Changing Societies, Changing Childhood: Studying the Impact of Globalization on Child Development

Although children are significantly affected by globalization in many ways, there has been little study of its impact on their development. Understanding the effects of the political, economic, and cultural changes associated with globalization requires diverse research strategies designed to (a) provide an impact analysis of the effects of changes associated with globalization on local social ecologies (e.g., families, schools, neighborhoods, healthcare system) and on children’s everyday experience; (b) examine how globalization influences the knowledge, skills, and forms of learning required of children as cultures are affected by worldwide influences; and (c) explore children’s interpretations of these changes for themselves and their future. The specific research strategies suitable to these goals include large-scale social indicators analysis (which can sometimes be drawn from national or international datasets), behavioral studies, document content analyses, ethnographic methods and other approaches to assess specific social practices affecting children, carefully designed child interviews, and coordinated multimethod programs of research that examine the impact of cultural change on children from institutional, societal, and individual perspectives. This article profiles a number of key research challenges and opportunities entailed in the effort to understand how development is shaped, and reshaped, by broader cultural currents. KEYWORDS—globalization; developmental ecological systems theory; sociocultural theory; child impact studies; time-series analysis American journalists and diplomats on assignment to the most rural parts of Asia and Africa were often stunned when they visited small villages to find young children wearing tattered replicas of Michael Jordan’s Bulls jersey. (Halberstam, 1999, pp. 7–8) The positive and negative effects of globalization on the world economy, culture, and political systems are topics of empirical analysis and interpretive debate. Globalization can be defined as the processes by which the constraints of geography on economic, cultural, and social organization progressively recede (Watson, 1995). Globalization has helped to transform businesses into multinational conglomerates and contributed to the growth of instant global communication, consumerism, and the dissemination of Western values. Globalization is also believed to have exacerbated economic segregation within and between nations, and reactions to globalization have contributed to the rise of fundamentalisms and nationalistic and ethnic ferment. In light of these changes, the impact of globalization on child development merits research attention. Despite flourishing conceptual and research interest on the impact of global change on youth and adolescence (see, e.g., Arnett, 2002; Crockett & Silbereisen, 2000; Larson, Wilson, & Rickman, 2009; Schoon & Silbereisen, 2009; Silbereisen & Chen, 2010), little attention has been devoted to the effects of globalization on children’s development. The purpose of this article was to stimulate interest in this area by outlining some of the conceptual and research approaches that might be taken to understand the changes in developmental influences and outcomes that have been precipitated by the economic, cultural, political, demographic, and technological changes associated with globalization. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ross A. Thompson, Department of Psychology, One Shields Ave., University of California, Davis, CA 95616; e-mail: rathompson@ ucdavis.edu.