Urban Environments & Urban Children.

In this monograph the authors are concerned with the characteristics of urban environments that may facilitate or impede the urban child's development. The term "environmental press" is used to refer to the combined influence of forces working in a setting to shape the behavior and development of people in that setting. The authors suggest that many factors affect the life of the child in the city; not only the forces involved in environmental press but also the many social patterns which encourage or discourage various actions. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the environmental side of the interaction; specifically the environmental characteristics that are the most important for the developing child. The paper is based on a framework proposed by Bronfenbrenner (1979) for studying the ecology of human development. This framework guides attention to the central role of the family but the authors go beyond the family in identifying other sources of environmental influences. The authors describe Bronfenbrenner's multilevel framework and discuss environmental opportunities for and risks to the child's development that may originate at each level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]