This article does a retrospective analysis of publications on childhood in the area of sociology, examining texts in the English language produced not just in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian countries, but also the contributions from countries and regions such as Germany, South Africa, Australia and Eastern and Southern Europe. It points to the emergence of a new field of studies, the sociology of childhood, viewed as a specific social construction, which has its own culture and deserves to be considered with its own particular traits