| Abstract: | Recent research which has investigated relationships between family environments and the cognitive performance of children has lacked a sound theoretical framework and has trivialized the nature of the relations between structural social forces and social-psychological environment variables. In the present study, a social learning theory of the family which links cognitive performance with distal and proximal environment variables is tested. Factor scaling is used to construct new environment scales to measure the proximal learning environment of the family. Canonical analysis is used to examine the theory. The findings suggest that our understanding of the differences in the cognitive performance of children will be enriched by starting from a theoretical perspective which analyzes relationships between structural social forces and the family learning environment defined in terms of parents' expectations and the cognitive stimuli and reinforcement provided in families. |
