Trust Building and Violation During Childhood Consequences for Children’s Wellbeing and Dispositions for Trust in Later Life

Abstract

This chapter examines trust dynamics in children’s lives from a combined being and becoming perspective. In the early days of the new social studies of childhood, researchers advocated replacing the traditional developmental ‘becoming perspective’ on children’s lives and life conditions with a ‘being perspective’ (see for example Qvortrup, 1994). However, more recent contributions suggest that children must be conceptualised both as becomings and beings (Lee, 2001; Halldén, 2005; Uprichard, 2008). In keeping with that idea, this chapter examines childhood experiences in terms of insecurity/security, trust building/violation, and the consequences of these experiences for children’s wellbeing and self-esteem as well as for dispositions for trust in later life. Given all the societal (Welch et al., 2005; Putnam, 1993, 2000; Rothstein, 2009; Fukuyama, 1995; Uslaner, 2002) and individual (Ward & Meyer, 2009; Helliwell & Wang, 2011) benefits that trust is known to generate, we urgently need to expand our knowledge about how trust is formed within the ecological system that frames children’s lives and development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; see also introduction to this book). Thinking along these lines means acknowledging that ‘society shapes the individual’ (James et al., 1998: 23), recognising the impact of adults (parents, teachers and others), peers and the local environment (see for example Stolle & Nishikawa, 2011; Jantzer et al., 2006), and regarding children as actors who shape their own futures, which is consistent with a life course perspective (Elder, 1994; Elder et al., 2003; Giele & Elder, 1998).