In socialization and child development theories, the child is seen as in the process of becoming, as passive and constantly changing on the path toward stable adulthood, and as being. The view that children grow physically, psychologically, and socially into adults enabled socialization theory and many of its applications to give shape to children in relation to the future society and desired adulthood. This entry discusses the implications of seeing children as in a state of being or in a state becoming compared with adults.

Besides having long been a central question in philosophy, the being and becoming of children has been a key issue in childhood studies since the 1990s. The conceptualization of the child as becoming was challenged from the 1970s on, as marginalized ...