Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c47g7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-23T06:33:13.161Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Social context: meanings, measures and mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2009

Abstract

Concepts, findings and methodological considerations regarding the influence of social circumstances on psychological functioning are selectively reviewed with respect to five different types of possible effect deriving from: the impact of social connotation or meaning of risk/protective factors; social comparison effects; compositional effects deriving from the make-up of a social group; a social contextual effect reflecting the ethos of a broader social environment; and a social group characteristics effect stemming from the behaviour/values of a peer group.

Type
Focus: Personality and identity
Copyright
Copyright © Academia Europaea 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Engfer, A., Walper, S. and Rutter, M. (1994) Individual characteristics as a force in development. In Development Through Life: A Handbook for Clinicians, Rutter, M. and Hay, D. F. (eds) (Oxford: Blackwell Scientific) pp. 79111.Google Scholar
2.Christensen, H. T. (1960) Cultural relativism and premarital sex norms. American Sociological Review, 25, 3139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Hess, L. A. (1995) Changing family patterns in Western Europe: opportunity and risk factors for adolescent development. In Psychosocial Disorders in Young People: Time Trends and Their Causes, Rutter, M. and Smith, D. J. (eds) (Chichester: Wiley) pp. 104193.Google Scholar
4.Leffert, N. and Petersen, A. C. (1995) Patterns of development during adolescence. In Psychosocial Disorders in Young People: Time Trends and Their Causes, Rutter, M. and Smith, D. J. (eds), (Chichester: Wiley) pp. 67103.Google Scholar
5.Rutter, M. and Rutter, M. (1993) Developing Minds: Challenge and Continuity Across the Life Span (London: Basic Books).Google Scholar
6.Rutter, M. (1979/1980) Changing Youth in a Changing Society: Patterns of Adolescent Development and Disorder (London/Cambridge MA: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust/Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
7.Smith, D. J. (1995) Living conditions in the twentieth century. Psychosocial Disorders in Young People: Time Trends and Their Causes, Rutter, M. and Smith, D. J. (eds) (Chichester: Wiley) pp. 194295.Google Scholar
8.Flynn, J. R. (1987) Massive IQ gains in 14 nations: what IQ tests really measure. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 171191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
9.Macintyre, S. and Ellaway, A. (forthcoming) Ecological approaches: rediscovering the role of the physical and social environment. Social Epidemiology, Berkman, L. and Kawachi, I. (eds) (Oxford: Oxford University Press).Google Scholar
10.Meyer, J. M., Silberg, J. L., Simonoff, E., Kendler, K. S. and Hewitt, J. K. (1996) The Virginia twin study of adolescent behavioral development: assessing sample biases in demographic correlates of psychopathology. Psychological Medicine, 26, 11191133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
11.Robinson, W. S. (1950) Ecological correlations and the behavior of individuals. American Sociological Review, 15, 351357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
12.Hauser, R. (1974) Contextual analysis revisited. Sociological Methods and Research, 2, 365375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13.Kasl, S. (1979) Mortality and the business cycle: some questions about research strategies when utilizing macro-social and ecological data. American Journal of Public Health, 69, 784788.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
14.Piantadosi, S., Byar, D. and Green, S. (1988) The ecological fallacy. American Journal of Epidemiology, 127, 893904.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
15.Schwartz, S. (1994) The fallacy of the ecological fallacy: the potential misuse of a concept and the consequences. American Journal of Public Health, 85, 819824.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
16.Wilson, W. J. (1987) The Truly Disadvantaged: The Innercity, the Underclass, and Public Policy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).Google Scholar
17.Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
18.Hinde, R. A. and Stevenson-Hinde, J. (1988) Relationships Within Families: Mutual Influences (Oxford: Clarendon Press).Google Scholar
19.Harris, J. R. (1998) The Nurture Assumption: Why children turn out the way they do. (London: Bloomsbury).Google Scholar
20.Maccoby, E. (1998) The Two Sexes: Crowing Up Apart, Coming Together (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
21.Rowe, D. C., Woulbroun, E. J. and Gulley, B. L. (1994) Peers and friends as nonshared environmental influences. In Separate Social Worlds of Siblings, Hetherington, E. M., Reiss, D. and Plomin, R. (eds) (Hillsdale NJ: Erlbaum) pp. 159173.Google Scholar
22.Maughan, B. (1994) School influences. In Development Through Life: A Handbook for Clinicians, Rutter, M. and Hay, D. (eds) (Oxford: Blackwell Scientific) pp. 134158.Google Scholar
23.Mortimore, P. (1995) The positive effects of schooling. In Psychosocial Disturbances in Young People: Challenges for Prevention, Rutter, M. (ed) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) pp. 333363.Google Scholar
24.Brooks-Gunn, J., Duncan, G. J. and Aber, J. L. (1997) Neighborhood Poverty, Vol. 1: Context and Consequences for Children (New York: Russell Sage Foundation).Google Scholar
25.Rutter, M., Giller, H. and Hagell, A. (1998) Antisocial Behavior by Young People (New York: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
26.Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W. and Earls, F. (1997) Neighborhoods and violent crime: a multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277, 918924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27.Rutter, M., Dunn, J., Plomin, R., Simonoff, E., Pickles, A., Maughan, B., Ormel, J., Meyer, J. and Eaves, L. (1997) Integrating nature and nurture: implications of person-environment correlations and interactions for developmental psychopathology. Development and Psychopathology, 9, 335364.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
28.Rutter, M. (1994) Beyond longitudinal data: causes, consequences, changes and continuity. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 62, 928940.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
29.Rutter, M. (1995) Causal concepts and their testing. In Psychosocial Disorders in Young People: Time Trends and Their Causes, Rutter, M. and Smith, D. J. (eds) (Chichester: Wiley) pp. 734.Google Scholar
30.Snyder, H. N., Sickmund, M. and Poe-Yamagata, E. (1996) Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 1996 Update on Violence (Washington DC: Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Prevention).Google Scholar
31.Rutter, M. (1971) Parent–child separation: psychological effects on the children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 12, 233260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
32.Fergusson, D. M., Horwood, L. J. and Lynskey, M. T. (1992) Family change, parental discord and early offending. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 33, 10591075.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
33.Harris, T., Brown, G. W. and Bifulco, A. (1986) Loss of a parent in childhood and adult psychiatric disorder: the role of lack of adequate parental care. Psychological Medicine, 16, 641659.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
34.Deater-Deckard, K. and Dodge, K. A. (1997) Externalizing behavior problems and discipline revisited: nonlinear effects and variation by culture, context, and gender. Psychological Inquiry, 8, 161175.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35.Rutter, M., Maughan, B., Mortimore, P., Ouston, J. and Smith, A. (1979) Fifteen Thousand Hours: Secondary Schools and Their Effects on Children (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press).Google Scholar
36.Dunn, J. and Plomin, R. (1990) Separate Lives: Why Siblings Are So Different, (New York: Basic Books).Google Scholar
37.Daniels, D. and Plomin, R. (1985) Differential experience of siblings in the same family. Developmental Psychology, 21, 747760.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
38.Carbonneau, R., Eaves, L. J., Silberg, J. L., Meyer, J. M., Maes, H. H., Rutter, M., Simonoff, E. and Hewitt, J. K. (submitted) Longitudinal assessment of non-shared environmental experiences in twins: Psychometric properties and multiple ratings of the Twin Inventory of Relationships and Experiences (TIRE).Google Scholar
39.Bell, R. Q. and Chapman, M. (1986) Child effects in studies using experimental or brief longitudinal approaches to socialization. Developmental Psychology, 22, 595603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40.Carbonneau, R., Eaves, L. J., Silberg, J. L., Rutter, M., Simonoff, E. and Hewitt, J. K. (submitted) Assessment of Genetic and Environmental Influences on Differential Ratings of Within Family Experiences and Relationships in Twins.Google Scholar
41.O'Connor, T. G., Deater-Deckard, K., Fulker, D., Rutter, M. and Plomin, R. (submitted) Genotype-environment correlations in late childhood and early adolescence: antisocial behavioral problems and coercive parenting. Developmental Psychology, 34, 970981.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
42.Reiss, D., Hetherington, M., Plomin, R., Howe, G. W., Simmens, S. J., Henderson, S. H., O'Connor, T. J., Bussell, D. A., Anderson, E. R. and Law, T. (1995) Genetic questions for environmental studies: Differential parenting and psychopathology in adolescence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 52, 925936.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
43.Maughan, B. and Lindelow, M. (1997) Secular change in psychosocial risks: the case of teenage motherhood. Psychological Medicine, 27, 11291144.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
44.Goodman, R., Simonoff, E. and Stevenson, J. (1995) The relationship between child IQ, parent IQ and sibling IQ on child behavioural deviance scores. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 36, 409425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
45.Rutter, M. and Madge, N. (1976) Cycles of Disadvantage: A Review of Research (London: Heinemann).Google Scholar
46.Wilkinson, R. G. (1996) Unhealthy Societies: The Afflictions of Inequality, (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
47.Mortimore, P., Sammons, P., Stoll, L., Lewis, D. and Ecob, R. (1988) School Matters: The Junior Years (Wells, Somerset: Open Books).Google Scholar
48.Osborn, S. G. (1980) Moving home, leaving London and delinquent trends. British Journal of Criminology, 20, 5461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
49.Ferrie, J. E., Shipley, M. J., Marmot, M. G., Stansfeld, S. and Davey-Smith, G. (1995) Health effects of anticipation of job change and non-employment: longitudinal data from the Whitehall II study. British Medical Journal, 311, 12641269.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
50.Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R. and Sherif, C. W. (1961) Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers' Cave Experiment (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press).Google Scholar
51.Kandel, D. B. (1978) Homophily, selection and socialization in adolescent friendships. American Journal of Sociology, 84, 427436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar