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The Ecology of Human Development, or Ecological Systems Theory, is a theory of socialization and child development by Uri Bronfenbrenner. Grace Craig, author of the well-known textbook Developmental Psychology, calls Bronfenbrenner’s model «perhaps the most influential model of human development to date.» The theory describes what social environments and how they affect the child.
According to Bronfenbrenner, the ecological environment of a child’s development consists of four systems, as if nested one inside the other, which are usually graphically depicted as concentric rings:
- microsystem — child’s family
- mesosystem — kindergarten, school, yard, quarter of residence
- exosystem — adult social organizations
- the macrosystem is the country’s cultural practices, values, customs, and resources.
The model seems to be simple and self-evident, while describing many things realistically due to Bronfenbrenner’s emphasis on the flexibility of both forward and backward links between these four systems.
For example, a flexible schedule in an enterprise where the mother of a child works allows a woman to pay more attention to education and will indirectly affect the development of the child. At the same time, the opportunity for a mother to manage her time more freely usually contributes to her mental balance and indirectly affects the increase in the productivity of women’s labor.
Bronfenbrenner notes that ecological systems are mobile and change over time. The birth of a younger brother/sister, the beginning of schooling, or the divorce of parents change the relationship between the child and his environment. The birth of a new baby has very different consequences for a baby who is just learning to walk, and for a schoolchild who has many sources of communication and interests outside the family.
So, what is the impact of the main ecological systems?
Microsystem: family.
The personality of the child is formed by his family, parental attitudes and family atmosphere. If the family is friendly, the child grows more calm, manageable and friendly. On the contrary, marital conflict is usually associated with inconsistent disciplinary measures and hostility towards children, which generates reciprocal childish hostility. At the same time, it should be taken into account that all relationships are reciprocal, i.e. not only adults influence the behavior of children, but the children themselves, their physical properties, personality characteristics and capabilities also affect the behavior of adults. For example, a friendly, attentive child often evokes positive and calm reactions from parents, while a confused and restless child is often punished and his freedom of action is limited. The family, as an environment, is a very dynamic entity. Even in relation to two twins, we cannot assert the identity of the developmental environment, because they are subject to different requirements, different expectations, since one of them is inevitably assigned to the elder, and the other to the younger.
Mesosystem: school, quarter of residence, kindergarten.
The mesosystem affects the development of the child not directly, but in tandem with the microsystem — the family. The relationship between parents and children is influenced by the relationship of the baby with kindergarten teachers, and vice versa. If the family and kindergarten teachers are ready to cooperate, make friends and communicate, the relationship between the child and parents, as well as between the child and teachers improves.
On the other hand, the situation in the family affects how the school, yard and kindergarten will affect the child. A child’s progress at school depends not only on the situation in the classroom, but also on the situation in the family: academic performance improves if parents are interested in school life and teach the child to do homework. If a brother and sister go to the same school, but the sister is allowed to bring home friends, and the brother is not, the mesosystem of their life will be different.
The influence of the mesosystem on a child is refracted not only through the family, but also through the personality of the child himself: children can go to the same school, but at the same time the circle of classmates can be significant for one and indifferent for another, all the important life events of which take place, for example , in the drama club.
The exosystem is adult social organizations. These can be formal organizations, such as where the parents work, or the social and health services of the county. Flexible working hours, paid vacations for mothers and fathers, sick leave for parents in case of illness of children — this is how the ecosystem can help parents in raising children and indirectly contribute to development. Support from the exosystem can also be informal, for example, carried out by the forces of the social environment of parents — friends and family members help, with advice, friendly communication, and even materially. As a rule, the more connections a family has with social organizations, the more beneficial it is for the family and the development of the child, and the fewer such connections, the more unpredictable the situation in the family and the development of the child is. For example, in isolated families, in families with few personal or formal ties, an overestimated level of conflict and maltreatment of children is more often noted.
Macrosystem
The macrosystem is the country’s cultural practices, values, customs, and resources. If a country does not encourage fertility and does not provide parental leave, then the child will grow up in conditions of lack of maternal attention, and micro-, meso- and exo-systems may not be sufficient to compensate for this. On the other hand, regardless of particular external conditions, the main components of the way of life and worldview are preserved in the subculture.
In countries where the highest standards are set for the quality of child care, and where special conditions are made in the workplace for working parents, children are more likely to have positive experiences in their particular environment. The rules according to which children with developmental delays can study in a mainstream school have a significant impact on the level of education and social development of both these children and their «normal» peers. In turn, the success or failure of this pedagogical undertaking may help or, on the contrary, hinder further attempts to integrate lagging children into the mainstream school.
Bronfenbrenner believed that the macrosystem has the most significant role in the development of the child, since the macrosystem has the ability to influence all other levels. For example, the American state program of compensatory education «Head Start», aimed at improving academic performance and developing the intellectual abilities of students from low-income families and national minorities, according to Bronfenbrenner, had a huge positive impact on the development of several generations of American children.
Who or what is the source of the child’s personality development?
In ecological systems theory, children are both products and creators of the environment. According to Bronfenbrenner, situations in life can either be imposed on the child or be the result of the child’s own activity. As children get older, they change their environment and rethink their experiences. But even here interdependencies continue to work, because how children do this depends not only on their physical, intellectual and personal traits, but also on how they were brought up, what they managed to absorb from the environment.
Maslow and Bronfenbrenner
It is interesting to compare these two models. And it seems that the Bronfenbrenner model is much more realistic and working.
Экологиялык система деген эмне