Toward a Comprehensive Theoretical Framework for Disability Research

Abstract

This article critiques three features of Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1992) ecological theory of human development in relationship to the development of children with disabilities: (a) developmentally instigative person characteristics, (b) hierarchical environmental systems of influence, and (c) the dimension of time. The study of development within the context of home, school, and community has been significantly advanced by ecological psychology. Although the ecological paradigm has been invoked in the disability literature as a framework for child, classroom, and family investigations, few studies provide a comprehensive treatment of the model. Bronfenbrenner's recently expanded theory provides a provocative framework for the study of children with disabilities. This framework includes the identification of ecological niches; that is, unique regions in the environment that differentially influence children with particular personal characteristics. Selected studies from the disability literature illustrate the incorporation of the three features into research on children with disabilities and their families. Suggestions for shifting research paradigms toward a more comprehensive approach to the study of development and change in children with disabilities are provided.