Proximal family processes
style is not exogenous, yet neither can it be allocated experimentally. It may well be
that often unobserved factors such as parental well-being, stress or cognitive
capabilities underlie apparent effects of parenting style on development. Evaluation
evidence is useful but uncertain as authors disagree about the extent to which
parenting programmes influence children’s development. Magnusson’s (Magnusson
& Duncan, in press) view of the evaluation evidence is that parenting may exert a
stronger influence on behaviour than on cognitive development. Webster-Stratton
finds strong influences on behaviour, in line with the Magnusson reading of the
evidence ( Webster-Stratton, 1990b; Webster-Stratton & Hammond, 1997). The
implication of the discrepancy between evaluation and survey-based evidence is that
more work needs to be done on examining changes in parenting style in the large
survey analyses. The evaluation evidence suggests that interventions succeed in
altering children’s school attainment substantially. This perhaps suggests that the
survey analysis has been wrong in concluding that the strong correlations between
parenting style and cognitive development are causal.
At first glance, one may not imagine that education would impact heavily on parental
warmth which is more about enjoyment of relationships with children and parental
well-being than about parental demographics. However, to the extent that education
enhances efficacy and well-being it may lead to increased parental warmth. Moreover,
education does appear to enhance parents’ capacity to be considerate in their use of
discipline. There is, therefore, an effect of education on the use of appropriate
discipline and developmentally enhancing discipline. The evidence supports this
theoretical conjecture but, again, there have not yet been sufficient large sample
longitudinal studies to test causality as robustly as available techniques would allow.
We conclude therefore, that there is substantial theory and correlational evidence to
support the view that parenting style is an important channel for the inter-generational
transmission of education. In other words, parenting style is likely to be an important
mediator of education effects. Parents’ education influences socialisation strategy
quite strongly and may also influence parental warmth. Both of these factors have
been shown to be likely influences on children’s development. Therefore, parenting
style is a strong candidate for a key mediator of education effects. However, for the
reasons given above more robust longitudinal designs would be useful in clarifying
the extent to which the observed correlations are causal. The evaluation evidence
suggests that parenting style may be more important for behavioural than immediately
cognitive outcomes.
2.3. Educational behaviours
2.3.1 The effects of educational behaviours on child development
Educational behaviours in the home take on many different but complementary forms
of parent-child interaction, for example reading to children, visiting the library,
painting and drawing, learning letters, numbers, songs, poems and nursery rhymes.
Such experiences are likely to influence both the child’s skill levels as well as their
interest in engaging in such activities. In turn, skill and interest level should facilitate
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