Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model Theory

“Particular attention should be given to the opportunities which the environment presents or precludes for involvement of children with persons both older and younger than themselves.”

– Urie Bronfenbrenner

Russian-born American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner (1917-2005) emphasized the importance of studying children and adults in real life settings, instead of labs, and examining all the socio-cultural contexts in which growth and development occurs.

Excerpt from LIS 516: Youth Development and Behavior in a Digital Age by Dr. Katie Davis and the University of Washington

Key Concepts from Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Model

Bronfenbrenner’s model is a series of nested contexts:

• The microsystem is the innermost system; it contains people and settings that directly involve a young person, such as their home, family, peer group, work, or school.
• A mesosystem is an interaction or connection between two or more microsystems – for instance, when parents go to a parent-teacher conference, a mesosystem emerges from the interaction between the family and classroom microsystems. .
• The exosystem contains settings that do not directly involve the young person, but that may still affect their life. For instance, a child may never visit their parent’s workplace, but events that occur there may affect the child indirectly.
• The macrosystem involves patterns and characteristics of a culture, like a community or society’s norms and values that shape and affect the youth experience.
• The chronosystem represents the passage of time, focusing on changes in the youth’s environment. Changes in family structure, socioeconomic status, and residency can greatly impact developmental outcomes.

Each of these systems interrelates and interacts with one another, demonstrating the role of environmental factors in a young person’s development over time.

Digital Technology Through an Ecological Lens

Excerpt from LIS 516: Youth Development and Behavior in a Digital Age by Dr. Katie Davis and the University of Washington

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