The Perspective of Children on Childhood

Abstract

The present study was conducted to determine the perspectives of children on childhood and the reasons that lie behind their desire to grow up. The study was conducted with the phenomenological research design, a qualitative research method. Participants of the study included 18 children in the 10-12 age group selected using snowball sampling. The data were collected by semi-structured interviews conducted with the children. The aim was to use child-specific methods when selecting data collection instruments. Participants were asked to play an icebreaker game adequate for their age group and then to read a story about childhood to understand how they perceive childhood. The data obtained in the interviews were analyzed with "descriptive analysis" under four themes determined in the study. It was observed that there were children who had positive views about childhood, did not grow up and were happy with childhood, while most children wanted to grow up as soon as possible, were "restricted too much" by their families, "wanted to become individuals who gave orders instead of those who received them" and "wanted to establish their own rules".