Sociedad e Infancias

When students take the floor: what we learned from researching the transition from Primary to Secondary Education

Eva María Jiménez Andújar — 2025-06-12

To understand how pre-adolescents experience the transition from primary to secondary school, it is necessary to place ourselves in the perspective of the students as the main social actor. In the research presented in this article, we have stopped to listen to the students before and during their transition to secondary school in order to understand better those aspects which, from their own experiences, facilitate or hinder their passage through this important educational stage. Intending to avoid the bias of the adult researcher, we deployed a qualitative and reflexive methodology that tested fieldwork strategies and the design of techniques and instruments appropriate to the open participation of the students. The research involved 72 students followed at two specific moments of transition: the preparatory phase and completion of primary school (Year 2020-21) and the phase of incorporation and accommodation to secondary school (Year 2021-22). The information analysed focused on the most recurrent aspects of the students' original accounts, which revealed important aspects: transition is not always experienced as a negative experience; it is part of the educational process, thereby transforming the (adult) imaginary of fear of change into a hopeful experience of openness and early maturity.

Who cares? Children and young people's voices on gender equality in five European countries

Cristina C. Vieira — 2025-06-12

Despite the long list of international policy recommendations aimed at eradicating all forms of discrimination based on sex and gender, each European country continues to face different challenges. Involving younger generations in the analysis of real problems, through school and community initiatives, and respecting an integrated approach have been fruitful strategies to introduce gender issues into formal education. This was the aim of the Erasmus+ project "Equality in Action" (2019-2022), which involved five European countries. This article presents the perceptions of 114 students aged 14-18 from Portugal, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Slovenia on the five most important gender equality issues that remain unresolved in their countries, as well as their proposals for tackling them. As a result of the project's activities in each school and the exchanges between classes from different countries, the teenagers revealed that they had become aware of various areas of personal and collective life in which there are inequalities between women and men, resulting from a certain social order that can be corrected. The main conclusions of the study show how generations of young people can be involved in building a better society by being critical and attentive to themselves and to others. Finally, suggestions are made for future projects in the area of gender equality, in which the students' opinions are taken into account.

Children’s Use and Consumption Habits in the Attention Economy: Preferences and Advertising

Félix Ortega Mohedano — 2025-06-12

Childhood and care in Argentine audiovisual advertising. An approach from the Discourse Analysis

Mariangeles Vallejos — 2025-06-12

This exploratory-analytical article investigates the representations of care in childhood in audiovisual advertisements that circulated on Argentine television channels. To address it, elements of Discourse Analysis are combined with the perspective provided by the Sociology of Childhood and Care Studies. This work also takes up two previous elaborations by Viviana Minzi (2006) and Juan Gómez Espino and Juan Blanco López (2005) that serve as a trigger to develop its own classifications that arise from the analysis of a corpus made up of 53 advertisements. The five typifications to classify the children represented there are receptive childhood, resistant childhood, dialoguing childhood, imitative childhood and imaginable childhood. This elaboration recognizes, as a conclusion, an adult protagonism even though the spot in question talks about children. In addition, the products are positioned as mediators in the relationship between children and adults. In this article, we see advertising discourse assuming an expert ethos regarding the needs of children.

Childhood: A new target of neoliberal feminism? An analysis of Good night stories for rebel girls

Maria Medina-Vicent — 2025-06-12

The central objective of this work is to address the construction of neoliberal subjectivities in childhood through an analysis of Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls line, known for its great sales success in different parts of the world, the aim is to discern what discourses related to feminism are disseminated through these works, and how these intersect with neoliberal discourses. Thus, three main tasks will be carried out. First, identify the models of “femininity” and “feminism” that are exposed in the works (and how they interrelate with each other). Secondly, identify those concepts from neoliberal language present in the works. Thirdly and finally, address the prescriptive nature of the premises that are launched in them and how these respond to the self-techniques of neoliberal logic.

Ethical reflections on the use of images and names of child youtubers in scientific research

Bárbara Morais Santiago Freitas — 2025-06-12

This article proposes a reflection on the ethical challenges involved in identifying child YouTubers within the context of scientific research, highlighting the dilemmas and adjustments that arose during the analysis of the videos. We begin with the understanding that research ethics is constructed contextually, through concrete and often unexpected interactions, and we discuss the balance between the protection and participation of children. The central ethical question — whether child YouTubers, already publicly identified on YouTube, should have their images and names disclosed in research texts — was addressed by deciding to preserve their identities. This choice reflects an ethical approach that goes beyond mere formal compliance with regulations, built upon epistemological vigilance and a dialogue between our theoretical and methodological foundations. We considered that the analyzed videos were created for purposes different from those of the research and that we did not have the legal guardians' consent or the children's assent. Beyond the dynamics of YouTube, which often complicate parental mediation, the full understanding of online data processing, and the possibility of oversharing. This underscores the ethical challenges permeating this field of investigation.

The role of attitude in the recognition of mobile advertising: Cognitive and affective dimensions within the framework of advertising literacy among children aged 10 to 14 years

Paula Neira Placer — 2025-06-12

The conceptual understanding of the persuasive intent of advertising alone is insufficient for children to effectively process mobile advertising, which is characterized by content hybridization. This study examines how the cognitive and affective dimensions of attitude intervene in the process of recognizing advertising to which children aged 10 to 14 are exposed in situational contexts via their mobile phones, both on social media and mobile apps. It concludes that this audience's ability to identify advertising presented on their mobile devices is moderate and varies significantly depending on the content format. Cognitive and affective aspects of attitude towards each advertisement moderately influence children's ability to identify them. However, in terms of overall performance, cognitive aspects related to their evaluation of advertising as a phenomenon have a greater impact. Within this cognitive dimension, the factor that seems to have the most significant impact is children's perceived self-efficacy regarding their ability to identify advertising.

Food advertising and promotion of healthy habits in childhood and youth

Alejandro Perales-Albert — 2025-06-12

Overweight and obesity, resulting from the absence of healthy diet and lack of physical activity, are a risk factor for numerous chronic diseases, and, also, affect socialization, psychological well-being and people's quality of life. For authorities, counteracting this public health problem has become a primary objective at global, regional and national levels, especially in childhood and youth. One of the aspects that generates the most consensus in the proposal of measures aimed at reducing the consumption of unhealthy foods by these authorities is action in the field of marketing and advertising, considered as a conditioning element for the promotion and maintenance of bad eating habits among child and youth population. This article presents the main results of a research focused on the analysis of a sample of commercial communications of food consumed by children and adolescents and their families disseminated both by different media and through influencers, which corroborates the predominance of advertising and promotional messages referring to unhealthy foods, as well as the paradoxical use of health arguments by companies and the role played by prescribers in attracting consumers and buyers to these offers.

Risks associated with the use of mainstream pornography in adolescence

Antonio Valera Herrera — 2025-06-12

Recent studies indicate that the consumption of pornography has become a normalised habit for a growing number of adolescents in Spain. This has been made possible thanks to the Internet and a business model based on explicit and invasive advertising on virtual networks, which has favoured the dissemination of a huge amount of easily accessible and usually free pornographic content. Mainstream pornography, the most abundant on the net, in addition to showing a biased view of sexuality, harbours misogynist and sexist narratives. The aim of this article is to offer a review of the most significant risks that have fuelled the debate on the consumption of pornography among adolescents. In doing so, we provide recent empirical and theoretical references to help those who want to investigate this phenomenon in depth, to raise the state of the art in this regard and to design possible preventive or regulatory interventions. In particular, we focus on the risks related to the unrealistic conception of sexual relations, the development of attitudes of sexual violence, risky practices, the objectification of bodies and the manifestations of potentially addictive behaviours. Such risks may be heightened among adolescents, who are going through important stages of their own psycho-physical, intellectual and character development, but their harmful effects have yet to be objectively quantified and verified in their life trajectories and sex-affective practices once they become adults.

Children facing consumption, consumerism, and advertising: consumers or "consumables"

Mónica Mongui — 2025-06-12

Los niños y niñas están en el centro de estrategias publicitarias que buscan fidelizarlos desde edades tempranas, explotando su vulnerabilidad emocional y cognitiva. TikTok es un ejemplo clave, donde influencers promueven productos de manera encubierta, desdibujando la línea entre ocio y publicidad. Esto afecta su identidad y autoestima, fomentando el consumismo compulsivo y la presión social. Además, la sobreexposición a estos mensajes puede generar inseguridades y dificultar la toma de decisiones informadas. Para contrarrestar estos efectos, es esencial promover el pensamiento crítico, regular la publicidad infantil y garantizar un consumo más responsable.

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture

Elvira Ortiz Illescas — 2025-06-12

Baraldi, Claudio (Ed.) (2023). Exploring the Narratives and Agency of Children with Migrant Backgrounds within Schools: Researching Hybrid Integration.

Juan Eduardo Ortiz — 2025-06-12

The book Exploring the Narratives and Agency of Children with Migrant Backgrounds within Schools: Researching Hybrid Integration, edited by Claudio Baraldi, explores the integration of migrant children in European schools through an interdisciplinary approach. Based on the CHILD-UP project, it highlights children's agency, gender, and linguistic mediation as key factors in shaping hybrid identities. The book challenges traditional inclusion/exclusion paradigms, proposing integration as a dynamic process of negotiation. While it emphasizes communication as a means of integration, further attention to structural barriers could strengthen its analysis.

Liebel, Manfred (en colaboración con Martínez Muñoz, Marta y Markowska-Manista, Urszula) (2024). Infancias desde el Sur Global. Resistencias, investigación participativa y desafíos descoloniales.

Iván Rodríguez Pascual — 2025-06-12

Ravetllat Ballesté, Isaac (2024). La Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño y la Niña: Reflexiones acerca de los Derechos de la Infancia y la Adolescencia desde la Teoría y la Práctica

Myriam Fernández Nevado — 2025-06-12

Morales, Santi y Martínez Muñoz, Marta (2024). Adultocentrismo ¿qué piensan chicos y chicas?

Marta Carretero Navarro — 2025-06-12

Este libro se basa en el estudio exploratorio realizado por Santiago Morales y Marta Muñoz, en el que se entrevistó a aproximadamente 200 niños y niñas de entre 5 y 25 años, provenientes de Argentina, México, España, Chile y Colombia, entre otros países. La estructura de la obra se articula de la siguiente manera: en primer lugar, se introduce el concepto de adultocentrismo, resaltando su escaso reconocimiento en el ámbito académico y social. Posteriormente, se analizan los distintos espacios en los que se manifiesta este fenómeno y el ejercicio de poder que implica sobre la infancia. A continuación, se presenta el estudio en detalle, destacando las percepciones y experiencias de los niños y niñas con respecto a esta noción y los ámbitos en los que identifican su presencia. Finalmente, tras explorar las distintas interpretaciones y reflexiones infantiles sobre el adultocentrismo, se propone un apartado con recomendaciones elaboradas desde sus propias voces. Como cierre, el libro ofrece una serie de propuestas orientadas a erradicar y transformar esta dinámica predominante, las cuales serán abordadas en profundidad en los capítulos finales.