Early maturation or infantilization: The paradox of modern childhood events

Abstract

The article claims the relevance of the study of boundaries and events at the end of childhood based on autobiographical memory. The authors analyze the concepts of childhood sociality, childhood events, early maturation, and infantilization, based on the ideas of E.E. Sapogova about the units of analysis of the autobiographical narrative as well as P. Shtompka concerning events as components of the agent-structural reality of society, through which the latter is not only organized, but also disclosed. They consider the traditions of studying the events of childhood related to the identification of important episodes or processes of childhood based on the analysis of publications in foreign journals, as well as in Russian socio-psychological literature. The article discusses the results of an empirical study conducted by online survey in 2018 (N = 774). The study revealed that modern children have a paradoxical phenomenon of simultaneous early maturation and prolonged childhood in the youth age. One of the key findings of the research is that childhood events are characterized by eclecticism. Another finding is that there are groups with accelerated maturation (poor children, children from single-parent families, and children in urban areas). The factors influencing the lag behind the typical situation are gender, family composition, socio-economic situation, and territory of residence. On the basis of comparing the conventional generations Y and Z, it was determined that the growth of contradictions and accumulation of three groups of explanatory models reveal the essence of elicited paradoxes in the development of childhood. The deconstruction of the problematic approach to understanding the eventful childhood of boys and girls who do not desire to mature is substantiated. The authors demonstrate the necessity of such research oriented on identifying actual generational differences in concrete societal patterns of childhood, which determine the sociability of childhood for a certain period as well as the reconsideration of current traditional models of the periodization of childhood.