Proximal family processes
Language pervades the transmission of human and cultural capital from birth and
many studies report an association between aspects of verbal communication in the
home and subsequent school achievement. Since humans are predisposed to
communicate, inputs to language acquisition and resulting individual differences in
development are key in illuminating potential mechanisms for the transmission of
learning. Thus language can also be considered as an element of interactions in both
categories.
This twofold classification can be related to that of others. In a five-fold classification
of core processes that link family functioning and school achievement for children,
Hess & Holloway (1984) identified five core processes:
i. verbal interaction between mothers and children;
ii. affective relationships between parents and children;
iii. discipline and control strategies;
iv. expectations of parents for achievement;
v. parents’ beliefs and attributions.
Of these five, the last two are considered in our model as characteristics of the family
context and not immediate elements of parent-child interactions. Therefore, they are
considered in section 4.2 on parental cognitions. The second and third can be
considered as elements (warmth and discipline) of our first category. Their first
process cuts across both of our process categories. Hess and Holloway stress the
importance of educational behaviours and the learning environment in the home but
do not treat it as an explicit aspect of parent-child interactions.
In a later classification of family process factors essential for normal cognitive and
social development, Ramey and Ramey (2000) identify seven ‘psychosocial
developmental priming mechanisms’. We quote these in full because they
demonstrate well how the separate categories of parent-child interaction necessarily
merge in the reality of those interactions:
i. “encourage exploration with all the senses, in familiar and new places, with
others and alone, safely and with joy;
ii. celebrate developmental advances - learning new skills, little and big and
becoming a unique individual;
iii. protect from inappropriate disapproval, teasing, neglect, or punishment and
comfort appropriately;
iv. guide and limit behaviour to keep a child safe and to teach what is acceptable
and what is not, i.e. the rules of being cooperative, responsive and caring.
v. mentor in basic skills, showing the whats and whens and the ins and outs of
how things and people work;
vi. rehearse and extend new skills, showing the child how to practice again and
again, in the same and different ways, with new people and new things;
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