The paper analyses the phenomenon of childhood from the historical and modern perspectives in the context of a new interdisciplinary approach - social psychology of childhood. The paper also defines the role of family and peer community in the development of a child's personality; analyses the conditions and mechanisms for the manifestation of a child's capacity for sharing another's grief or joy in groups of boys and girls; reveals the uniqueness of children's subculture and its role in the construction of a child's image of the world (a system of relations). Emphasizing the drama-tic character of the development of modern childhood, the author identifies factors leading to transformations of a child's image of the world.