发展级联(developmentalcascades)近年来已成为发展心理学追踪研究中一种重要的理论视角。其基本观点是:人的发展过程是一个诸多发展特征不断产生级联效应的过程,某个时间点上个体特征的发展状况会对该特征的后续发展产生影响,并影响其他领域的发展,进而影响到个体的整个发展进程。在发展级联的理论观点基础上形成的相关方法学模型,为探究发展系统中多个因素之间的纵向关联提供了方法学依据与指导。本文介绍了发展级联的相关概念、理论基础、主要观点以及相关的方法学问题,并对其在实证研究中的应用进行了展望。
Developmental cascades have become a new theoretical perspective and a study design strategy for developmental research in recent years. Development is conceptualized as a process of persistent cascade effects among various developmental factors over time. Specifically, developmental cascades postulate that the development level of a certain factor at a particular time point will affect subsequent development of its own, and will spill over to influence development of other domains as well. As a result, the entire follow-up processes of individual development are influenced. Researchers developed statistic models according to the theoretical rationales of the developmental cascades. These statistical models provide methodological guidelines for investigating longitudinal associations among multiple factors in developmental systems. This literature review introduced the development cascades in terms of the related concepts, theoretical basis and rationale, and the methodological issues, and was concluded with insights for the future research.