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Posted: February 28th, 2025
In this assignment I am going to critically discuss on Bronfenbrenner’s(1979) ecological model of human development. I will examine the background to the model and will examine each system within it, discussing its’ relevance relating to children living with disabilities. Disabilities will be in the form of children who cannot walk, do not speak, and have complex medical needs (eg, difficult to treat seizures). The term “nuclear” family refers in the sociological sense to a family that consists of father, mother and children living under the same roof.
Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917–2005) is considered one of the best known developmental psychology theorists in the world. He developed an Ecological Theory (1979) on how influences in a child’s environment will affect how that child grows and develops. The model offers a broad systems-level framework across many aspects of child development to illustrate how developmental challenges impact an individual’s development. It also forms the basis of Belsky and Vondra (1989); and Prilleltensky and Nelson (2000); their work underpins the Department of Health’s (2000) ‘Framework for the Assessment of Children in Need and their Families’. Ecological models have been strongly promoted by social care agencies working with children and families. Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model of child development describes the constellations and levels of relationships and interactions between the individual and his/her environment, comprises five systems: micro-; meso-; exo-; macro-; and, more recently chrono-systems. Bronfenbrenner (1979) used the imagery of a set of Russian Dolls to aid the understanding of his model’s ecological context. All nesting one within each other, like dolls.
The first of these systems is the microsystem. The microsystem is the closest layer to the child (Paquette & Ryan 2001, http://pt3.nl.edu/paquetteryanwebquest.pdf) and is generally small, encompassing, in addition to the child themselves, the immediate relationships of family or other cares and peers and teachers (Berk 2000). At this level, relationships can affect in two directions—with others away from the child, and across toward the child (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). For instance, a child’s beliefs and behaviour may be influenced by his parents. But the child has an effect on the parent’s behaviour and beliefs as well. According to Bronfenbrenner (1979), these are referred to as bi-directional influences, and as such, they can take place between all systems of environment. He claimed that interaction of structures in a layer and interaction of structures with structures in other layers are central to this theory. These reciprocal relationships are most intensified within the inner systems, however could still leave its footprints within the outer systems. Bowlby (1969) and Ainsworth et al (1978) heavily influenced Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model in studying infant attachments and related behaviours.
In addition to parental influences, at the micro level other organisations can engage with the child and “live” in the microsystem, such as social workers or health care professionals, if the child has medical and/or learning disabilities. The way in which these groups and organisations relate to one another contributes significantly to how the child develops: both psychologically and socially. The more these relationships and places were encouraging and nurturing, the better the child would be able holistically to develop. Also of relevance is how the child reacts to the individuals within the systems which will affect how he/she is treated in return. However, we must not forget that genetic and biological influences can play a role in shaping our personality, abilities and development.
Mesosystem: Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) second ecological systems. Description: Interrelations between components of microsystem According to Keenan and Events (2009:36): “one could think about the mesosystem as the connecting which together the different contexts in which the child is developing.
The mesosystem is the second level of the hierarchy of systems “it comprises the interrelations among two or more setting in which the developing person actively participate (such as, for a child, the relations among home, school, and the neighbourhood peer group; for an adult, among family, work, and social life)” (Bonfenbrenner 1979:25) Bronfeenbrenner distinguished four kinds of interconnections between home and school settings.
The first type is multisetting participation, which refers to interaction that a child is involved in that occurs across multiple settings (for example, home and school or childcare settings). Bronfenbrenner (1979) saw this as a direct, or first-order social network, and thought it was essential and necessary for a mesosystem to form.
The second interrelations are called indirect linkage (multisetting influences). Meaning, when the child is not actively participating in both settings, but it is a parent or caregiver that bridges the settings, acting as an intermediary. An example of this in terms of the “nuclear” family, can be parents who have an active interest in the schooling and education of the child by going to consultations with the teacher, or going to watch dance recitals, this is achieved to ensure that the child grows through the various component of development in a positive way.
The interrelations for the third are reffered to communications intersetting. This is defined as the Two-way relations like the two microsystems are for example messages that are exchange between the two, with the intention of transmitting certain kind of information specifically, for example newsletters or notes home from school.
The relation will likely have knowledge interset. That is knowledge or experiences that participants that are located in one setting may have concerning the other, and might come from differing sources. You might have some helpful neighbour who knows something about the local school.
The exosystem is the third level of the Bronfenbrenner (1979) model. It includes the processes and relations occurring between two or more environments and may not necessarily include the evolving child. It will be impacted by processes and events occurring within the immediate environment of the child. For instance, for a middle schooler, this might be the connections between home life and the occupation of a parent. Bronfenbrenner[1] (1986) identified three exosystems that are most likely to affect the family: parents’ workplace; parents’ social networks; and community influences. Bronfenbrenner (1979) stressed the contextual world of the exo- and mesosystems level, explaining that there had to be reciprocal trust, shared goals, and positive reinforcement between the linking person and the parties in the individual’s environments outside of the home, for example, parents to teachers. When the linkages to parents/teachers benefit the developing child, create actions that are on their behalf.
Macrosystem: The Macrosystem is the fourth level in Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) taxonomy. It is the big picture of the micro-; meso- and exosystemsm factors of a particular culture, subculture or other larger social systems. Specifically, the belief systems, resources, life style, opportunities, life course options, and patterns of the social interchange that is embedded in each of the systems are developmentally-instigative. Bronfenbrenner (1992:228) later conceived of the macrosystem as societal blueprints for particular cultures, subcultures or other social context.
Lastly, the fifth structure in the model is the chrono-system (Bronfenbrenner 1979). a. Chronosystem: This layer of the ecological model pertains to the timelines in time that are involved around the child development. It may also be due to innate physiological or biological changes that take place within a child during specific periods of time in his/her life which may elicit different responses to external stimuli in child’s environment such as research has shown that the timing of puberty can have a significant impact on child future development according to what age it commences, (keenan & Evans 2009:37).
Coming back to the microsystem, Bowlby (1969) proposed that a secure relationship developed largely in engagement between parent care-giver behaviours and abilities and child attachment behaviour. He thought that if parents, it is worth mentioning that Bowlby thought the care-giver in these early relationships was the mother, were not on hand to take care of the child’s physical and emotional needs, the child would become anxious or distressed (Bowlby 1969). Ainsworth (et al 1979) using ‘The Strange Situation’ consolidated Bowlby’s findings, demonstrating that without maternal input, generally from the mother, the child’s attachment system would not be activated, leading to avoidant, ambivalent or disorganised attachment styles. This was a seminal piece of research in its time. Yet Bowlby (1969) failed to disentwine this with the other attachments that a child may develop with: fathers; siblings or other primary care-givers. Winnicott (1964), reflected this in his research where he too believed that the development of a child was only associated with the mother’s ability to nurture and relate to her child.
Bronfenbrenner (1979) held the idea that these studies, while important, failed to take into account the environment a child was raised in, and perhaps even more crucially, the manner in which the mother, or caregiver, herself had been raised. However, Bronfenbrenner and other theorists did not consider the importance of the applicable components between the attributions made and children with disabilities, nor understand adaptation to the conflicts and relationships residing in the microsystem.
As such, the birth of a child with a disability can be traumatic for him and how he adjusts. Having a child with a disability poses a major challenge to the attachment system of the parents, and therefore to provide sequential care-giving systems, because the parents can do nothing to protect the children from their health and developmental issues. Barnett et al (2003) suggested that the failure for parents to form an internal representation of their child’ real competencies and instead the abilities they had hoped for could result in them failing to parent in the appropriate sensitive manner to achieve a secure attachment with their child (Aktkinson, Chisholm, Scott et all 1999). Pinta and Marvin (1996), in their research observed that mothers that had resolved these feelings were significantly more likely to offer secure attachments than so that hand not, believing this believe that a diminished level of parental sensitivity or responsively.
But parents who couldn’t accept the diagnosis and sought another would feel guilt and grief and anger. Bowlby (1980) described five stages of grief following the loss of a primary attachment figure. However, it was not until 1996, that Marvin and Pianta suggested that Bowlby’s (1980) theory could be relevant for loss related to the actual death of a child or the intrapsychic loss of an anticipated child. From personal experience, I know you may spend a long time grieving, and it may eat you alive.” You mourn the guy whiz-kid you want to have, the walking and talking and the grandchildren you might have been rewarded with for your tireless effort in raising the child.
In addition, parents of children with learning disabilities are at risk of developing mental health problems, including depression, as a consequence (Singer 2006). Parental psychological distress has also been proposed as a significant predictor of behavioural problems in children with learning disabilities (Lecavalier et al 2006). Essentially, behaviour problems are not an underlying concern of the household, with a higher parental-emotional bond between parent and child and possible connection between biological and adoptive parents (Deater-Deckard & Petrill 2004).
Prevalent and informative stage theory models have been used to describe and understand the patterns of adjustment parents experience in response to the birth of a child with a disability or to a diagnosis made later in the life of the child (Parks 1977). The number of stages varies by the investigators, but there are generally three stages that have been delineated, although the observational data for these distinct phases is rather mixed (Blacher 1984). “The focus of faith has shifted from trying to describe these stages towards trying to better understand the diversity of families, particularly across the family life cycle (Krauss 1997) (Bronfenbrenner 1992).
This made para 1 about a child ; A child with additional needs requires an in ordinate amount of stimulation. We know that the microsystem will have an influence both on the emotional and the development area of the child (Bonfrenbrenner 1979). As do others, I think bi-directional influences in Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) model maybe impaired (???????? ). To conceptualise that a lack of appropriate sensory and auditory stimulation given to an infant or child will then have a negative impact on the child that cannot simply be translated to a child with disabilities.
Additionally, if a child does not “give” back to a parent, there can be a very painful and lonely existence, making the bi-directional feedback between child and parent and extremely difficult. I was struck by the moment at which my daughter first knew me. When I held her for the very first time — she was just 17 months old — she looked straight into my eyes, and it was as if she said, “I have been waiting for you, mum!” That love she gave me in that moment, was more love than I could have ever even dreamed of and it was just the spark I needed, to fan the flame that is the resilient side of my personality.
Resilience is surely at the instrument of my life for the past 6 years. I have 4 siblings, I am the 4th one born, 3 minutes before my twin sister (not identical). The only one out of those five that could go home from the hospital with my parents right away. I was happy child, quiet but happy, the background of the family really. At 19, I left home for the Royal Air Force, endured a troubled marriage and divorce. ‘A single mother of two children, before meeting my husband and having our daughter with various learning disabilities’. I have been independent and completely different from my twin sister who was always the centre of attention. She hasn’t trauma response like me and even at 38 feels anxiety when parents travel for holiday’s etc How to deal with her I am the only one of my mother’s 5 children to leave my home town as an independent young women, to have succumbed to marriage and divorce only to remarry and have children with more than 1 partner.
I honestly feel, that if I didn’t separate myself from my family unit, the outcome I find myself in now would be completely different. According to Newman and Blackburn (2002:12), “Resilient children are better able to withstand stress and adversity, deal with change and uncertainty, and to recover more quickly and than those who experience traumatic event or episodes”. Parent’s who are better able to self-reflect, certainly are much more in tune with their child’s perspectives and emotions and can thus better respond sensitively to their child’s attachment behaviours and need (Fonaghy et al, 1993). I could never imagine how powerful a 17 month old child’s eye gaze would affect me, but the beauty of this inspired me and when I started seeing him progress, I realised how strong the ability of a child with learning disabilities, to show their Resilience was. She does not exist in research and literature, the level of intensive interaction and love she gives everyone in her microsystem is through her determination as a child to not be seen as a vulnerable child (even though she has had no concept of what that means) and her resilience through the care-giving that I have given her. does not incorporate the resilience of children, nor did it consider that children’s development can differ greatly (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Bronfenbrenner in 1992 even went as far to elaborate his model to include children with disabilities. The extension from the theory was an effort to answer his own accusation that the original model led to “an abundance of studies of ‘context without development’” (Bronfenbrenner 1986:288). “With Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, Ramey, Krauss, and Simeonsson suggested in 1988 that based on the extensive attention to ‘sweeping statements about the systems’, it may have outlived its usefulness as a perspective for the study of families of children with disability” (Sontag 1996).
Yet, Bronfenbrenner’s (1992) broad ecological model can be seen to endorse research initiatives that have paid attention to family and community influences and redirect the attention to child development-in-context but always keeping in mind the process of interacting systems that shape children educational outcomes within a framework that is workable.
One of the macrosystem characteristics which warrant our special attention is that of “a cultural repertoire of belief systems” (Bronfenbrenner, 1992:228)
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