An Introduction to Childhood and Youth Studies and Psychology

This exciting new book provides a novel interdisciplinary introduction to Childhood and Youth Studies and Psychology. Its accessible approach illuminates holistic understandings of children and young people’s lives by drawing from multiple disciplines and theoretical frameworks and wide-ranging research examples, including case studies from around the world, featuring children and young people’s perspectives throughout.

Weaving insights from education and cultural studies, social anthropology, and sociology with social, cultural, and developmental psychology, it covers children and young people’s experiences and development from infancy to young adulthood (0–23 years) and their rights. Chapters explore key contemporary topics such as the following:

• Digital childhood and youth
• Children’s embodied experiences
• The social and cultural origins of selves
• Diverse families
• Race and ethnicity
• Global childhoods
• Models for understanding health and disability
• Children’s rights and agency
• Gender in childhood and youth

An essential reading for students on childhood and youth, psychology, and education courses, An Introduction to Childhood and Youth Studies and Psychology is also a valuable introductory resource for practitioners working with children and young people and for parents and policy makers with an interest in how we understand children and young people’s lives today.

Victoria Cooper is Senior Lecturer at The Open University who specialises in research focused on marginalised children and young people’s experiences. She is co-author of Parenting the First Twelve Years: What the Evidence Tells Us (2018) and co-editor of Exploring Childhood and Youth (2021).

Mimi Tatlow-Golden is Senior Lecturer of Developmental Psychology and Childhood at The Open University. She co-directs the Centre for Children and Young People’s Wellbeing and the RUMPUS Group researching fun. Her transdisciplinary research argues for dialogue between Childhood and Youth Studies and Psychology and showcases its benefits.