on kiire nuoruuteen ja aikuisuuteen liian varhain. Kirsi Lallukan väitöstutkimuksessa enemmistö alle 12-vuotiaista ei enää pitänytkään itseään lapsina. Toisaalta omanikäisyys oli vahva normi - ei saa vaikuttaa "lapselliselta" eikä "yrittää esittää" ikäistään vanhempaa. Myös muiden elämänvaiheiden välisten raja-aitojen kaatumisesta on käyty keskustelua: vanhat haluaisivat pysyä nuorina, aikuiset vierastavat aikuisuuteen jämähtämistä, ja nuoruus näyttää siten levittäytyneen kaikkien muiden elämänvaiheiden ideaaliksi.- Lapsuus ja vanhuus saattavat helposti tuntua elämänkaaren ääripäinä olevan toisistaan niin kaukana kuin mahdollista, mutta niistä voi yhteiskuntatieteellisestä näkökulmasta löytää myös paljon rinnastettavaa, Lallukka päättelee

In the construction of modern Western childhood, the concept ofchronological age has served as a central criterion for segregation; it is a structural organiser of the children's everyday life. Chronological age is used to separate social positions between the adult and child generations, but it is also used as a criterion in the internal 'distribution of places' in the construction of childhood. It can be said that age as a construction penetrates through the everyday life of children. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore children's conceptions of age: what is the children's sociocultural knowledge of age like? The empirical data of this research consists mainly of two kinds of material: 60 theme interviews and 211 writings by children. The interviewees were from six to twelve years old and the writers were third- and sixth-graders. To get a grasp of the informants' sociocultural knowledge of age, two levels of examination were formed. These are "childhood age" and "age in childhood". The theoretical and methodological basis of the present study is eclectic: it is influenced by many fields of research and traditions. Firstly, the theoretical basis was drawn from the interdisciplinary field of childhood studies: childhood and age are regarded as social constructions, and children as active social subjects. The aim of the study is data-centredness by applying grounded theory methodology. Sociology of age, social gerontology and women's studies were also utilised. Data analysis was carried out by using several methods, such as frame analysis and content analysis. One of the main results of the study is that the majority of the informants didn't want to be called a "child"; they found this term too belittling and rather used other kinds of expressions in their self-definitions. On the other hand, it was typical that informants emphasized the importance of "acting one's age". This means that they carefully avoided becoming marked as "childish" or "acting too old". This fruitful contradiction between the results concerning "childhood age" and "age in childhood" tells partly about the complexity of the sociocultural knowledge of age