Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System Theory Paper

Bronfenner’s ecological systems theory identifies five environmental systems with which child interacts. The model consist of five major systems; microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. Bronfenbrenner believed that each system joins with each other to affect a child’s development.

The first level is the microsystem, which is made up of the child’s daily activities, and the people with whom the child interacts with on a regular basis. This core environment is how the child initially learns about the world. Bronfenbrenner believed that the relationships within the microsystem are bidirectional, meaning that the child’s behavior influences the adults, while the reverse is also true. One way the microsystem can affect a child’s development is when one or both parents experience depression. Infants of depressed mothers sleep poorly, are less attentive to their surroundings and have elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol (Field, 1998). The greater the depression is in the parent, the more the child will suffer. Children who have been neglected due to a parent’s depression are more than likely to lack self-confidence, and to inherit the same poor emotional responses to stressful situations as the depressed parent. When a depressed parent does not respond easily to treatment, a warm relationship with the other parent or another caregiver can safeguard children’s development (Mezulis, Hyde & Clark, 2004). This last sentence is a good example of why as a teacher; I need to remember that each child I teach, regardless of their attitude, deserves a kind and loving teacher who treats everyone the same.

The Mesosystem described as the connections between 2 Microsystems coming together in the same ...

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...ndividual’s microsystem changes every time they obtain or let go of life roles or surroundings. He refers to these ever-changing systems as the chronosystem, the prefex chrono means ‘time’ (Berk 2012, p.27). These changes are crucial to the child’s development. Life changes are enforced from external environments, however, these changes can also occur from inside the individual. As a result, in the ecological systems theory, an individual’s development is not determined by just environmental factors or internal character. People are products and creators of their own environments. Therefore, both people and their surroundings form a system of mutually dependent effects.

Teachers often need to consider not just what goes on in the classroom but also what happens in students’ families, neighborhoods, and peer groups.

Works Cited

Berk, Infants and Children 2012