Generalized Childhood, Current Trends and Challenges in the Evaluation of Childhood Development

Abstract

This paper proposes a reflection on contemporary contexts and their influence on the most frequent childhood difficulties of today. It examines existing gaps between the law and social reality in Costa Rica, going back to the concept of “biopolitics of childhood” (Bustelo, 2005). From a rights-based approach and using the WHO’s definition of violence against children and adolescents, it proposes the idea of a generalized childhood in our times to describe the trend to standardize childhood difficulties scientifically. Following the notion of generalized evaluation expressed by Najles (2010), it describes the risks of pathologization and standardization in the way childhood difficulties are addressed today and calls for a need to maintain a dimension of ignorance in the knowledge of childhood that allows for accommodating each child’s uniqueness.