Introduction
framework from developmental psychology. Subsequent sections of the report
describe the available evidence within this framework. Key concepts are described in
section 1.3 in this introductory section. These concepts are then applied to the
question of the effect of parental education in 1.4 in which our hypotheses are
summarised. Some of the limitations of the model are considered in 1.5. These wider
issues are important. We discuss:
i. The importance of contexts other than the family;
ii. The multi-dimensionality of development;
iii. The importance of social and historical context;
iv. Compounding risk;
v. The problem of identifying policy implications;
vi. Dynamic modelling and the agency of children;
vii. The importance of social class;
viii. The definition and meaning of education;
ix. Representativeness and causality;
x. An alternative approach - the capitals framework;
xi. Problems in the integration of approaches from economics and psychology.
1.3. Distal and proximal factors
The framework we propose to use is based on a distinction between ‘proximal’ and
‘distal’ processes, a distinction that has its origins in developmental psychology, more
specifically in ecological models of development (e.g. Bronfenbrenner, 1979, 1986;
Bronfenbrenner & Crouter, 1983). This distinction is generic in that it can be applied
to any topic but the precise meaning of the distinction depends on the context in
which it is being applied. For example, in assessing the link between indices of
parental social class and children’s attainments in school, social class is a distal factor
if one hypothesises that there are important mediating factors that explain the raw,
distal correlation. These mediating factors can be thought of as pathways, interceding
reasons why the distal factor exerts an influence on the outcome. Proximal factors are
those mediating elements. These are factors closer to the lived experience of the child
that impact directly on attainment, factors in the example such as the instruction
provided by a teacher, parental emphasis of the importance of learning, being read to
and so on. What is proximal and what is distal is entirely contextual.
For our purposes we have distinguished between three categories of environmental
context measures: distal factors, characteristics within the family and proximal
processes within the family (Gottfried & Gottfried, 1984; Gottfried et al., 1994).
These are shown in Box 1. Within each box the component factors that are discussed
in this paper and suggested as key are itemised.