The name is absent

Introduction

factors have been found to contribute uniquely and additively to the prediction of
child development, for an early example of this see (Whiteman et al., 1967). Using a
Deprivation Index of proximal home environment factors such as engaging in dinner
conversation and exposure to cultural activities, the authors found that this index and
one of socio-economic status each contributed independently to depressed IQ scores
of inner-city elementary school children.

It is not implied that a specific factor (distal or proximal) causes a given child
outcome through a unique one-way causal pathway that would operate for all parent
child dyads with those specific aspects of an environment. Rather, there is a complex
process of interaction between children and contexts.

The attention to proximal factors as the most central elements of the framework does
not relegate distal factors or indicate a lower concern for their importance. Some
aspects of the social class attainment gap may be explained by the proximal factors
and characteristics of the family but that does not mean that the class effect is not real.
Rather, this framework helps in understanding the elements of the class effect and the
interactions between them.

1.3.1 Mediation and moderation - some definitions

Aspects of this framework are modelled in statistical analysis in terms of mediation
and moderation. For clarity it may be helpful to offer brief definitions.

Let us take the example of the effect of income which as we describe below acts as a
distal factor, impacting on the outcome of child development. If the reason or channel
for that effect is that income buys resources which are productive for child
development, including good housing, nutrition, books and so on, then we can say
that these resources mediate the effect of income. The mediator is the channel or
mechanism for the effect. There may be other important mediators. In Box 1
characteristics of the family and proximal processes mediate the effects of the distal
factors on child outcomes.

Now if we hypothesise that education changes the nature of the effect of income in
that those with more education might spend more of their income on developmentally
enhancing resources then we say that education moderates the effect of income (Box
2).

Box 2: Conceptual model for the moderating influences of parental education on income

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