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The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children: Global Demographic Trends and Economic Disparities

Uwe P. Gielen

Children are the wealth of a family.

Nigerian Proverb

By 2050, the median age in Europe is expected to rise to 52.3 years.

Demographer William Frey

Eleven-year-old Fatima1•2 has been sitting in front of a carpet-loom for much of the day. Performing a series of well-rehearsed hand movements she snips away at the short threads emerging from the carpet's knots just a few inches from her face. Like some of the other young girls sitting close by, she has performed this work for several years and, in consequence, has grown near-sighted. She can only vaguely make out the green rice shoots glittering in Kashmir's afternoon sun outside the factory.

With puberty approaching, Fatima knows that her carpet-weaving days will soon coine to an end. Her family will also need to find a husband for her, a prospect that evokes a mixture of conflicting emotions in her. Some years ago her family's fate took a turn for the worse when two of her older brothers were killed by soldiers "sweeping" her village near the outskirts of Kashmir's capital, Srinagar. Although she has only a vague understanding of the larger world outside her family home, she senses that her future is precarious and that the life looming ahead of her will likely be a difficult one. Because she is barely literate, and given the precarious economic situations of her family, her chances of joining an educated family in marriage are slim.

Many miles to the east of her, Takashi is sitting in front of a computer to gather information for an essay he has been asked to write for one of his

64 Childhood and Adolescence

school classes. Living in a small apartment in Hiroshima, Takashi's parents have given him a room so that he can concentrate better on his all-important studies. Like many of his peers he is visiting a tutorial after-school program (juko) in order to prepare himself for a series of demanding entrance exam inations whose outcome will shape his future.

Takashi's small room is filled with electronic gadgets and, for years, he has been a consumer of manga (cartoons) and TV programs directed at teenagers like himself. Over the years he has been exposed-through his teachers, parents, the mass media, and the web-to a steady stream of infor mation about the outside world. His ambition is to become a "salaryman;' hopefully at the big car company where his uncle works. It is a sensible ambition and Takashi's mind is already filled with some pretty clear notions about the steps he will have to undertake in order to fulfill his dream.

The two fictional youngsters, Fatima and Takashi live in highly divergent worlds shaped by the different socioeconomic structures of their respec tive societies, by contrasting demographic structures and trends, religious beliefs and customs, patterns of family life, gender-related ideologies, and the intermittent strife that has devastated too many families in the Valley of Kashmir but that finds only a dim echo in Japan's daily news. Whereas Fati ma's childhood and emerging adulthood is likely to follow a pattern shared by many other poor girls in low-income Muslim societies, Takashi is pur suing a path that, in its outlines, is shaped by Japan's increasingly global and secular "information society:' In this chapter, we are mostly concerned with the economic and demographic trends and forces that help determine the divergent developmental pathways of youths such as Fatima and Takashi. In addition, the reader may wish to consult the chapter by Poelker and Gib bons in this volume (chapter 10), which focuses on adolescents in low- and medium-income countries.

When we take into account the differences in children's social networks, we can observe two contrasting forms of social life emerge in the postindus trial countries and in the low-income countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Many children in the developing world live in semi-traditional yet steadily changing societies that place much emphasis on intricate family relationships, collectivistic patterns of living, early responsibility training for children, traditional gender roles, favoritism toward males, obedience and respect for elders, and the obligation of adolescents and young adults to marry early, be fruitful and contribute to the common good. Since fam ilies tend to be large, children are shaped in the image of comforting and caring siblings as part of a framework of intricate family relationships. The children are expected to learn values, norms, and social roles through task assignment, observation, admonition, and a kind of nonverbal and semi-verbal osmosis rather than through elaborate explanations by their parents.

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 65

In contrast, many children in the postindustrial countries in East Asia, Europe, and North America live in small families or single-parent house holds, may have divorced parents, interact with few or no siblings, occupy their own rooms, spend many years in educational institutions, are con tinuously exposed to consumerism and the mass media, are increasingly encouraged to pursue a path of individualistic self-actualization, and grow up in a world of contested and changing gender roles (for South Korean and Japanese families, see the chapter by Hyun, Nakazawa, D. W. Shwalb, & B. Shwalb, chapter 7, in this volume). Because these youngsters are living in societies placing a premium on innovation and change, they spend many years in school surrounded by peers who strive to create their own teenage culture, a culture that will nevertheless be outdated in the not-so-distant future.

Traditionally, American and European textbooks on childhood and adolescence have based their theories and findings on the study of mostly Western youths in the postindustrial countries. This holds true although the great majority of children live in the non-Western and developing countries, a trend that is bound to intensify in the future. In addition, the textbooks pay insufficient attention to the economic, demographic, and cultural forces that shape the lives of children. In contrast to this scenario, I present here a picture of global childhood as shaped by changing child hood mortality rates, varying fertility patterns, increasing life expectancies, and drastic differences in life chances between the poor, the in-between, and the rich countries. Some of these cross-national differences can be readily observed in the lives of Fatima and Takashi, since in one way or the other such differences manifest themselves on a daily basis all around the world.

The recognition of childhood as the basis of all later human develop ment has led to new ways of studying the situation of children on a global scale. Despite some encouraging efforts to increase the access of children and their parents to a stable food supply, safe water, health and educational services, while simultaneously reducing the spread of preventable diseases and protecting those in danger of exploitation, surviving the first years of life remains a challenge especially for the 900 million children who live in the world's least-developed countries. As societies are beginning to evolve in the new millennium, accelerated sociocultural change and increasing complexity in an integrated panorama of ecological, demographic, socioec onomic, and technological forces call for a greater investment in the world's next generation.

Drawing on data provided by UNESCO, the World Bank, the Popula tion Reference Bureau, Save the Children, and other sources, the goal of this chapter is to provide an overview of the current state of the world's children by focusing on worldwide economic and demographic disparities

66 Childhood and Adolescence

and trends. Ten countries representing major regions of the world have been selected on the basis of high population density. Comparing these countries in the context of global statistics, I trace selected trends regarding their economic performance, population increases, fertility and mortality rates, societal age structures, and the prevalence of child labor in many of the poor nations. Delineating these trends sets the stage for a better under standing of children's lives in a broad variety of sociocultural circumstances.

The quality of the data analyzed in this chapter varies considerably depending on the studied nations. When comparing various demographic statistics, estimates and projections, I observed some discrepancies between various sources and dealt with them according to my best judg ment. On the whole, demographic and economic information proves most reliable for the industrialized countries but is sometimes subject to con flicting interpretations and doubt for the poorer countries. This holds espe cially true for information on children's literacy rates, enrollment figures in educational institutions, and illegal activities such as exposing young child laborers to hazardous conditions.

TEN COUNTRIES AND THEIR CHILDREN

Understanding the situation of the children in the early stages of the 21st century must begin with a systematic analysis of the global tapestry. The disparities across world regions are evident with the combined population of the world's rich countries constituting only a quarter of that of the poor countries. According to projections by the United Nations, during the next few decades, the world is anticipated to witness rapid population growth so that its projected population will reach 9-11 billion around the year 2050. Ninety-seven percent of the population increase is expected to take place in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, whose pop ulations are rising by more than 70 million annually. During the same time period, many European nations are expected to experience a population decline in spite of considerable immigration from the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere.

In 2012 an estimated 2.2 billion children under the age of 18 lived in the world. Of these 1,152 million could be found in Asia, 477 million in Africa, 196 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 203 million in industri alized countries, 153 million in the Middle East and North Africa, and 96 million in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Inde pendent States (CEE/CIS Region). Strikingly, well over 85% of all children and adolescents are part of the largely non-European, nonwhite majority population in the Majority World (also called Third World or low- and medium-income countries), and that proportion has been steadily increas ing. It is projected that India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia, and Nigeria (and

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 67

then the United States) will contribute the most to population growth in the coming half-century. The United States is, indeed, among the very few fully industrialized countries whose population is projected to grow stead ily during the next 50 years, due both to immigration and a higher (though declining) fertility rate than is found in most other postmodern societies.

Figure 3.1 depicts child populations for the year 2012 for the follow ing 10 countries: India, China, Indonesia, Nigeria, United States, Brazil, Egypt, Russia, Japan, and Germany. Taken together, these nations mirror not only much of the diversity of humanity but they are also the most pop ulous countries in their respective regions. The following section briefly describes these representative countries, which are ordered from most to least populous with respect to the number of children living in them together with some pressing issues faced by each nation.

The world's largest democracy, India, is expected to become the world's most populous nation around the year 2045. Despite India's uneven economic growth since it gained its independence in 1947, its gross domes tic product (GDP) per capita and its school enrollment rates remain low. India's total population increased by 126% between 1975 and 2013. This high population growth rate is too fast for the country's expanding infra structure to accommodate people's needs and ensure adequate living stand ards. Moreover, a third of the total population cannot afford regular meals. Shortages of adequate drinking water breed intestinal ailments and other diseases, which in turn contribute to rather high infant mortality rates. India's average life expectancy rate of 66 years remains below the world's average. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 28%, 66%, and 6% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014).

China, the world's third-largest country and its most populous nation, is located in East Asia. According to most estimates, it has the world's second-largest GDP. (Some recent estimates place China first as long as the respective GDPs of China and the United States are adjusted for unrealistic currency exchange rates and discrepancies in purchasing power.) Over the past 35 years, China's economy has moved from a Soviet-style collectiv istic system toward more decentralized economic decision making. And although the more liberal economic policies, which were introduced in the 1980s, have greatly strengthened the nation's economy, its GDP per capita remains fairly low for the region. This trend is characterized in part by the fact that despite the country's industrial expansion and urbanization, close to half of the Chinese population still lives in villages and small towns with a limited food supply for the numerous inhabitants. Marked by an average life expectancy of 75 years, China's youths are those under 18 years of age who make up close to one-third of the total population. During 1975-2013, and despite its (only partially) realized one-child-per-family policy, China's total population increased by 70%. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and

4,782 NIGERIA 85,406

Figure 3.1 Population (in Thousands) under 18* in 10 Representative Countries (2012)

Notes; World population under 18 in 2012: 2,213,677,000.

*A child who celebrates his or her 18th birthday is considered to be an adult by UNICEF.

Source: UNICEF (2014).

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 69

65-over are 17%, 73%, and 9% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014).

Indonesia is by far the largest country lying off the Southeast Asian coast. Eighty-seven percent of its predominantly Muslim population resides in overpopulated Java, the most habitable of Indonesia's over 13,600 islands. In response to improved health care and living conditions, a moderately high rate of population growth since 1960s has been affected by an increase in the average life expectancy and a corresponding decline in infant mortal ity rates. Nonetheless, fertility rates are also declining due to the diffusion of family planning services, birth control, and later marriages. Between 1975 and 2013, Indonesia's total population increased by 111%. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 26%, 67%, and 6% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014).

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation with one of the world's highest natural population growth rates that is fueled by a very high fertility rate (6.0 children per woman). The country's demographic trends reflect those of a developing nation. Nigeria's total population mushroomed between 1975 and 2013 and increased by 202%. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 43%, 54%, and 3% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). Nigeria's life expectancy (52 years) is much lower than the world's average. One of the fundamental issues in Nigeria concerns the scarcity of adequate health services: Significant num bers of people die from preventable diseases such as malaria and tuber culosis. In addition, there are more than 1.5 million of AIDS orphans in the country. The nation's low GDP per capita leaves a large percentage of the Nigerian population in poverty. Unfortunately, frequent violent alter cations over access to water and valuable resources, religious tensions, and the high levels of political corruption contribute to the country's overall socioeconomic and political instability.

Rapid advancement in technology and steady market growth became the symbols of the world's foremost industrial power, the United States, which occupies the middle of the North American continent. The coun try's total population with its highly diverse ethnic origins increased by 53% between 1975 and 2013. A largely free-enterprise market economy contrib utes to the country's GDP per capita, which is among the highest among the world's major countries. The nation's excellent health services maintain high life expectancy, although they do not necessarily reach every person, especially among the urban and rural poor. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 19%, 66%, and 14% of the total population, respec tively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014).

By far the largest and most populous country in South America, with a population of approximately 199 million, Brazil occupies a greater land mass than the combined whole of the rest of the continent. Its substantial

70 Childhood and Adolescence

migration from rural to urban areas exerts a direct influence on the nation's declining birth rate. This holds particularly true for the cities given that urban people constitute more than three-fourths of Brazil's total popula tion. There has been a 109% increase in Brazil's total population between 1975 and 2013. Rapid population growth, however, is to some degree affected by moderately high mortality rates due to AIDS, malnutrition, and inadequate health care services, which vary according to the average income and remoteness of regions. As a consequence, Brazil's life expec tancy (74 years) is slightly lower than that of China (75 years), Argentina (76 years) or Mexico (77 years) (UNICEF, 2014). The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 24%, 69%, and 8% of the total population, re spectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). The country's prospects for dynamic economic advancement are undermined by foreign debts, political corruption, tax evasion, enormous economic disparities between the rich and the poor, and widespread poverty. Nevertheless, the nation's develop ing market economy, which is based primarily on manufacture, financial services, agriculture, and trade, contributes to one of the highest GDP per capita among South American countries. Furthermore, Latin American countries such as Brazil and Mexico have in recent years made important advances toward improving children's health and education levels.

Since Egypt acquired full sovereignty in 1953, it has played a leading role in the Arab affairs of the Middle East. Egypt with its Nile-dependent agricultural sector and industrial foundation has the largest population in the Arab World and also in Northern Africa. Close to half of the Egyp tians reside in rural areas and contribute to the country's high annual pop ulation growth. A closer look at the nation's religious structure provides a lucid explanation for a large and rapidly growing nation, which increases by more than one million every eight months (UNICEF, 2014): It is estimated that more than 90% of the population are Muslims (Ahmed, 2005). The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 32%, 63%, and 5% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). A 129% increase occurred in the country's total population between 1975 and 2013. A 1999 survey indicated that 50 percent of the young people between 20 and 25 years of age had never been married because of economic difficulties (Ahmed, 2005). The educational background of women has been identified as a major determinant in decisions made by these young people (Ahmed, 1991). Overall, life expectancy has been improving since the 1990s and fertility rates have been declining (Ahmed, 2005). Egypt's comparatively high (by world standards) infant mortality rate is complemented by a sharp increase in the number of people emigrating in their search for employ ment elsewhere. The country's GDP per capita remains low in comparison with most non-African countries and the oil-rich Arab nations to its east.

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 71

Russia is the world's largest country and the ninth most populous nation. A striking demographic feature since the 1940s is the decline in birth rates. Russia's total population increased by only 10% between 1975 and 2013. Nonetheless, the country's GDP per capita fails to sustain its population. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 16%, 70%, and 13% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). The average life expectancy (68 years) is lower than the world's average. As a result of fundamental political changes including the conversion of its for mer centrally planned economic system into a market economy, a notice able deterioration in living standards was experienced by many members of the Russian population in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. As a direct consequence, individuals seek out opportunities for higher salaries and professional advancement elsewhere, thus triggering the exodus of the younger population from the motherland. Although migration rates have been gradually falling since 1995, the decline does not counterbalance the natural population decrease due to low birth rates.

As the world's third most powerful economy, Japan until the early 1990s experienced a dynamic post-World War II economic growth rate but has since experienced periods of economic stagnation. Characterized by high population density, Japan has a very high GDP per capita, very high living standards, and an advanced health care system. Indeed, Japan's average life expectancy of 83 years is the highest of any of the world's major countries. The country's demographic trends are similar to those of other technolog ically advanced nations: There was a 23% increase in Japan's total popula tion between 1975 and 2013. A dramatic decline in birth and death rates is reflected in the ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over, which are 13%, 61%, and 25% of the total population, respectively (Central Intelli gence Agency, 2014). The decline reflects the effects of the Japanese family's transformation (Naito & Gielen, 2005) and makes Japan one of the "oldest" societies on earth.

Germany, a major country of Central Europe, has one of the world's most technologically powerful and export-oriented economies. As the most pop ulous and one of the richest nations of Western Europe, Germany's GDP per capita is among the world's highest. The country's total population has increased by 6% between 1975 and 2013. More than 85% of all Germans live in urban settings. Germany's population has a long life expectancy, a nega tive annual population growth, and a very low birth rate when compared to the rest of the world. The ratios for the ages 0-14, 15-64, and 65-over are 13%, 66%, and 21 %of the total population, respectively ( Central Intelligence Agency, 2014). At the current rate of growth, one of the many challenges faced by the German society today concerns a disproportionate aging to young population ratio-as it holds true for most European societies.

% of Total Population

45 41

Low-Income Middle-Income High-Income World Countries Countries Countries

■ Population under age 15 ■ Population aged 65 and above

Figure 3.2 Percentage of Children ( <15 Years) and Aged ( 65+ Years) in Low-, Middle-, High-Income Countries, and the World in 2010

Source: Population Reference Bureau (2012, p. 10). 2012 World population data sheet.

Table 3.1 Economic and Demographic Indicators of 10 Selected Countries in 2012

Total GDP per GDP per Life Fertility Population Capita Capita Expectancy Rates (per (in millions) (PPP US$)• (US$) (in years) woman)

USA 317.5 50,610 50,120 79 2.0 Japan 127.3 36,320 47,870 83 1.4 Germany 82.8 41,370 44,010 81 1.4 Russiah 143.2 22,760 12,700 68 1.5 Brazil 198.7 11,720 11,630 74 1.8 China 1,377.1 9,210 5,740 75 1.7 Egypt 80.7 6,640 3,000 71 2.8 Indonesia 246.9 4,810 3,420 71 2.4 India 1,236.7 3,840 1,530 66 2.5 Nigeria 168.8 2,420 1,430 52 6.0

•PPP (purchasing power parity): A rate of exchange that accounts for price differences across coun- tries, allowing international comparisons of real output and incomes: PPP US$1 has the same pur- chasing power in the domestic economy as $1 has in the United States.

hRussian Federation.

Source: Adopted from The State ofthe World 2014 in Numbers: Every Child Counts (2014).

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 73

As has already been mentioned, close to 99% of the world population growth takes place in the developing nations, whereas Europe and several East Asian countries are characterized by fewer births than deaths each year. The rich nations are also older with a much smaller percentage of chil dren under 15 as opposed to the poor countries (Figure 3.2). Such dramatic changes in the composition of the world population place heavy demands on adequate health care, social support systems, and public education in the poorer nations. Increases in life expectancy have been driven by technolog ical advances in medicine, thus augmenting a palpable gap between the industrialized world and various poor countries such as Nigeria (Table 3.1). Data provided in Figure 3.3 show that in 2010, the overall under-five mor tality rate in high income countries was only 5.5% of that in the low-income countries although the rates have been declining worldwide.

Mortality Rates

240

Low-Income Middle-Income High-Income World Countries Countries Countries

I 1970 2010

Figure 3.3 Under-Five Mortality Rates {per 1,000 Live Births) in 1970 and 2010: Low-, Middle-, High-Income Countries, and the World Source: UNICEF (2012, p. 83). 1he state ofthe world's children.

74 Childhood and Adolescence

SOCIO-DEMOGRAPHIC FACTORS AND CHILDREN'S LIVES

Economic Indicators

The demographics of the world are closely related to the countries' over all economic status (Table 3.1). Given the dramatic impact of socioeco nomic status on children's welfare, it is important to focus on the economic conditions prevailing in a particular country rather than its geographic location. Although all communities follow certain guidelines for chil drearing practices, children's well-being depends to an important degree on their residence in a wealthy or a poor community. The United Nations classifies the world's countries into four categories: low-income countries (GNI per capita is $1,035 or less), lower-middle-income countries (GNI per capita is $1,036 to $4,085), upper-middle-income countries (GNI per capita is $4,086 to $12, 615), and high-income countries (GNI per capita is at least $12,616) (UNICEF, 2014). However, due to the different exchange rates and the variety of native currencies, it seems preferable to refer to the "gross domestic product per capita" (GDP) indicator when adjusted for purchasing power (see Table 3.1).

Table 3.1 shows the economic patterns for the 10 countries ranging from the highest GDP per capita (USA: US$ 50,610) to the lowest GDP per cap ita (Nigeria: US$ 2,420). With this background, it is possible to contrast different nations against one another for the purpose of shedding light on some of the main factors affecting children's well-being. For example, by taking India's and Japan's GDPs into account, we can predict that Japanese children have concrete chances of survival and productive adulthood as opposed to India's many undernourished children who are also much less likely to attend school. In addition, child labor remains a common practice in India. Thus, allocation of resources and their variations from country to country are fundamental to the newborn's well-being. Essentially, parental investment of time, energy, and resources determines the child's chances for a healthy future.

Fertility Rates

Birth rates and their trends provide the most useful indicators for offer ing insights into the future levels of population (Table 3.1). Fertility rates vary tremendously across countries and world regions (Figure 3.4). In 2013, the total lifetime number of children born per woman ranged from 1.1 children per woman in wealthy Taiwan to 7.6 children in desperately poor Niger (Africa) (Population Reference Bureau, 2014). Thus, as fertility rates steadily decline in both middle-income and high-income countries, poor countries, particularly in the sub-Saharan region, contribute the most to the world population growth. This is true although a rampant AIDS epi demic tends to reduce population increases especially in southern Africa.

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 75

Fertility Rates

5.76

Low-Income Middle-Income High-Income World Countries Countries Countries

I 197()..1975 2010

Figure 3.4 Total Fertility Rates in 1970-1975 and 2010 in Low-, Middle-, High-Income Countries, and the World

Source: UNDP (2002, p.165) and UNICEF (2014, p.111). The state ofthe world's children.

The foregoing suggests that children born in industrialized nations with much smaller family sizes are likely to experience different family influ ences, types of threats to their physical health, developmental changes, and cultural- and gender-related pressures when compared to children born in developing countries. Therefore, approaching the topic of female fertility through a multidisciplinary perspective including considerations derived from evolutionary theory promotes understanding of the evolved mecha nisms of parents' investments into their reproductive patterns that strongly influence differences in fertility (Blurton-Jones, 1989).

76 Childhood and Adolescence

Between 1970 and 2010, both children's under-five mortality rates and women's fertility rates declined steadily in most countries around the world. As indicated in Figure 3.3, the reduction in children's deaths before the age of 5 was especially dramatic in the developing middle-income countries but also quite substantial in the very poor nations. Moreover, as shown in Figure 3.4, the decline in women's fertility rates was most dramatic in the middle-income countries but less substantial in the low-income countries. In almost all high-income countries, fertility rates have dropped below the so-called "replacement rate" of 2.1 children per woman per lifetime.

Various sociocultural forces play an important role in determining the average number of children a woman can bear in an age-specific group (United Nations Development Programme, 2002). Many cultures, for example, hold a traditional view that the number of children (and espe cially boys) determines the value of a woman-that is, her social status and her contribution to the welfare of the group. Such pronatalist ide ologies are especially prevalent in many African and Muslim societies. It is believed that having large numbers of children will increase the likelihood that one's family will succeed in the search for economic and social stability as well as social status. In contrast, the vast majority of young people in the industrialized countries delay getting married and having children since they believe that receiving college and university degrees will strongly improve one's chance of securing a well-paid and intrinsically rewarding professional position. In many postmodern coun tries, the number and percentage of adults living in one-person house holds has dramatically increased over the past few decades (Klinenberg, 2013). For instance, in Japan, the young generation has been postponing the actual creation of a family in contradiction to long-standing societal norms emphasizing family life. Recent reports by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare document a clear increase in the median age of first marriage for women (from 25 in 1975 to 29 in 2012). Another example in this category is Germany where the average woman gets mar ried at age 30.5. To counteract such trends, and after the number of births had fallen to a 14-year low in 2002, the government of wealthy Singa pore initiated a national campaign to encourage people t~ fall in love, tie the knot, and have babies. Singapore's fertility rate, however, stubbornly remains at a very low level, namely, below 1.3 children per woman per lifetime (UNICEF, 2014).

When we travel to almost any low-income country, the picture is reversed. Here socioeconomic insecurity is translated into both early mar riages and the early onset of reproduction. As Table 3.1 indicates, the cor relation between poverty and high fertility rates across the world's nations is pronounced. In Nigeria, for instance, the total fertility rate is 6.0 and the gross national income per capita is US$ 1,430. Conversely, Western Europe

The Changing Lives nf 2.2 Billion Children 77

has a total fertility rate of 1.7 with a GNI per capita of US$ 42,220 (Popula tion Reference Bureau, 2014).

Various authors have analyzed fertility patterns within the framework of various cultural barriers, such as social customs and taboos. A number of intriguing findings originate in the analysis of birth intervals. Given that the physiological cost of having a boy is greater to the mother than the cost of having a girl, Blanchard and Bogaert (1997) report that birth intervals are longer following a male child rather than a female child. A study by Nath, Leonetti, and Steele (1999) demonstrates that the estimated relative risks of shorter birth intervals are increased for an Indian mother belong ing to middle, poor, and very poor income groups, when compared to the upper-income group mothers. Furthermore, it was also found that higher fertility was associated with compensating effects of having older relatives, especially grandmothers, in the households.

In China, after decades of encouraging reproduction under the rule of Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (Zedong) (1893-1976), the government informed its people about the importance of family planning due to an expected pop ulation increase to 1.5-1.6 billion by the year 2050. The (partial) implemen tation of the One-Child Policy has become a controversial topic despite its major goals of fighting the widespread poverty that existed and ensuring the overall quality of life. According to this plan, most families should have only one child, although in many rural areas, the average number of babies born per woman is closer to two. Moreover, China's government is now reconsidering its One-Child Policy because the country's population has been aging steadily.

Generally, a second child born without a paid permission hardly exists in the legal sense and, therefore, faces numerous obstacles in seeking ways to advance in life. It is illegal for unmarried Chinese women to bear children (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2000). Fur thermore, Chinese women are reportedly sterilized or forced to abort a pregnancy (USCR, 2002). Many critics of the One-Child Policy believe that the long-standing preference for boys has made female infanticide more common. Although the Maternal and Child Health Care Law forbids the use of ultrasound to identify female fetuses and terminate pregnancies, many families, especially in the rural areas, resort to this procedure to meet the demands of labor and of traditional cultural expectations (Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 2000). Similar preferences for boys over girls have been reported for various Southeast Asian countries such as Bangladesh where, as a consequence, a disproportionate number of male babies are allowed to enter world. In contrast, many female babies are aborted. Other female children are omitted from national census figures because families try to hide them from authority figures or because they are considered unimportant.

78 Childhood and Adolescence

Mortality Rates

In areas characterized by high infant mortality rates (e.g., Nigeria: 78 infant deaths per thousand below 1 year of age), individuals tend to pro duce more offspring than individuals in areas with low infant mortality rates (e.g., Germany: 3 infant deaths/below 1 year of age) (UNICEF, 2014). Despite an impressive record of reduced infant mortality rates through out the world due to increasingly widespread immunization for preventa ble diseases, malnutrition, unsanitary conditions, HIV/AIDS, and violent conflicts continue to have a detrimental impact on lower-income countries especially in sub-Saharan Africa. One consequence of the pervasive HIV/ AIDS crisis in African countries such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and Lesotho is a very high number of orphaned children. Most of them will face an exceedingly difficult future. for instance, an estimated 15 million children in sub-Saharan Africa had lost at least one parent due to AIDS by 2000-2001. Consequently, average life expectancy hovers around 50 years in some African countries such as Lesotho, South Africa, and Swaziland, thereby reversing decades of improvement in health services.

On a more positive note, the world's under-five infant mortality rate (Figure 3.3) declined dramatically between 1990 and 2012 (from 90 to 48 deaths per thousand births), with corresponding changes occurring in every region of the world (Save the Children, 2015; UNICEF, 2014). One of the major factors contributing to such an effect appears to be education, especially that of mothers (Singh & Gielen, 1995). Generally, it is assumed that high rates of low birth weight result from mothers' low educational achievement and inadequate nutritional and prenatal care, which usually go hand-in-hand with various socioeconomic pressures.

Literacy

Current indicators provide somewhat conflicting evidence on the num ber of children enrolled in primary and secondary institutions (see United Nations Development Programme, 2014; Wagner, Zahra, & Lee, chapter 4, this volume). There are, however, indications of a steady rise in school enrollment rates; at present approximately 91 % of the world's younger chil dren go to school. Overall, literacy rates in industrialized countries such as Japan and Germany are much higher than in lower-income nations such as Nigeria and India. While the majority of developed countries are very close to achieving universal school enrollment, too many children in the low-income nations, especially girls, are still deprived of access to educa tion. The majority of out-of-school youths can be found in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, regions where gender disparities in schooling are also likely to be most pronounced (Wagner, Zahra, & Lee, chapter 4, in this volume). Nevertheless, most countries have reduced

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 79

gender gaps in education although in some Islamic countries and regions such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern Nigeria, violent opposition against girls' education has increased substantially. In contrast, in many of the industrialized countries girls are less likely to drop out of high school and college than boys. For the first time in history, women in the younger generations now tend to be better educated than men in various industrial ized countries such as the United States.

The significant differences in fertility rates that have been found between urban and rural women are often a consequence of corresponding differ ences in levels of female education. Furthermore, children born to women with prenatal care have a greater chance of surviving the first year of life. Unfortunately, too often the social setting dictates whether or not children receive adequate education. In India, for example, many girls internalize the expectations imposed upon them by a patriarchally oriented society, learn to master household tasks, and become child caretakers (Saraswathi, 2000). In this scenario, boys enjoy the privilege of being a male child with tangible opportunities for academic achievement as opposed to girls. Sim ilarly, in Mali, West Africa, children are generally cared for by their older siblings, while girls around the age of 7 already take on the majority of household chores (Dettwyler, 1994). According to KIDS COUNT (Popu lation Reference Bureau, 2000), the birth rate for mothers who have not completed high school is four times higher in the poorest communities than in the wealthiest countries.

The 2014 World Population Data Sheet identifies India as the world's second most populous nation and it is expected to become a leader in this category by 2045. Although India had originally been a pioneer in imple menting a family planning program (1952), the country's annual popula tion growth had reached 15.5 million by the late 1990s. In response, the Indian Government devised the National Population Policy to gain control over the country's population growth consistent with its socioeconomic development goals. The policy aims at reaching the replacement-level fer tility rate and achieving universal standards of public health, sanitation, civil and social services, immunization, and education. Since many Indian women do not regulate their reproductive behavior, the policy also cap tures the importance of educating both women and men about effective family planning. However, recent indications are that fertility rates even among the poorer women have been rapidly declining in some southern states like Kerala and Tamil N adu. In contrast, the decline has been less in the already overpopulated and desperately poor northern states such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Going to school and becoming fully literate has numerous and mostly positive consequences for children's life chances and their ways of think ing and being. By way of contrast, illiteracy and semi-literacy in today's world condemns a youngster to a life of physical toil, economic hardship,

80 Childhood and Adolescence

exploitation by others, lower life expectancy, ignorance about family plan ning, and exclusion from numerous sources of information. Whereas informal education is embedded in family life and the child's round of daily activities, formal education is set apart from the context of his or her everyday life and takes place under the impersonal guidance of experts who are expected to impart superior knowledge and skills (Greenfield & Lave, 1982). Formal education makes the child aware of faraway worlds and new ways of thinking, thereby implicitly supporting challenges to traditional values and lifeways. Most adolescents know that education is their ticket for a more prosperous, exciting, and satisfying future. It allows them to par ticipate in the creation of a new and increasingly globalized world, however strife-torn it may turn out to be. Child labor, in contrast, enmeshes them in self-perpetuating cycles of poverty.

CHILD LABOR

An Overview

Many reports illustrate a clear relationship between low socioeconomic status and school dropout rates both within and across countries (UNICEF, 2014). In societies where people depend on economic subsistence, many children provide an extra set of helpful hands for the most part of the day, thus failing to enjoy the immediate fruits of primary education, which pro vides the fundamentals of literacy and other skills for a productive future. If successful integration into the developing economy and having an educated citizenry are essential goals of almost all the nations around the world, then a new workforce must be fully equipped with the applicable reading and writing as well as social and vocational skills.

For instance, following Indonesia's economic crisis in the late 1990s, it became very difficult for farming families to survive without children's assistance. According to a UNICEF report, multiple threats to basic soci oeconomic conditions of the world's fourth-most populous nation began to present a state of dire emergency. Millions of children dropped out of school in those years to earn a living on the streets (United Nations Children Fund, 2000). Apparently, the number of teenage prostitutes also increased during those years. More recently, however, Indonesia has resumed eco nomic growth and is again sending an increasing percentage of its children to school.

Child Labor: A Global Picture

The International Labour Office (2013) and UNICEF (2015) have esti mated that in 2012-2014, an estimated 150-168 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 were engaged in some form of full-time labor, including

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 81

some 50 million children between the ages of 5 and 14. These numbers amount to 10%-11% of the world's child population. In sub-Saharan Africa, an estimated 21 % of all children are engaged in child labor. Approximately 53% of the world's child laborers are exposed to hazardous conditions com promising their physical, mental, social, and educational development. Most of these children take part in various activities related to intensive manual labor.

Knowledge of the selective forces that have been related to child labor can help clarify their catalytic traits within the framework of a particular socioeconomic milieu. In agricultural societies, for instance, even young children are expected to contribute to the welfare of the family and the community. The evidence for certain factors leading to child exploitation has been abundantly discussed in the literature (International Labour Office, 2013; Kannan, 2014; Seabrook, 2001). However, although many thousands of cases have been recorded and analyzed, they represent a con troversial matter-controversial in terms of the opposing views held by the families, NGOs, and the child workers themselves.

In its search for socioemotional stability, the young generation often identifies itself by the way it contributes to the socioeconomic produc tivity of their community. Many societies view child labor as a common social obligation and in some instances, children do not define what they do as work since their family's poverty does not leave them with much choice. A good number of the children, however, end up in bondage to ruthless employers, in outright slavery, or as teenage prostitutes; .others are abducted by force or else are being enticed through promises of food and clothes (Faleiro, 2011; Onishi, 2001; see also the respective chapters by Sigal et al. and Aptekar & Oliver, chapters 14 and 15, respectively, in this volume). HIV infection is a constant threat to child-prostitutes, and many of them will die young.

Child labor can be a delicate issue and as such it must be examined within the normative frameworks and economic realities of the respec tive societies in which it occurs. Scheper-Hughes (1992), for instance, describes a poverty-stricken region of northeastern Brazil, where chil dren are most often raised in single-parent families. Their mothers are low-paid laborers on sugar plantations or serve as maids or as other domestics, but are themselves unable to pay for caretakers. Consequently, older children must assume major responsibilities at an earlier age and learn how to watch their younger siblings or start earning money for the family. A similar situation prevails in many other poor regions of the world including many regions in sub-Saharan Africa and on the Indian subcontinent.

The fact that many products and services produced by the children in the developing nations are being consumed in the market economies ofwealthy nations has important implications. Essentially, living in a competitive

82 Childhood and Adolescence

environment requires a great deal of physical energy and a quick ability to resist the harsh and callous surroundings. In view of the many children who need to work in hazardous conditions in order to increase their and their family's chances of physical and economic survival, it is necessary to understand that although many domestic employers profit more than their vulnerable workers, they themselves are nonetheless governed by the fre quently whimsical forces of the global market.

Employers, of course, have always been interested in pursuing wealth that could be acquired in a rapid and cost-effective way. Seabrook (2001) identifies several characteristics of international child employment includ ing being paid by completed piece, fulfilling the duties of a domestic serv ant, or serving as an apprentice free of charge. It is implied that in exchange for their labor, children receive priceless practical experience and moral education. However, in reality, children form a major portion of the labor force that is engaged in hazardous activities including handling chemicals and other toxins, working in factories, glass manufacturing, stone quar ries, construction, mines, dumps, and mills (Seabrook, 2001). As children, furthermore, they are least likely to be able to resist exploitation, sexual advances by employers without a conscience, and exposure to toxic envi ronments. In far too many cases, children's working conditions in the poorer countries resemble the exploitative conditions described by Charles Dickens and others for 19th-century England. Indeed, historical accounts of the nature of childhood in the Western countries prior to World War I (e.g., Hiner, 1991) suggest many parallels to the childhood conditions depicted in this chapter for the present-day low-income and developing countries.

Although much of their time is spent in the deceptively firm and haz ardous working environments, the children's lives are also defined by soci etal values and family obligations. Those nations that are both poor and embrace collectivistic values are likely to have the largest number of child workers. In terms of regional incidence, the child-to-work ratio is the high est in sub-Saharan Africa and in the poorer regions of South Asia.

The failure to promptly educate the youth can only be partially attrib uted to families' lack of financial resources necessary to compensate for the absence of their school-going children and the additional expenses for the "students:' Yet there is another side to the issue in question. The conspic uous remarks of the employers, the families, and the children themselves indicate their mutual reluctance to give up valuable labor time in favor of education. Their argument appears to be even more pertinent in light of a high unemployment rate among school graduates in many parts of the world (Seabrook, 2001). In fact, a frequently voiced argument states that when daily work occupies millions of "less-fortunate" children, it keeps their minds focused on something "constructive" rather than "deviant:' It is

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 83

common for many tourists, local police, and ordinary citizens, who regu larly pass by the clusters of fragile bodies forming the contours of the city's pavements, to view street children as "antisocial" or criminal elements (Aptekar & Oliver, chapter 15, this volume). In and around Rio de Janei ro's violentfavelas (slums), for instance, it is not uncommon for police and members of unofficial militias to shoot street children on some pretext or other (The Economist, March 20, 2014).

Furthermore, most families wish to provide their children with certain skills essential to their survival in the immediate environment. Thus, a farmer would teach his children how to cultivate the land, distinguish good seeds from the bad ones, harness the power of domestic animals, and inter pret the weather (Seabrook, 2001). An opposed view would be that educa tional attainment initiates socioeconomic advancement. However, cultural norms dictate specific guidelines for one's contribution to the welfare of the social group and thus monitor the citizens' personal development.

Although the realization and optimization of basic human rights such as the right to education evolves according to a historical process, instant "solutions" proposed by outsiders to the problem of child labor can prove ineffective and impractical when compared to steady improvements in a society's economic performance and the growth of shared cultural under standings about how precious childreh and their education are. The basic dilemma involved in child labor has been stated as follows: If you stop child labor, you stop the most important human right of all-the right to survive. If, however, you ensure decent wages for adults and/or provide financial support to poor families, they will not need to send their children to work (Bhuiyan, as cited in Seabrook, 2001).

In recent decades, considerable efforts have been undertaken in various countries to reduce the number of children forced to engage in full-time child labor by enrolling them instead in school. In Brazil, for instance, the large-scale and effective Bolsa Familia social welfare program covered 26% of the country's population in the year 2011. The program stipulates that in exchange for conditional cash transfers, poor families participating in it must ensure that their young children are vaccinated and attend school on a regular basis rather than working full time. Similar programs have also been instituted in other Latin American countries.

In India, Kailash Satyarthi, the co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, and his Bachpan Bachao Andolan ("Save the Childhood Movement") have been attacking the "scourge of child labor" (his words) since 1980-and with considerable success. Declaring in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize that he represented "the sound of silence, the cry of innocence, and the face of invisibility;' he has freed more than 80,000 children from the bondage of child labor (Doherty, 2014). The Brazilian and Indian exam ples suggest that sustained organizational efforts can be quite successful in

84 Childhood and Adolescence

reducing the incidence of heavy child labor; indeed, the worldwide down ward trend of child labor in recent years has been quite encouraging in this respect (International Labour Office, 2013). However, in the three coun tries of Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan an estimated 22 million primary school children-including a disproportionate number of girls-still are not attending school (Doherty, 2014). In addition, these countries are centers of national and international human trafficking that includes the abduction of numerous children for purposes of child labor and child prostitution-as it also holds true for various countries in Africa and the Middle East (Bat stone, 2010; United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2014).

ARRIVING AT THE BIG PICTURE

In the foregoing we have seen that the dramatic demographic and eco nomic changes of the past 30-40 years have led to divergent physical and social environments for children and adolescents living, respectively, in the poor, the intermediate, and the wealthy nations. Inevitably, these changes are intertwined with dramatic cultural shifts redefining what childhood, adolescence, and parenthood are, can be, and should be. Basic family struc tures, gender roles, parental ethnotheories and childrearing ideologies, sib ling relationships, educational expectations by both parents and children, child labor, consumption patterns, dating practices (if any), adolescents' thoughts about their identities and their possible futures, youths' expo sure to both local and global mass media are all undergoing economically induced but culturally structured shifts and redefinitions.

To illustrate such changes let us focus for a moment on the most basic question underlying parenthood: Why do parents wish to have children at all, and why do they want either many or only a few children (Kagitc;:iba~i, 2007)? In traditional agricultural and urban settings, parents tend to see children as an insurance that somebody will take care of them in their old age. Given the absence of acceptable social security systems in most of these societies, and given the high mortality rates of both children and adults, being parent to a large number of children is likely to protect one against the possibility of economic destitution and a life of isolation and loneliness. At the same time, children, from early on, can contribute their labor as babysitters for their younger siblings, as water carriers, as workers in the fields, in commercial enterprises, as shoe polishers or small-scale traders in the streets, or as maids in other families' homes. In such a situ ation, to be the parent of many children is truly seen as a blessing. When, for instance, poor Somali Muslim mothers were asked how many children they wished to have, several answered: As many as possible-and their actions matched their sentiments (Dybdahl & Hundeide, 1998).

In contrast, middle-class parents in postindustrial societies frequently state that they value their children because they provide emotional companionship

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 85

rather than economic support. Indeed, in the modern world, bringing up children and sending them to school for many years is quite expensive, and most families can afford only a few children if they wish to protect their own living standards. Given the widespread introduction of pension and old-age insurance systems, and unlike in many of the poor countries, adult children are in most cases not asked to support their parents financially, although middle-aged persons (especially women) are increasingly confronted with the task of taking care of parents suffering from Alzheimer's disease, senil ity, and other debilitating diseases. In addition, numerous females who have been entering higher educational institutions are postponing childbearing. Others remain single or choose not to .have any children (Klinenberg, 2013). We find, consequently, that the higher the percentage of females enrolled in primary, secondary, and tertiary educational institutions and the greater their orientation toward pursuing a career, the lower a country's birthrate. Indeed, the fertility rates for almost all East Asian and European societies are well below the so-called replacement rate (an average of2.1 children per woman per lifetime in industrialized societies).

Drastic redefinitions of gender roles, the desirability of motherhood, redefinitions of fatherhood, and gender-related authority patterns typically accompany the declining birthrates (Hyun et al., chapter 7, this volume). Feminist ideologies have sprung up among the elite women of the West, are now readily endorsed by otherwise conventional college women, and are increasingly spreading to well-educated, Westernized women in the developing world. In contrast, such ideologies have found only a weak echo among the poor and uneducated women in nonwestern countries who, instead, are involved in a harsh struggle for survival.

Based on the foregoing discussions, Table 3.2 compares, in summary form, worldwide differences in children's environments between the poor and the wealthy countries.

These differences are presented in ideal-type form; that is, worldwide trends are condensed into a snapshot emphasizing contrasting economic conditions, fertility and mortality patterns, family structures, childrearing goals, gender roles, schooling and labor practices, relationships between the generations, the role of peer groups, and other relevant factors influ encing the development of children. It is postulated that economic and demographic forces have a powerful impact on the differences depicted in Table 3.2. Without denying the importance of religious, secular, and culture-specific belief systems for the upbringing of children, it is further assumed that the belief systems are themselves highly responsive to eco nomic and demographic conditions and changes, although there is often a lag between evolving economic conditions and subsequent cultural trans formations. In addition, the forces of globalization as well as rapid changes in technology are now exerting a major influence on the lives, attitudes, and preferences of adolescents in the majority world.

Table 3.2 Comparison of Children's Environments in Traditional Low- and Postmodern High-Income Countries

Poor Traditional Postmodern Wealthy Countries Countries

Societies Economic basis of Agriculture; subsistence Information and service society farming; trade; some industries; extensive

manufacturing; the few manufacturing; small nomadic and isolated agricultural sector; global foraging societies are now trade fading away; extensive migration to the cities and their slums accelerates socioeconomic change

Division of labor Limited division of labor, Extreme sociocultural rather homogenous society heterogeneity: more than

200,000 different job titles in United States

Societal complexity; Lower complexity High complexity especially rural vs. urban areas especially in rural areas in the numerous urban

areas Life expectancy and High but declining child Very low child mortality mortality rates mortality rates; low life rates; very high life

expectancy expectancy Impact of external/ Increasing, often indirect Powerful and direct global influences Speed of societal change Slow but steadily increasing Very rapid Balance between Tradition emphasized High rate of cultural change tradition and innovation but increasing exposure favors innovation over

to innovation often tradition; in many Islamic introduced from abroad countries struggle between

tradition, modernity, and religious "truth"

Gender roles Gender roles sharply Contested and less distinguished and seen differentiated gender roles; as part of the natural and gender roles perceived sacred order; patriarchal as changeable and and hierarchical human made; increasing conceptions egalitarianism

Ferdinand Tonnies Gemeinschaft Gesellschaft (1853-1936)

Family Family size and fertility High fertility rates; large Very low, below rates families; pronatalist replacement fertility rates

ideologies (2.1); small nuclear families

Table 3.2 Continued

Poor Traditional Countries

Postmodern Wealthy Countries

Family structures and stability

Economic functions of family

Low divorce rates; fewer single-parent families; extended families especially among the well-to-do; polygamy in African societies; family instability in many sub-Saharan countries Wide range of functions especially in subsistence economies; peasants rather than farmers

High divorce rates; many single-parent and childless families; increase in variety of family types; many young adult singles

Family is shedding many economic functions

Socialization/teaching functions of family

Parental reasons for having children

Pervasive but teaching functions now shifting toward schools It is traditional; economic utility; they add to families' political influence; emotional companionship; a spiritual goal; children manifest God's blessing; they validate adult status and social identity

Many functions transferred to schools, preschools, daycare centers Children provide emotional companionship but are expensive; having children is an individual preference competing with other preferences

Children Child labor Many teenagers and some

younger children in the labor force; lower school enrollment for females; exploitative child labor is common

Little pre-teen child labor; part-time jobs for teenagers

Number and influence of siblings

Schooling and literacy

Social relations

Many siblings; especially girls often involved in childrearing duties; early responsibility training Illiteracy and semi-literacy still fairly common but declining

Long-term relations with kin and known ingroup members

Few siblings; more limited sibling influence; individualistic childrearing approaches Universal schooling for both boys and girls; most teenagers enrolled in school; tertiary education expanding Numerous short-term and medium-term interactions with non-kin strangers and semi-strangers

(Continued)

Table 3.2 Continued

Poor Traditional Postmodern Wealthy Countries Countries

Children's exposure to Fairly common: children Rare civil war, guerrillas may be abducted and

forced to become soldiers and "war brides" (especially in some African countries)

Impact of HIV/ AIDS on Powerful threat especially Limited except among families and children in southern and eastern drug users, homosexuals,

Africa responsible for prostitutes; victims mostly numerous orphans; less male prevalent in Muslim societies; both female and male victims

Adolescents Length of adolescent Brief or barely existent for Prolonged period; period many girls; brief for boys now often followed by

but more prolonged in "emerging adulthood" African polygamous and period (18-26 years) age-graded ethnic groups

Age of marriage for girls Often very low Increasing (13-20 years) but now (mean = 25-30 years); increasing due to schooling increasing ambivalence

about marriage Are marriages arranged Mostly yes Mostly no or semi-arranged? Value of premarital Very high in Middle Rapidly declining in chastity for girls Eastern, Muslim, most Western societies

Hindu societies; high (e.g., Scandinavia) and in Confucian-heritage increasingly so in some societies, less so in some East Asian societies sub-Saharan societies, low in foraging societies

Age of marriage for boys Variable but increasing; Increasing; more high in many polygamous ambivalence about societies marriage

Knowledge and value Limited but increasing Pervasive especially in the differences between due to modernization and knowledge area, less so for generations global influences basic values Peer group influence Moderate (although Pervasive for both males

strong for males in some and females age-graded African societies)

Adolescents' exposure to Limited (especially for girls) Pervasive mass media but steadily increasing

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 89

Table 3.2 Continued

Poor Traditional Postmodern Wealthy Countries Countries

Adolescent subcultures

Impact of global teenage culture(s)

Impact of consumerism on adolescent lifestyle

Self

Emerging especially in the big cities

Growing via media influence

Struggle for survival sharply limits consumerism

Collectivistic self embedded in kin and other face-to-face social networks

Well developed; increasingly influenced by social and other media Powerful: many adolescents are becoming semi-bi cultural Strong impact of consumerism on lifestyle identity, wellbeing Individualistic, emphasizing personal preferences and life styles; changeable self-constructions

Given the ideal-type nature of the comparisons, it should not come as a surprise that some societies cannot be placed on a smooth continuum between the poorest and the wealthiest societies. Saudi Arabia and some of the oil-producing Arab states in the Gulf region, for instance, are newly wealthy societies whose characteristics fail to match several of the general izations contained in Table 3.2. Indeed, it may be argued that the religious history of those countries can supply better explanations for some of the gender roles and childrearing conditions to be found there than the kind of global analysis presented in this chapter. Nevertheless, a broadly conceived global analysis is the only way to arrive at the "Big Picture" and to under stand, at least in rough outline, what main factors are governing children's lives over the long run.

The comparisons contained in Table 3.2 can be translated and elaborated into a series of 20 trends that characterize the global transformation of child hood in our times. These trends are certainly not of a linear, uninterrupted, irreversible nature, but they are nevertheless part and parcel ofthe ongoing for mation of a dynamic if strife-torn world community. Driven by technological advances and their pervasive effects, worldwide economic and demographic forces, and global political-economic-cultural influences and competition between societies, these broad trends may be summarized as follows:

Societies, their families, and their children are transformed over time:

• From agriculture and herding-based subsistence-level societies to postmod ern information societies.

• From societies emphasizing tradition and time-honored sacred archetypes to those emphasizing innovation and constant change.

90 Childhood and Adolescence

• From societies with traditional hierarchically ordered gender roles anchored in predominantly patriarchal sacred traditions to societies emphasizing changeable gender roles perceived as human-made and expected to be egalitarian in nature.

• From families fighting for economic and physical survival to families partici pating in consumerism.

• From families involved in subsistence economy to families shedding many economic functions.

• From families fulfilling numerous economic functions to families emphasiz- ing socioemotional functions.

• From big families to small families.

• From societies with numerous children to societies with numerous aged persons.

• From more stable to more unstable families.

• From a few to highly diverse family types.

• From child labor inside and outside the family to children's long-term enroll ment in educational institutions.

• From societies emphasizing informal education to societies emphasizing for mal ways of extended schooling.

• From families educating and training their children to children who are mostly educated in schools.

• From a collectivistic emphasis on children's obedience, respectfulness, man ners, and responsibility toward an emphasis on children's independence, indi viduality, and self-actualization.

• From authoritative parents expected to be knowledgeable and in control to more fallible parents who may need to learn new skills and ideas from their technology-savvy adolescent children.

• From brief adolescence to prolonged adolescence followed by a period of emerging adulthood that may, or may not, lead to marriage.

• From adolescents' orientation toward learning from the community toward adolescents' fascination with the mass media as well as the ubiquitous infor mation found on the web.

• From adolescents' orientation toward authoritative adults to adolescents' involvement in constantly changing adolescent subcultures shaped by both local and global forces.

• From preparing adolescents for known social roles and life in a known future society to preparing adolescents for unknown social roles created by a society in constant flux.

• From children who as adults will be expected to ensure the long-term eco nomic survival and welfare of their parents to children who are expected to enrich the socioemotional lives of their parents.

As societies transform themselves, they often display a challenging mixture of traditional and modern features. In India, for instance, we may observe

The Changing Lives of 2.2 Billion Children 91

all of the following: ancient Hindu rituals, tribal societies in the northeast ern regions pursuing their traditional yet changing ways of life, a mixture of traditional and modern skirmishes between guerillas and government troops in Kashmir, including the latent threat of nuclear bombs, Mumbai's impressive modern skyline but also the building of roads with the help of extensive manual labor and ancient tools, a thriving movie industry depict ing ancient gods engaged in laser-beam warfare, seemingly traditional villages deeply affected by the "green revolution" and the national mass media, families that follow both traditional and nontraditional customs, poor villagers glued to communal TV screens depicting soap operas tak ing place in the households of rich city dwellers, and so on. Not surpris ingly, India's childrearing systems often display the same dazzling mixture of ancient and modern features (Sharma, 2003). "Timeless" India is finally on the move although economic and cultural changes in this country have so far not matched the pace of changes found in countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, and China.

We may inquire in this context how the lives of Fatima and Takashi, whom we encountered in the very beginning of this chapter, fit into the rough picture sketched earlier. Fatima's work as a carpet weaver, together with her family surroundings, marginal literacy, poor economic prospects, possible exposure to civil unrest, and likely future as a traditional mother with quite a few children-preferably boys if Allah wills it-mirror, in indi vidual form, many of the characteristics we have attributed to poor tradi tional societies. In a corresponding fashion, Takashi's present (and future) existence is mostly shaped by the features of a prosperous information society, including small family size, long years of schooling, extensive expo sure to peer group and media influence, consumerism, and the prospects for a long healthy life.

We should not forget, however, that there are many more Fatimas than Takashis in this world although most developmental psychology textbooks fail to reflect this basic fact. Most of them do not have much to say about the lives of poor Muslim girls such as Fatima, and as a consequence they remain mostly invisible to the reader.

CONCLUSION

I have sketched a picture of global childhood that emphasizes economic and demographic influences rather than foregrounding contrasts between collectivistic and individualistic cultural scripts or the at times bloody com petition between alternative religious, nationalist, and secular ideologies that dominates today's newspaper headlines.

92 Childhood and Adolescence

I believe that in the long run, technological changes and the ensuing transformation of the material basis of societies will prove of central impor tance in shaping the lives of children everywhere. At the same time let us hope that American life cycle psychology will continue to grow less ethno centric in nature and pay more attention to the "Big Picture" rather than taking as normative the life trajectories of children growing up in West ern postindustrial societies. Even the recent spate of comparisons between American or European children and those residing in East Asian countries does not lead to a satisfactory understanding of global childhood, in part because the comparisons leave out too many children in the poorer and less technologically advanced countries.

Let's expand our own horizons and those of our students by teaching developmental psychology from a truly global perspective, with due con sideration for the long-term impact of material factors and the lives of otherwise mostly invisible children in the poor countries. It is both scien tifically desirable and morally appropriate to do so.

REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS

1. Why are the childhoods of Fatima and Takashi so different in nature?

2. In what ways are children around the world doing both better and worse than sev eral decades ago?

3. Why do people have children? Are there any differences in this respect between low- and high-income countries?

4. Why can child labor in low-income countries be considered a delicate issue from both an economic and cultural point of view? Why have countries such as India failed to stop child labor?

5. How is adolescence changing in the low- to medium-income countries?

6. Discuss three major trends influencing global changes in childhood.

NOTES

1. The fictional lives of Fatima and Takashi are based on those of several youngsters the author has met respectively in Kashmir and Japan.

2. This chapter is a major revision of Gielen and Chumachenko's chapter contained in the first edition of this volume.