While children's lives have many things in common, growing up is a very individual experience. The time in question, a child's age, gender, family, culture, neighbourhood and ethnicity are but some of the factors that will determine its reality. Childhood is, in this sense, a social construction.

How is childhood seen these days? What follows is an exploration of contemporary perceptions of ‘ordinary’ children and adults. The purpose is to contribute to an up-to-date picture of how children, young people and adults interpret childhood and adult–child relationships. The evidence is based on a survey of 2,000 pupils at school and interviews with 500 adults, drawing on the available literature as well as current policy and practice perspectives. The setting for the research is contemporary England, the home of participating children and adults and the main source of the reported literature.

A series of everyday themes are addressed: the meaning of childhood today; growing up and becoming responsible; peer influences and parental controls; the degree to which young people are over-protected; and the quality of communication between young people and adults. Also, to what extent is England a child-friendly society? And how can children's (and adults’) lives be improved? The final chapter discusses the findings and key messages arising from the research and sets them in a broader societal context. It outlines some of the attitudes and actions to be challenged and developed in the 21st century with the welfare and well-being of all children and young people in mind.

This chapter sets the scene for later discussion by considering the construction of childhood and its prevailing models. It then addresses the differences between childhood and adulthood, and asks whether the boundaries are changing. Lastly, it looks at some of the common images of childhood.

Constructing childhood

Recent decades have seen massive shifts in the status and meaning of childhood (Hendrick, 1997; Prout, 2005). While children have previously been presumed to grow up in rather uniform ways, they are now seen as actively affecting their own patterns of development and social life. Their contributions through discussion and work, their negotiations, and their struggles for power mean they can make a real difference to the course of their own lives. Children are not regarded as apprentice adults but as a social group in their own right.