Ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner

The Ecological theory Bronfenbrenner is based on the idea that to completely understand development, the way in which the child's unique characteristics interact with that child's environments must be taken into account.

The environment is considered as a series of nested structures that extend from the closest framework of the home through other contexts in which the child spends his life, such as school and neighborhood, and reaching the most remote of culture more wide.

It is proposed that each of these levels (graphically represented as concentric circles) has a powerful impact on the child's development.

Content

• Ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner
  • The microsystem
  • The mesosystem
  • The exosystem
  • The macrosystem
• Assessment of Bronfrennener's ecological theory
• References

Ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner

The microsystem

The most internal level is called microsystem And it refers to activities, roles and relationships in immediate contexts to the child (the child in the family, in school, with the same, in the neighborhood, in the church, etc).

These relationships change over time and with the development of the person. Traditionally the children's development specialists emphasize the effects of adults on the child when they study the relationships between two people at the microsystem level.

Bronfenbrenner points out that not only adult agents affect the boy's behavior, but the child also influences adult behavior. In other words, all diadic relationships are bidirectional and reciprocal.

Today, many investigations recognize the impact of the child's characteristics in the way others react towards him. Diadic interaction is also indirectly influenced by the presence of third parties.

For example, when parents encourage mothers regarding the care of their children, they are more effective in tasks such as child feeding. On the other hand, the tension and the marital conflict is associated with more inept children in food skills. Therefore, The development of children must be understood in terms of these complex interactions.

The mesosystem

The second level of Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory is the Messosystem. It refers to the relationships between microsystems such as home, school or neighborhood.

The author maintains that the child's development is facilitated through interconnections between these frames. Thus, for example, the child's ability to learn to read can depend not only on the learning activities carried out in first primary education, but also the degree to which these activities are carried out and stimulated in the home.

The mother's interaction with her child can be affected by the child's relationships with her caregivers in the nursery and vice versa. Madre-Niño and Noniño relationships can favor the development of the child when there are links between these contexts, for example, in the form of mutual visits and information exchanges between the home and the center.

Research that is located at the level of the mesosystem tries to capture in a comparative way the influences of several of these frames on behavior. One of the recurring concerns in this area has been that of Show the influence that parents and classmates have on different aspects of children's behavior.

The exosystem

The exosystem refers to social frames that do not contain the child concretely, but that They affect their experiences in their immediate frames.

Exosystems can be formal, as the workplace of parents or community health services. They can also be informal as the parents' social relations network with friends or with the most withdrawn family, which provides support and advice on childhood breeding practices.

Bronfenbrenner emphasizes the importance of goals and activities within the exosystem since they influence the well -being and development of the child. Thus, for example, the flexibility of work schedules, the possibility of maternity leave and permits for parents whose children are sick are forms that can help parents in their roles, and indirectly stimulate the child's development.

Research has also demonstrated the potentially negative impact of a rupture of activities in the exosystem. Thus, for example, families that are isolated socially, that is, that maintain few personal relationships or in their community, or families affected by unemployment show a greater incidence of minors abuse.

The macrosystem

The most external level of Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory is the macrosystem. This is not a specific environmental context, since It refers to ideology, values, laws, regulations and customs of a particular culture.

The priority granted by the macrosystem to the Evolutionary needs of children is especially crucial in determining their experiences at the lower levels of the environmental structure.

Thus, for example, in those countries in which Priority to the development of high quality standards Regarding the care of children and that they allocate public funds to ensure that promulgated criteria are achieved, there are more likely children to experience stimulating interactions with their peers, caregivers and adults.

Assessment of Bronfrennener's ecological theory

In recent years, the evolutionary investigations that have integrated the environment in their analysis have proliferated. The emphasis that has been granted to the environment has multiple reasons among which the reaction to the predominance of individualistic approaches (such as Freud and Piaget) in the study of development since the mid -century. These approaches have been criticized by the defenders of more contextualist perspectives such as ecological.

As criticism of ecological orientation, it can be noted that, with the exception of Bronfenbrenner's proposal, this approach is characterized by the absence of a unifying and coherent theory that directs studies that rethink the role of the environment in development.

Thus There is a multiplicity of empirical studies that, although they care about the environment, do not constitute novel proposals theoretically. On the other hand, many of the ecological studies analyze the influence of the environment in a global and exterior way without being interested in the psychological process, and it must be taken into account that only this process can account for the way in which the subject interacts with the environment.

References

• Bronfenbrenner, u. (1994). Ecological Models of Human Development. Readings on The Development of Children, 2(1), 37-43.
• Bronfenbrenner, u. (1992). Ecological Systems Theory. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
• Ryan, d. P. J. (2001). Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems Theory. Retrieved January, 9, 2012.
• Stiling, p. D. (nineteen ninety six). Ecology: Theories and Applications (Vol. 4). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.