Must the physical environment be mediated by the social environment in order to influence development?: A further test

Abstract

To test the validity of the prevailing assumption that physical environmental influences must be mediated by the social environment in order to have an impact upon development, the physical and social environments of 88 12-month-old infants were assessed. Significant physical and social environment predictors were combined into separate data sets. Using indices of infant play behavior as a criterion, hierarchical regressions were computed, varying order of entry of these data sets. Replicating prior research, the physical environment data set accounted for unique predictive variance, even after variance associated with the social environment was controlled for. Predictive variance associated with the social environment data set dropped to nonsignificance after the contributions of the physical environment were taken into account. Interactions between physical and social environmental influences upon play behavior tended to be nonsignificant. Implications of these results for theories of environmental action were discussed.