MADRID — Childhood. That territory where magical thinking and imagination reign supreme and play is king, where the capacity for surprise is inexhaustible and responsibility is a foreign concept. A time of innocence, spanning from birth to adolescence, which occurs on average at age 14, according to the World Health Organization.
Scientists, however, have begun warning that childhood is becoming shorter. Until recently, young children entertained themselves with dolls, spinning tops, cars, building blocks, and other traditional toys until the age of 13. Nowadays, they abandon them at an early age and opt for new technology. They want to dress and behave like adults, consider cell phones a sign of maturity, and have almost no tolerance for being patient or frustrated.
This is according to the study Childhood and Families: Values and Education Style, conducted by the Institute for Creativity and Educational Innovation.
Eighty-four percent of parents believe that their children are growing up faster, and that childhood is becoming shorter, according to a survey conducted by Ipsos in 20 countries, including China, Costa Rica, France, Venezuela, the United States and Spain.
Ana Roa, educator and founder of Roaeducación, says girls in particular are entering puberty at an earlier age than they used to. “Some start at 9 or 10 years old. Boys tend to lag behind,” she explained. “This not only impacts children, who are not emotionally prepared to deal with these changes in their bodies, but also affects parents because they do not know how to address this issue,” explains
Not only genetics
Although puberty is directly related to genetics, there are many other factors that influence and explain this waning of childhood: for example, being overweight. “When obesity is a factor, estradiol, a form of estrogen that can contribute to breast development and early puberty, becomes concentrated,” explains Roa.
The quality of diet also has an impact, particularly if it is low in fruits and vegetables and high in animal proteins and ultra-processed foods.
Additionally, stress caused by economic difficulties, social isolation due to excessive screen time, and a sedentary lifestyle can also accelerate puberty. This “is the stage when children change not only physically, with the well-known growth spurt, but also hormonally and sexually: hair in the armpits and pubic area, the onset of body odor, menstruation in girls, and voice changes in boys,” says Carlos Macías, a specialist in adolescent medicine.
Adult perceptions have changed the way we view childhood.
What explains these symptoms? The hypothalamus generates the hormone gonadotropin, which in turn secretes two others: luteinizing hormone and follicle-stimulating hormone. This hormonal process is responsible for the production of estrogen in girls, preparing their bodies for possible pregnancy, and for the production of sperm and testosterone in boys.
Yet some experts deny that there is society-wide change. Begoña Leyra, anthropologist and childhood expert at the Complutense University, doesn’t see scientific evidence that childhood is becoming shorter, let alone that this is something that needs to be addressed, if it were the case. “There is a change in the childhood lifestyle, but also in other age groups. Childhood is not something static,” Leyra says. “Sixty years ago, children were dressed like adults, and they did not play; they worked from an early age. I don’t think childhood is not lasting as long, but rather that adult perceptions have changed the way we view childhood. What is needed is to work on the child’s understanding of sexuality and encourage their decision-making skills, to give them a voice.”
Parental role
It is easy to see: children no longer take pleasure in playing by making up their own rules, they spend less time with other children, their boredom does not spark their imagination but rather causes irritation, if not anger, they dress like adults and prefer to be alone with their smartphones.
And the law seems to reflect this reality: Congress is debating lowering the voting age to 16, the reform of the Abortion Law allows minors to terminate their pregnancies on their own, and, as the School Survey on Alcohol and Drugs in Spain points out, the age at which children start drinking alcohol is 13.7.
And what responsibility do parents have in this process? “A lot,” says Carlos Cuesta, a psychologist specializing in adolescence. “Without intending to, (parents) encourage an end to childhood as soon as possible,” he says. “They hardly spend any time playing with their children, they don’t have time to meet up with other parents and facilitate their children’s socialization, they burden them with responsibilities that are not theirs (such as eating alone), while turning them into useless teenagers because they are unable to set limits. They sort out all their problems by condemning their kids to screen time at an increasingly early age.”
According to the National Statistics Institute, 25% of Spanish 10-year-olds have a cell phone; by age 14, the figure rises to nine out of ten.
If childhood is very short, it could have consequences for children’s mental health.
Shortening childhood can have serious consequences. It is during this stage that we develop our emotional, learning, and behavioral foundations. How we emerge from it prepares us to face life.
“If childhood is very short, it could have consequences for children’s mental health, generating stress, anxiety, or distress, even causing depression, as well as difficulties in developing social and emotional skills appropriate for their age, sleep disturbances, or eating disorders,” Roa explains. “We are faced with a physical change when the mind is not yet ready to assimilate what is being experienced.”
The problems arising from a shortened childhood are particularly evident in schools, says Macías. “They don’t respect any authority, bullying increases because, having not played with other children, they are unable to put themselves in someone else’s shoes.”
How should adults deal with this situation? “It is crucial to normalize the experience within the family because, even if a child’s body corresponds to that of a 12-, 13-, or 14-year-old, if they are 8 or 9 years old, they should be treated according to their age,“ concludes Roa.
For Cuesta: ”It’s about remembering, once we become adults, that we were once children. If childhood continues to be shortened, this will be very difficult.”
