Introduction
possible interactions with one another. For each, we lay out the key factors identified
in the literature and focus particularly on the indirect effect hypotheses i., iii. and v.,
assessing the extent to which theory and evidence suggests that each factor is:
i. influenced by prior parental education;
ii. an important determinant of child development.
For each key factor we provide a summary that indicates the strength of the effect
from theoretical perspective and from the evidence as well as an assessment of the
extent to which the evidence has been able to identify the relevant causal link.
Finally, in section 6, we summarise the key evidence and evaluate the implications of
parental education for the outcomes of children, an aspect of the inter-generational
transmission of advantage and of the general formation of capability. We also
describe some recent investigations into interactive effects across the model, using
structural equation modelling, that have attempted to test the extent to which
hypothesised proximal processes do mediate the effects of distal variables on
outcomes. This strand of research attempts to test more complex aspects of the overall
model of transmission.
1.5. Caveats, limitations and alternative perspectives
1.5.1 The importance of contexts other than the family
The focus on parents’ education in this paper necessarily places an emphasis on the
family context as a fundamental locus of interactions relevant to the developing child.
However, we do not neglect schools, neighbourhoods and other important contexts.
As we discuss below, the family is not independent of other contexts and there are
vital interactions between contexts that are fundamental to the ecological model.
Section 3 is an important part of this paper as it considers how other contexts act as
channels for the effects of parents’ education.
1.5.2 The multi-dimensionality of development
The paper aims to bring together theory and evidence on the effects of the diverse sets
of factors in the ecological model. However, much of the evidence on distal factors
has focused on school attainment and rather less on other domains of development.
This is particularly so of the economic literature which has a strong interest in human
capital. Therefore, whereas the parenting literature, for example, has an explicit
concern for development defined more broadly than success in school exams or
cognitive development, this is less so of the literature on the effects of family
background. Yet wider skills are strongly linked to adult life opportunities (Feinstein
& Bynner, 2003), which are recognised as sources of productivity benefit (DfES,
2003) and of social exclusion (UK Social Exclusion Unit, 1998). Therefore, we do not
restrict our attention to cognitive development. There is a broad range of other
outcomes that may be of interest for different theoretical and policy concerns,
including: intelligence, educational achievement, social competence, behavioural
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