Introduction
Box 1: Conceptual model for the related influences on child development
Distal factors refer to the more global or descriptive aspects that characterise the
environment and provide an index of a family’s demographic or socio-economic
situation. Examples of distal variables include income or parents’ occupation.
Characteristics within the family are more closely related to the environmental factors
that impact on children. Here important factors include the availability of cognitively
enriching and stimulating materials and activities, parental attitudes, network supports
and the physical infrastructure of the home. The notion of characteristics of contexts
differs from the notion of distal factors in providing a more substantive measure of the
child’s immediate environment.
Context is the location and/or institutional grouping within which particular sets of
processes occur. In childhood the key contexts are family, pre-school settings,
schools, peer groups and neighbourhoods. These contexts are conceptualised as being
developmentally appropriate (i.e. constructive) or inappropriate (destructive).
Constructive environments are taken as being positively and destructive environments
negatively, associated with child development. These environments are, in turn,
related to patterns of achievement, behaviour, motivation and mental health of the
whole person.
The final category of environmental measure is family process. By the term ‘process’
we refer to the actual interactions experienced by the child. Process is the most
proximal element in the model as it refers to the day-to-day life of the child. Examples
of family process variables include aspects of parent-child relationships such as
warmth and affection, the use of discipline, control and punishment, as well as the
educational content of language use in the home environment.
An important capability of this model is that it can be used to nest all the disparate
literature within one framework. It also helps clarify how factors interrelate and so
provides a structure for the analysis of the importance of education, as a specific distal
factor.
The emphasis is not new. As far back as 1929, Van Alystne conducted pioneering
research on the relationship of the home environment to the intelligence of three-year
olds (VanAlystyne, 1929; see also Skodak, 1939). Since then distal and proximal