The inter-disciplinary approach to the study of the concept of “childhood”

The need to create a holistic view of the regularities of child personality development in society, the need for in-depth understanding of childhood, child development from the point of view of ethnography, sociology, environmental science, and anthropology is expressed by many scholars. At the present stage, the interdisciplinary approach to studying childhood is underdeveloped; there are no unified methodological tools for comprehensive study of its potential, which confirms the relevance of the research. The purpose for the research is to present a theoretical review of various approaches to the concept of “childhood”, to justify the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach to studying it. In the article, childhood is considered from the point of view of various disciplines: psychology, pedagogics, medical science, jurisprudence, sociology, and economics. The author demonstrates the essence of the concept from the point of view of different scientific disciplines, reviews the specific features of studying it, the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach to the generalization of gained knowledge on childhood potential and problems. The informational framework includes scientific publications of domestic and foreign researchers; international,federal regulatory documents on child rights and interests protection. The analysis indicates that there is currently no single interpretation of the term “child” due to the diversity of its content and links to the society, which determines the need for a comprehensive study of childhood: revealing patterns, content and structure of the process of child development, child’s role in the society, identifying child’s current and potential abilities, their adaptation and socialization. This implies the need to develop methodological tools for studying child population, the main purpose of which is to produce a complete informational base about it. This, in turn, will create conditions for realizing the potential of each child, forming worthy life prospects: education, upbringing and socialization, maximum possible self-realization in socially positive activities. The practical importance of the research results consists in their possible use for studying child population and forming target recommendations on a better use of its potential.