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Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model is a framework that can be utilized to understand the complex systems that influencehuman development. In particular, this model emphasizes the importance of environmental factors and social influences in shaping development and behavior.
The model takes a holistic approach, suggesting that child development involves a dynamic interaction between environment, societal, biological, and psychological factors. In Bronfenbrenner’s model, there is areciprocal interplaybetween the individual and the various levels of influence that affect development.
Introduction to the Bronfenbrenner Ecological Model
What Does Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model Describe?
This model describes the interactions between individuals and their environments and how these complex relationships affect development over time. According to this model, many interconnected systems make up a person’s environment that all interact to influence and shape how people grow and respond.
The factors that influence development include a person’s immediate setting and the broader culture in which they live.
The theory stresses the interdependency and interaction between people and their environments. Bronfenbrenner suggested that more nurturing and encouraging environments led to better developmental outcomes.
History and Development of the Model
Over time, Bronfenbrenner continued refining his ideas. In addition to emphasizing the importance of understanding how humans develop within their environmental contexts, he also stressed that this influence is bidirectional; humans also actively shape their surroundings.
Ecological systems theory has gained widespread acceptance, significantly influencing developmental psychology and related disciplines. The theory has also been applied in many different contexts, includingfamily therapy, education, political policy, andsocial work.
Bronfenbrenner died in 2005, but his theory continues to profoundly influence our understanding of the dynamic interactions that affect how humans develop and change during childhood and throughout their lives.
Five Ecological Systems in Bronfenbrenner’s Model
Bronfenbrenner’s theory is organized into a series of five nested systems or levels. The five main elements of Bronfenbrenner’s theory are the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem.
Microsystem
The microsystem is the innermost level, composed of an individual’s immediate environment. It includes the people the person interacts with daily, including their family members, friends, classmates, teachers, and others.
The microsystem has the most direct, immediate impact on the individual.
Personal characteristics, including mental abilities, physical attributes, temperament, andpersonality, also impact a person’s development.
A proposed update to Bronfenbrenner’s theory suggests two types of microsystems: physical and virtual. Given the importance of digital influences on young people today, it is essential to recognize howvirtual environments may influence child development.
RecapThe microsystem accounts for the experiences that directly involve and affect the individual and shape their behavior, learning, values, and beliefs.
Recap
The microsystem accounts for the experiences that directly involve and affect the individual and shape their behavior, learning, values, and beliefs.
How Social Learning Theory Works
Mesosystem
The mesosystem is the next level of the model, comprised of all the relationships and interactions between the microsystems.Examples of mesosystems in a child’s life include the interactions between their family and school or between their friends and family.
Like the microsystem, the mesosystem has a direct effect on the individual.
The different microsystems are connected at this level. This means that changes in one microsystem can then impact other microsystems.
In other words, how these elements interact can influence how a child develops. For example, a child’s family and school interaction can impact learning and academic performance.
Exosystem
The exosystem refers to environments in which the individual is not an active participant but still impacts development.This level encompasses the social context in which a person lives and other aspects of the environment, including government policies, social services, community resources, and mass media.
The individual does not have direct contact with these influences, but they still shape how a child develops.
For example, government policies and community resources impact a child’s access to healthcare, quality child care, and education.
Macrosystem
The macrosystem involves the broader society and cultural forces that contribute to individual development.Important components of this level of Bronfenbrenner’s theory include values, social norms, customs, traditions, ideology, and cultural beliefs.
Chronosystem
The chronosystem is the outermost level of the model, accounting for the role that time plays in influencing individual development.This includes personal experiences that occur over the course of life, the various life transitions that people experience, historical events, and societal changes.
Challenges and transitions that can affect development, including the birth of siblings, moving to a new place, parental divorce, andthe death of family members, can affect the family’s dynamic or structure.
The model recognizes that environments are not static; they change over time, and these changes can have a significant effect on how people develop.
Interactions Among the Systems: A Dynamic View
The interactions between different systems in Bronfenbrenner’s theory interact in intricate, bidirectional ways. The changes in one level can have a resounding impact on the other levels.
Examples of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model
Each system within the model interacts with other systems in complex ways. A child’s family (microsystem), for example, can impact how they interact with others at school (microsystem). The relationship between these microsystems (the mesosystem), can then impact a child’s behavior and academic success.
These systems don’t just interact with the levels that proceed or follow them. And interactions that occur at one level can have cascading effects on other levels of influence
For example,workplace stresscan impact how parents interact with their children at home. And economic changes that occur in a society (chronosystem) can influence the type of resources that are available in communities (exosystem), which can then play a role in the dynamics within individual families (microsystem).
By examining these influences more closely, we can gain a better appreciation of the dynamic interactions and interdependencies between the different levels of Bronfenbrenner’s theory.
The Relevance of the Model Today
Bronfenbrenner’s theory significantly impacted how researchers, psychologists, and educators view human development. The ecological model continues to inform our understanding ofhow children developand how different aspects of their environment may positively or negatively impact their growth.
The framework’s holistic approach emphasizes the need to understand all aspects of a person’s environment to appreciate the complex, interrelated factors that influence their development.
Some of the ways in which Bronfenbrenner’s model has influenced our understanding of human development include:
Education
The theory has been applied extensively within the field of education to help design effective learning environments that emphasize the classroom experience and focus on the influence of families, communities, societies, and the broader culture.
Research suggests the program has numerous benefits, including the long-term effects of increased high school completion, college enrollment, and college completion.
Mental Health Care
The ecological model also plays a role in informing mental health care. Mental health treatments that take aholistic approachoften lead to better outcomes.And looking at the community, societal, and cultural influences that affect a person’s development and well-being can help mental health professionals understand the issues people face.
The framework has also affected approaches to mental health, both in terms of treatment and public policy.For example, it has contributed to the development of the ecological approach tocounseling, which focuses on understanding personal and environmental factors when treating mental health issues.
Cultural Sensitivity
Because the model stresses how cultural factors can influence development, it can supportgreater cultural sensitivity among therapists, educators, and others.
Understanding ecological factors, for example, can produce greatercultural competencyamong therapists who work with diverse populations.
What Is Cross-Cultural Psychology?
Summary
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model offers a comprehensive framework for understanding the many factors that affect development. In addiction to describing the different levels of influence, the ecological model also describes the dynamic interaction that occurs between the different levels, from the direct relationships at the microsystem level through the broader societal, cultural, and temporal factors that play a role.
Understanding these influences and their complex connections is important. By doing so, parents, educators, social program developers, and policy makers can gain greater insight and create supportive interventions that foster healthy development.
12 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Tudge J, Maria Rosa E.Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. In: Hupp S, Jewell J, eds.The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. 1st ed. Wiley; 2020. doi:10.1002/9781119171492.wecad251Haleemunnissa S, Didel S, Swami MK, Singh K, Vyas V.Children and COVID19: Understanding impact on the growth trajectory of an evolving generation.Child Youth Serv Rev. 2021;120:105754. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105754Ceci SJ.Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005).Am Psychol. 2006;61(2):173-174. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.2.173Hyde LW, Gard AM, Tomlinson RC, Burt SA, Mitchell C, Monk CS.An ecological approach to understanding the developing brain: Examples linking poverty, parenting, neighborhoods, and the brain.Am Psychol. 2020;75(9):1245-1259. doi:10.1037/amp0000741Navarro JL, Tudge JRH.Technologizing Bronfenbrenner: Neo-ecological Theory[published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 21].Curr Psychol. 2022;1-17. doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02738-3Backonja U, Hall AK, Thielke S.Older adults' current and potential uses of information technologies in a changing world: A theoretical perspective.Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2014;80(1):41-63. doi:10.1177/0091415015591109Zwemer E, Chen F, Beck Dallaghan GL, et al.Reinvigorating an academy of medical educators using ecological systems theory.Cureus. 2022;14(1):e21640. doi:10.7759/cureus.21640Bailey MJ, Sun S, Timpe B.Prep school for poor kids: The long-run impacts of Head Start on human capital and economic self-sufficiency.Am Econ Rev. 2021;111(12):3963-4001. doi:10.1257/aer.20181801Shafran R, Bennett SD, McKenzie Smith M.Interventions to support integrated psychological care and holistic health outcomes in paediatrics.Healthcare (Basel). 2017;5(3):44. Published 2017 Aug 16. doi:10.3390/healthcare5030044Eriksson M, Ghazinour M, Hammarström A.Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public mental health policy and practice?Soc Theory Health. 2018;16(4):414-433. doi:10.1057/s41285-018-0065-6Counseling Today.Using an ecological perspective.Paat YF.Working with immigrant children and their families: an application of bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 2013;23(8):954-966. doi:10.1080/10911359.2013.800007
12 Sources
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Tudge J, Maria Rosa E.Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. In: Hupp S, Jewell J, eds.The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. 1st ed. Wiley; 2020. doi:10.1002/9781119171492.wecad251Haleemunnissa S, Didel S, Swami MK, Singh K, Vyas V.Children and COVID19: Understanding impact on the growth trajectory of an evolving generation.Child Youth Serv Rev. 2021;120:105754. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105754Ceci SJ.Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005).Am Psychol. 2006;61(2):173-174. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.2.173Hyde LW, Gard AM, Tomlinson RC, Burt SA, Mitchell C, Monk CS.An ecological approach to understanding the developing brain: Examples linking poverty, parenting, neighborhoods, and the brain.Am Psychol. 2020;75(9):1245-1259. doi:10.1037/amp0000741Navarro JL, Tudge JRH.Technologizing Bronfenbrenner: Neo-ecological Theory[published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 21].Curr Psychol. 2022;1-17. doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02738-3Backonja U, Hall AK, Thielke S.Older adults' current and potential uses of information technologies in a changing world: A theoretical perspective.Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2014;80(1):41-63. doi:10.1177/0091415015591109Zwemer E, Chen F, Beck Dallaghan GL, et al.Reinvigorating an academy of medical educators using ecological systems theory.Cureus. 2022;14(1):e21640. doi:10.7759/cureus.21640Bailey MJ, Sun S, Timpe B.Prep school for poor kids: The long-run impacts of Head Start on human capital and economic self-sufficiency.Am Econ Rev. 2021;111(12):3963-4001. doi:10.1257/aer.20181801Shafran R, Bennett SD, McKenzie Smith M.Interventions to support integrated psychological care and holistic health outcomes in paediatrics.Healthcare (Basel). 2017;5(3):44. Published 2017 Aug 16. doi:10.3390/healthcare5030044Eriksson M, Ghazinour M, Hammarström A.Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public mental health policy and practice?Soc Theory Health. 2018;16(4):414-433. doi:10.1057/s41285-018-0065-6Counseling Today.Using an ecological perspective.Paat YF.Working with immigrant children and their families: an application of bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 2013;23(8):954-966. doi:10.1080/10911359.2013.800007
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Tudge J, Maria Rosa E.Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. In: Hupp S, Jewell J, eds.The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. 1st ed. Wiley; 2020. doi:10.1002/9781119171492.wecad251Haleemunnissa S, Didel S, Swami MK, Singh K, Vyas V.Children and COVID19: Understanding impact on the growth trajectory of an evolving generation.Child Youth Serv Rev. 2021;120:105754. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105754Ceci SJ.Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005).Am Psychol. 2006;61(2):173-174. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.2.173Hyde LW, Gard AM, Tomlinson RC, Burt SA, Mitchell C, Monk CS.An ecological approach to understanding the developing brain: Examples linking poverty, parenting, neighborhoods, and the brain.Am Psychol. 2020;75(9):1245-1259. doi:10.1037/amp0000741Navarro JL, Tudge JRH.Technologizing Bronfenbrenner: Neo-ecological Theory[published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 21].Curr Psychol. 2022;1-17. doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02738-3Backonja U, Hall AK, Thielke S.Older adults' current and potential uses of information technologies in a changing world: A theoretical perspective.Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2014;80(1):41-63. doi:10.1177/0091415015591109Zwemer E, Chen F, Beck Dallaghan GL, et al.Reinvigorating an academy of medical educators using ecological systems theory.Cureus. 2022;14(1):e21640. doi:10.7759/cureus.21640Bailey MJ, Sun S, Timpe B.Prep school for poor kids: The long-run impacts of Head Start on human capital and economic self-sufficiency.Am Econ Rev. 2021;111(12):3963-4001. doi:10.1257/aer.20181801Shafran R, Bennett SD, McKenzie Smith M.Interventions to support integrated psychological care and holistic health outcomes in paediatrics.Healthcare (Basel). 2017;5(3):44. Published 2017 Aug 16. doi:10.3390/healthcare5030044Eriksson M, Ghazinour M, Hammarström A.Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public mental health policy and practice?Soc Theory Health. 2018;16(4):414-433. doi:10.1057/s41285-018-0065-6Counseling Today.Using an ecological perspective.Paat YF.Working with immigrant children and their families: an application of bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 2013;23(8):954-966. doi:10.1080/10911359.2013.800007
Tudge J, Maria Rosa E.Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory. In: Hupp S, Jewell J, eds.The Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Development. 1st ed. Wiley; 2020. doi:10.1002/9781119171492.wecad251
Haleemunnissa S, Didel S, Swami MK, Singh K, Vyas V.Children and COVID19: Understanding impact on the growth trajectory of an evolving generation.Child Youth Serv Rev. 2021;120:105754. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105754
Ceci SJ.Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005).Am Psychol. 2006;61(2):173-174. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.61.2.173
Hyde LW, Gard AM, Tomlinson RC, Burt SA, Mitchell C, Monk CS.An ecological approach to understanding the developing brain: Examples linking poverty, parenting, neighborhoods, and the brain.Am Psychol. 2020;75(9):1245-1259. doi:10.1037/amp0000741
Navarro JL, Tudge JRH.Technologizing Bronfenbrenner: Neo-ecological Theory[published online ahead of print, 2022 Jan 21].Curr Psychol. 2022;1-17. doi:10.1007/s12144-022-02738-3
Backonja U, Hall AK, Thielke S.Older adults' current and potential uses of information technologies in a changing world: A theoretical perspective.Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2014;80(1):41-63. doi:10.1177/0091415015591109
Zwemer E, Chen F, Beck Dallaghan GL, et al.Reinvigorating an academy of medical educators using ecological systems theory.Cureus. 2022;14(1):e21640. doi:10.7759/cureus.21640
Bailey MJ, Sun S, Timpe B.Prep school for poor kids: The long-run impacts of Head Start on human capital and economic self-sufficiency.Am Econ Rev. 2021;111(12):3963-4001. doi:10.1257/aer.20181801
Shafran R, Bennett SD, McKenzie Smith M.Interventions to support integrated psychological care and holistic health outcomes in paediatrics.Healthcare (Basel). 2017;5(3):44. Published 2017 Aug 16. doi:10.3390/healthcare5030044
Eriksson M, Ghazinour M, Hammarström A.Different uses of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory in public mental health research: what is their value for guiding public mental health policy and practice?Soc Theory Health. 2018;16(4):414-433. doi:10.1057/s41285-018-0065-6
Counseling Today.Using an ecological perspective.
Paat YF.Working with immigrant children and their families: an application of bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory.Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. 2013;23(8):954-966. doi:10.1080/10911359.2013.800007
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