Discipline: Childhood Studies Course: Introduction to Childhood Studies
This course, required for all students minoring in childhood studies, serves as a multidisciplinary introduction to the study of children and childhood. The lectures and readings are designed to foster thinking not only about research in the field, but also about the applied, policy and clinical implications of the research, so that students are equipped to make informed decisions concerning children and youth. Dr. Myra Bluebond-Langner, Director of CCCS, coordinates the course. Twelve Center Associates provide lectures on specialized topics in fields such as psychology, history, literature, sociology, religion, and art. As part of the Dialogues project, Dr. Bluebond-Langner and selected Center Associates will work together to incorporate material from under represented groups in the US and abroad.

Discipline: Anthropology Course: Childhood, Health and Illness
This course examines key issues in child health and illness from an anthropological perspective. This course will be revised to include more from children outside the US and issues in health and wellness not necessarily part of the US experience (e.g. clean water, sanitation, and epidemics of disease now rare in the US due to immunization) as well as the role of ethnic background in treatment choices and the incidence of manifestations of particular behavioral and mental illnesses and disabilities.

Discipline: Criminal Justice Course: Children and Confinement
In this experiential course, Dr. Jane Siegel provides students with the opportunity to visit a variety of juvenile correction facilities, ranging from those where levels of confinement are inimical to those that closely resemble adult maximum security facilities. Readings and discussions focus on topics such as disproportionate minority confinement; the education of juveniles in confinement; condition of confinement of juveniles under state authority; and the rights of children in confinement. Students will be able to supplement their study of these issues through discussion with both residents and staff at the facilities visited. Confinement is one of the most extreme exercises of the power that the state wields over children. This course provides students with the opportunity to address questions about the appropriate use of such power and the potential for its abuse.

Discipline: Economics Course: Economics of Healthcare and Economics of Behavior and Health Education
Since the US first embarked on a national planning process for the Healthy People Initiative, we have witnessed a great deal of progress in public health. However, life expectancy in the US is still lower than other industrialized nations even though we have the highest health and medical expenditures per person. Dr. Tetsuji Yamada expands two courses – Economics of Healthcare and Economics of Behavior and Health Education – to incorporate children’s perspectives. The courses will be developed to explore in depth the multi-ethnic approaches to health care and the power relationships between health care providers and consumers, particularly children.

Discipline: History Course: History of Childhood in the United States
Dr. Janet Golden is developing this new course to focus on the history if childhood in the US. Golden will develop a Freshman Seminar in the topic and will create a full-fledged survey course. The course will incorporate information from more recent immigrant groups from the Caribbean, Asian, and African countries.

Discipline: Psychology Course: Developmental Psychopathology
In this course, Dr. Naomi Marmorstein deals with major psychological disorders of childhood within the context of a developmental psychopathology framework. The first part of the course focuses on different lenses through which children’s development, both normal and abnormal, can be viewed, while the second part of the course applies this framework to some psychological disorders that children experience. In addition, competence and resilience in children are discussed. This course deals with power relationships in several ways: the prevailing “medical model” of diagnosis by professionals for both the child and the family; parent-child relationships, primarily in terms of the effects of parenting in children’s development, though also in terms of the children’s effects on the parenting they receive; and peer aggression in the context of peer relationships are discussed. Issues of diversity and cultural variation for each disorder are examined including differences in prevalence by culture/nation/ethnic group including what is considered “normal” in different contexts/cultures.

Discipline: Psychology Course: Adolescence
Dr. Charlotte Markey deals with development during adolescence and early years in this course. Contemporary theories and research are used to help students understand issues central to adolescence including: pubertal development, identity, dating and sexuality, family and peer relationships, and culture and the media. Adolescence s discussed both as a distinct stage of life, and as an integral component of development across the lifespan. This course will emphasize the relationships between adolescents and their parents, and will contrast this relationship with their relationships with their peers with attention to issues in power and authority.

Discipline: Religion Course: Religion and Psychology
In this course, Dr. Stuart Charme surveys a variety of psychological theories for understanding the origins and effects of religion in human life. A number of theorists see the God-human relationship as mirroring the way the adult-child relationship is experienced in the early stages of human life. Dr. Charme will highlight this issue in relationship to the issue of gender identity development in childhood as well as the movement in many modern religious groups to less hierarchical or authoritarian models of God. Another major part of the course deals with the cognitive and social factors that color children’s intellectual understanding of religious concepts and stories. Though the Dialogues grant, Dr. Charme will develop ways to expand opportunities for student research with actual children, including the possibility of cross-cultural or inter-religious comparisons.

The Center for Children and Childhood Studies will continue to work with Center Associates to identify ways to strengthen the content and methodology of courses related to the study of children. For more information, contact Dr. Myra Bluebond-Langner, (856) 225-6741.