Human Development in Societal Context
- 1 January 2010
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Annual Reviews in Annual Review of Psychology
- Vol. 61 (1), 411-437
- https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.093008.100442
Abstract
Low family socioeconomic position is a net of related conditions—low income, material deprivation, single-parent family structure, low educational level, minority ethnic group membership, and immigrant status. According to ecological theory, proximal contexts experienced by children, including family, material resources, out-of-school experiences, schools, neighborhoods, and peers, are mediators of poverty effects. Developmental timing of exposure to poverty conditions and the processes by which effects occur differ for cognitive and social domains of development. Understanding how contexts combine and interact is as important as understanding their independent influences. Effects may be cumulative, but advantages in one context can also ameliorate disadvantages in others. Although research is typically based on unidirectional causal models, the relations between the developing child and the contexts he or she experiences are reciprocal and transactional. Finally, although income inequality has increased greatly, little is known about the influences of relative poverty and social inequality on human development.Keywords
This publication has 91 references indexed in Scilit:
- Structural and process features in three types of child care for children from high and low income familiesEarly Childhood Research Quarterly, 2008
- From statistical associations to causation: What developmentalists can learn from instrumental variables techniques coupled with experimental data.Developmental Psychology, 2008
- Maternal functioning, time, and money: The world of work and welfareChildren and Youth Services Review, 2007
- Effects of a Poverty Intervention Policy Demonstration on Parenting and Child Behavior: A Test of the Direction of Effects*Social Science Quarterly, 2007
- Testing Equivalence of Mediating Models of Income, Parenting, and School Readiness for White, Black, and Hispanic Children in a National SampleChild Development, 2007
- Income Is Not Enough: Incorporating Material Hardship Into Models of Income Associations With Parenting and Child DevelopmentChild Development, 2007
- Neighborhood Poverty, Social Capital, and the Cognitive Development of African American PreschoolersAmerican Journal of Community Psychology, 2006
- Family Income and Its Relation to Preschool Children's Adjustment for Families in the NICHD Study of Early Child Care.Developmental Psychology, 2004
- When do neighborhoods matter? The role of race and neighborhood peersSocial Science Research, 2003
- Parenting in Context: Impact of Neighborhood Poverty, Residential Stability, Public Services, Social Networks, and Danger on Parental BehaviorsJournal of Marriage and Family, 2001