Developmental niche

The developmental niche is a theoretical framework for understanding and analyzing how culture shapes child development. Developed by Charles M. Super and Sara Harkness. It is theoretically related to, and shares some origins with, Weisner’s “ecocultural niche,” and Worthman’s “developmental microniche.” See also "evolved developmental niche."
Description.
The Super & Harkness developmental niche is explained as a tool for understanding how culture impacts development. This process uses the individual as the main focus of study and expands on the development of the niche. The collective qualities of her/his environment are created by the individual, who is able to make choices based on the available resources. However, these choices stem from cultural structure and the endogenous aspects of individual development or genetics and predisposition. 
Two overarching principles reflect the framework’s in cultural anthropology and developmental psychology: 
The developmental niche is seen as the composite of three interacting subsystems:
The three subsystems of the developmental niche - settings, customs, and caretaker psychology - share the common function of mediating the child's developmental experience within the larger culture. Of particular significance for integrating research on these components are three corollaries:
The developmental niche framework makes evident the kind of systematic regularity that culture provides – environmental organization that emphasizes repeatedly or with singular salience the culture’s core “messages.” This quality, called “contemporary redundancy,” is important for the acquisition of skills and values as it offers multiple opportunities for learning the same thing, whether that “thing” is reading, caring for others, the communication of emotions, or the value of “independence.” The elaboration of themes over the course of developmental time reinforces lessons learned earlier and recasts them in a more adequate format for meeting the challenges of increasing maturity. As an organizer of the environment, culture assures that key meaning systems are elaborated in appropriate ways at different stages of development, and that the learning occurs across behavioral domains and various scales of time. It is through such cultural thematicity that the environment works its most profound influences on development.