Theories of child development, which approach the family from the child perspective, include concerns with nature versus nurture, the flexibility or plasticity of the child at different ages to being moulded by the family, and the relative permanence of family influences (Kreppner and Lerner 1989). The development of the child is viewed as following a probabilistic epigenetic course - according to which, biology remains a prime mover but the developmental results depend on reciprocal interaction between biology and the social context, and hence on the probability that biological sensitive points in the child and the social and environmental resources of the family will come together to produce certain outcomes (Lerner 1989).This approach to the family elaborates theories regarding family factors as determinants of child outcome that have been useful in the design of such social interventions as the Head Start Program, later championed by Lerner. It includes the investigation of psychological resilience, or why some children thrive in adverse circumstances. Exploration of family effects often is reduced to the examination of dyadic parent-child interactions, usually focusing on the mother-child dyed, with little attention to family dynamics.The Bronfenbrenner modelBronfenbrenner (1979) placed child development in an ecological perspective. His ground-breaking work combined aspects of sociology and developmental psychology and laid an enduring foundation for future approaches. The relationships between individuals and their environments are viewed as "mutually shaping." Brofenbrenner saw the individual's experience "as a set of nested structures, each inside the next, like a set of Russian dolls" (Bronfenbrenner 1979, 22). In studying human development, one has to see within, beyond, and "across" how the several systems interact (family, workplace, and economy). The study of the ability of families to access and manage resources across these systems would appear to be a logical extension of his investigations. His four interlocking systems that shape individual development are as follows:
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