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Contents
- Abstract
- Paradigm Parameters
- External Systems Affecting the Family
- Mesosystem models
- Exosystem models
- Chronosystem models
- Family Processes in Context
- Social address model
- Process-context model
- Person-process-context model
- Mesosystem Models
- Ecology of Family Genetics
- Genetics-environment interaction in family processes
- The Family and the Hospital
- The Family and Day Care
- The Family and the Peer Group
- Family and School
- Exosystem Models
- Family and Work
- Parental Employment and Family Life
- Maternal Employment and the Family
- Parental Support Networks
- The Family and the Community
- Chronosystem Models
- Research Gaps and Opportunities
- Ecological Variations in the Expression of Genotypes
- Identification of discordant phenotypes
- Child rearing processes in adoptive families
- Relations Between the Family and Other Child Settings
- Preexisting intersetting relationships
- Transition feedback
- Posttransition changes in relations between settings
- Family and day care
- Family and the peer group
- Family and the school
- Family and children's work experience
- Relations Between Family Processes and Parental Participation in Other Settings of Adult Life
- Family and the conditions of parental work
- Family and parental social networks
- Families in Broader Social Contexts
- Unravelling social class
- Family's occupational status
- Parents' education
- Family income
- Families in the community
- Family and geographic mobility
- Television and the family
- Family, poverty, and unemployment
- Research on the effects of child and family policy
Abstract
This review collates and examines critically a theoretically convergent but widely dispersed body of research on the influence of external environments on the functioning of families as contexts of human development. Investigations falling within this expanding domain include studies of the interaction of genetics and environment in family processes; transitions and linkages between the family and other major settings influencing development, such as hospitals, day care, peer groups, school, social networks, the world of work (both for parents and children), and neighborhoods and communities; and public policies affecting families and children. A second major focus is on the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course as these affect and are affected by intrafamilial processes. Special emphasis is given to critical research gaps in knowledge and priorities for future investigation.
The purpose of this article is to document and delineate promising lines of research on external influences that affect the capacity of families to foster the healthy development of their children. The focus differs from that...