Children's Occupations in Context: The Influence of History

Abstract

Abstract Typically, the concepts occupation and children are not put together; however, children are always busy doing, in other words, occupationally engaged. While it is generally accepted that adult occupations are the result of the interaction between person and environment, it is held that children's developmental levels, in interaction with their immediate environments, determine their occupations. The impact of broad contextual factors, including social views, trends and situations, on children's occupations are rarely discussed. On the assumption that the historical context affords a natural vehicle for examining the role of the broad environment, an historical analysis of literary works between 1650 and 1990 was carried out. This paper demonstrates that the social views, trends and situations that shaped different periods history have indeed had an impact on children's occupations, in particular on determining the predominant occupations of children.