Child Social Development in Context: An Examination of Some Propositions in Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Theory

Abstract

In his later writings, Bronfenbrenner revised his ecological theory, resulting in the bioecological model that gave prominence to proximal processes and the relationship between the context and individual characteristics. Drawing on the bioecological model, we hypothesized that (a) contextual influences will be mediated by proximal processes, (b) proximal processes will have a more powerful impact on children’s development than contextual factors, and (c) the effect of contextual and proximal processes will vary as a function of child characteristic and developmental outcome. Data used were from a sample of 28,064 six- to eleven-year-olds in the 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health. A multigroup structural equation model that employed a process-person-context research design was used to analyze the data. In general, support was found for the meditational hypothesis and the hypothesis that the impact of contextual factors and proximal processes varies as a function of person and the developmental outcome. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that proximal processes exert a more powerful effect on development than contextual factors.