Ecological and transactional approaches to child development: Proposals for designing both basic and applied research policies.

LIPINA, SEBASTIAN J.

University of Harvard

Workshop; Global Early Child Development Research Meeting; 2009

Child Developing Center

To establish an interdisciplinary research agenda focused on child development and its biological and social determinants, involves the necessity to start from a wide conceptualization that allows approaching the multiple dimensions and interactive mechanisms of complexity, in a systemic, comprehensive and coherent way [e.g., ecological (Bronfenbrenner, 2004) and transactional perspectives (Sameroff, 2009)]. This would not be only necessary to consider for the ECD Global Children’s Initiative, but also to promote the visualization of child development and its determinants as complex phenomena at different government, academic and civil organization levels. Thus, the gradual construction of a common language on child development and its determinants in ecological terms would be a first necessary step to build academic networks that can inform the design and implementation of comprehensive and coherent interventions. This is more outstanding in those societies with high degrees of invisibility of child development as complex phenomenon that involves different levels of biological and cultural processes. In a large part of the South American countries, this is not only a frequent phenomenon at political level, but also academic. In this context, the ecological and transactional considerations on child development and their determinants would contribute to build a research agenda that consider the following general and specific issues: (1) To identify different levels of problems and risk factors for basic and applied research. For instance, considering the ecological theory proposed by Bronfenbrenner (2004), the complex set of problems and risk factors that characterizes the biological and cultural determinants of child development could be categorized and organized in (a) individual; (b) Microsystems (e.g., children-parental interactions); (c) Mesosystems (e.g, home-school relationships); (d) Exosystems (e.g., government, NGO´s, and media impacts on development); and (e) Macrosystems terms (e.g., norms, values, and beliefs about children). This type of approaches would have the advantages of being centered on development as a complex phenomenon; to integrate different conceptual and methodological frameworks; and to be applicable in different sociocultural contexts. A central issue of interest in this approach should be the implementation of actions aimed at eliminating institutional barriers that increase the social exclusion of disadvantaged populations, particularly in developing countries (Nayaran and Petesch, 2002).  (2) To guide the design of interventions and public policies in terms of the different systems and dimensions involved in child development components and processes (building of ecology of the interventions). In particular, the current research agenda in the area of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience suggests the need to analyze the emergency of different self-regulatory cognitive and emotional processes, their role in learning and school readiness, their modulation by parental mental health and home stimulation, and their potential optimization through home, school, and community interventions as well (Lipina and Colombo, 2009).  (3) To promote financial priorities for government agencies and philanthropic foundations that support basic and applied research on child development. Although financial institutions and organizations in developing countries usually consider child development issues as a high-priority area, the lack of visualization of the complexity of their mechanisms and determinants outlines specific needs that are usually considered supplementary. At the same time, several academic inertias and sectorial interests promote the development of particular frameworks in detriment of others (e.g., constructivism versus behaviorism in educational research, or environmental versus genetic determination of cognitive competences throughout development), reducing the possibilities of genuine disciplinary integrations and the formation of researchers in new areas (e.g., Neuroscience and Education). In this context, it would be important to support efforts aimed at promoting collaborations focused on the integration of different levels of analysis. Some examples of this type of efforts are the following: (a) the modulation of parenting on the development of self-regulatory competences; (b) the analysis of the associations between teaching styles and the development of executive control competences; (c) the identification of cultural constrains for nutritional supplementation interventions; (d) the integration of cognitive, emotional and social competences stimulation in the design of school curricula; or (e) the inclusion of art in community interventions as a tool for social and health transformations. Complementary, basic and applied research evaluations require the availability of appropriate methods and technical tools. In developing countries there are not only a lack of development of methods and instruments, but also neither is enough suitable professionals for their design. In this sense, it would be important to promote financial support that can satisfy these needs.  (4) To establish training programs for professional training focused on child development as a complex phenomenon, and to support academic interdisciplinary efforts for progressively eliminate myths, prejudices and conceptual dogmatisms. The lack of childhood visualization is a frequent problem in developing countries in virtually all the levels of the societies including parents, teachers, politicians and policy-makers. Nevertheless, an even more serious situation is that child development as a complex phenomenon is also verified at academic levels among professors and researchers of different areas of research. In this context, it is high-priority to promote the training of professionals and young researchers of different areas from the graduate period of education (Education, Medicine, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Economy, Philosophy, and Social Work). This type of efforts should be enlarged progressively to include NGO’s and philanthropic organizations involved in actions guided to optimize child development opportunities.   (5) To influence the public opinion through the media promoting collaborations between researchers and journalists based on the considerations of child development as complex and systemic phenomenon. Part of the social responsibility of researchers is to disseminate knowledge avoiding the creation of myths on child development (Thompson and Nelson, 2001). In this sense, it would be useful to establish common ethical norms to inform to the public opinion through the media, and to generate training efforts such as interdisciplinary workshops and debates, and even contents for academic programs of social communication and journalism careers, as well. These efforts should also be integrated to the design of interventions of multiple modules, from an ecological and transactional perspective. References: Bronfenbrenner, U. (2004). Making human beings human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. / Lipina, S.J., Colombo, J.A. (2009). Poverty and brain development during childhood: An approach from Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience. American Psychological Association: Washington, D.C. / Narayan, D., Petesch, P. (2002). Voices of the poor from many lands. Oxford University Press: New York. / Sameroff, A. (2009). The transactional model of development: How children and contexts shape each other. American Psychological Association: Washington, D.C. /Thompson, R.A., Nelson, C.A. (2001). Developmental Science and the media. American Psychologist, 56, 5-15.