Exploring the connection between childhood and youth: individual experience, group enhancement and community advocacy

Philosophy of childhood questioned if a child is fully human and if only adult is a “complete human” due to societal pressures to eradicate the “child” self in order to become an “adult” self – imposing a path that dictates child development characterized by the hierarchy and domination of adult over child (Kennedy, 2010). What then is the relationship between one’s childhood and adulthood? Is it a contrast to adulthood or a continual (Kennedy, 2002)? The nature of childhood is also a debate. What is a child? A child is sometimes considered our unity of self and nature, as represented by his/her desire to play, to seek pleasure, to co-ordinate thinking directly with action, and to see the parallel between self-boundary and the boundary of the outer world, which allows the child an exclusive time for nature and freedom to construct subjectivity (Kennedy, 2002). The view of a child being a “limited” or “incomplete” human until the shedding or abandoning of the child self to the “becoming” of the adult self is therefore worthwhile to be inquired. Youth age is the stepping stone from childhood to adulthood and does it formulate an important cohort for studying the linkages between childhood and adulthood. These questions are approached from a qualitative study on the perceptions of 120 young adults aged 19-25 who had previous experiences of working with children as a volunteer for at least 30 hours before being interviewed. Drawing from these reflections, implications are directed towards the importance of capitalizing the linkages and continuity between childhood and youth for fostering positive development.