1. Bronfenbrenner in the social context
EY1000: Child Development
Session 13

2. Learning outcomes
Appreciate the influences on child development from outside the family
Analyse a life history in relation to the ecological model
Discuss the extent to which social policy can improve the lived experiences of children, young people and their families
Reflect on personal lived experiences in light of Bronfenbrenner’s analysis

3. Research very hard to measure the types of changes, effects and outcomes. Too many variables to accommodate at one time! However, Bronfenbrenner believes that since social policy can affect the lived experiences of children and families, when seen particularly using the ecological model, it is researchers who should be influencing the direction of social policy in order to nurture positive human developmeant. He notes that capacities of children – and hence adults – may be far greater if programmes of intervention, resources, and stability over time is allowed – especially in a rapidly changing society.

4. Let’s refresh our memories! Microsystem:
Proximal processes
Bi-directional influences
Primary relationships
Mesosystem: links between
elements in microsystem

5. For instance:
Parents who get on well with the daycare setting contribute to child’s well-being
Divorced parents who disagree about how child should be raised will give out conflicting messages
Child who exhibits challenging behaviour may exhaust and frustrate her carers and so affect how she is treated by them

6. Case study: Joan, born 1926
Microsystem:
3 older brothers and 1 sister just 12 months younger
2 parents – white, English, working-class
Father – electrician down the mine, authoritarian and strict, one of 10 children
Mother – unskilled worker (cleaner), timid, deferential, one of 5 children
Close-knit council estate neighbourhood
Spends time with Aunt’s family from time to time to help out Joan’s large family with its small income
Question:
What might we speculate about the mesosystems within the case study and the possible development of Joan?
Links to Baumrind (1973) and styles of parenting – authoritarian: high in control and expectations but low in nurturance and communication; typically less skilled with peers and have lower self-esteem; may be withdrawn or aggressive.
Support of local neighbourhood friends and perhaps extended family
Aunt’s family may have potential to improve or detract from healthy development – dependent on levels of love, nurturing, and attention given. Aunt may take charge of a rather timid mother and this may not be welcomed or indeed wanted; may get on well with Joan’s mother and act as comfort and practical support
1926 – no nursery provision for working class; no National Health Service until 1948 and hence no connections with such agencies

7. Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p.240
“..this proposition leads to the prediction that parents’ interaction with their children will have greater impact the more numerous the supportive links between the family setting and the external environment….this prediction implies a higher correlation between measures of parent-child interaction and developmental outcomes for families with extensive social networks than for those with few links outside the home.”

8. Reflection! How might social networks be supportive?
Why might some families enjoy social networks rather than other families?
What are the possible factors that might determine the quality and quantity of social networks outside the family setting?
Question: How, then, might we view the ability of the exosystem to influence the child’s development?
Links to article by Jack (2000) given out in session 2 last semester: emotional and instrumental support plus advice and information.
Perception that help is available if needed seems to reassure as much as the help actually being given
Time available from work and domestic chores to enjoy social networks with family and friends; families who have children who exhibit challenging behaviour/ or who have particularly severe special needs may find it more problematic to partake of social networking; temperament and personality of parents do not respond readily to outside/ family networks; may not be living within welcoming neighbourhood and have little chance of access to transport
Family may not ‘fit’ into surrounds and so may not be welcomed readily
Family may be perceived as ‘problematic’ or ‘dysfunctional’ so that others may not wish to associate with them – neighbours from hell!!
May be living in hostile environment – inner city/ urban decay – so that being outside is deemed dangerous
Exosystem: child not directly in contact with aspects of exosystem but it does have the ability to affect how she/ he is nurtured
Jack (2000) discusses family support agencies to give sustenance to family who fail to establish and maintain nurturing and healthy social networks

9. Exosystem Community services Parents’ workplace School Mass media
Health agencies

10. For instance:
There may be a SureStart/ Children’s Centre in the area to provide outreach support/ a place to go and meet others
A parent may be promoted at work and highly valued/ may become unemployed and so feel under-valued
Schools may have good Ofsted reports/ may be seen as ‘failing schools’ in a ‘problem’ area

11. Issues of class, education, and occupation
Kohn (1969, in Bronfenbrenner, 1979):
higher social class = value of self-direction (assisted by better education and less supervision/ strict routines within the workplace)
lower social class = conformity to external authority
Effects on disciplinary practices of child
Self-direction seen as ability to be able to take control of what one does, make decisions for self and be responsible for directing the course of one’s life

12. Let’s return to our case study...
Community services – very few; old Poor Laws and Victorian workhouse
Parents’ workplace – harsh conditions, low pay, long hours, low educational levels, lack of job security and prospects of progression
No nursery education; large classes in school, corporal punishment, formal routine
Mass media – newspapers, radio, recipes and tips on gardening to supplement food during rationing (after World War I)
Health – no National Health Service until 1948; reliance on family remedies and keeping well
Unpack some of these and look at the implications for Joan’s development. How might they indirectly impact on the development of this young child?
And leads us into the final layer of Bronf’s systems theory – the macrosystem

13. Political/ economic systems
Macrosystem
Culture
Political/ economic systems
Society
Nationality

14. For instance
Privacy of family – little accessible and affordable all-round childcare
Value on independence – individualism and competition rather than collectivism and co-operation; ‘credit crunch’
Majority ethnic population is white; discriminatory practices in respect of many sectors of society; growing gap between rich and poor; limited opportunities for social mobility; asylum-
seekers and migrant workers from EU

15. Issues of racial and ethnic background
Ogbu (1974, in Bronfenbrenner, 1979):
Looked at school of primarily Black and Mexican-American students staffed by white, middle class teachers from another neighbourhood within town
High failure rates – myths to support this
Influence of ‘settings of power’ – those who were part of these (the ‘taxpayers’) and those who were not (the ‘subordinate minorities’)
Ogbu – an anthropologist; ethnographic study of interrelations between the school and other settings in the larger society
Myths – according to Ogbu
Parent involvement promotes student success – this is refuted by Ogbu who found no difference in grades of those whose parents were involved and those who were not.Talks of unequal relationship between parent and teacher – only effects may be the teacher often feeling more sympathetic to children of parents who demonstrate proprer deference
Children of these families have no father – although many families headed by women, father also very concerned about education but t heir perception, within this community, is that involvement with the school is defined as women’s work
Families caught up in welfare cycle extending over generations and this encourages high birth rates and illegitimacy, and discourages good school performance
Ogbu defnines school failure as an adaptation to discrimination and attendant barriers to occupational and social achievement in adult life. Problems in school are perceived by teachers and school personnel as clinical problems and so make referrals to clinics and therapists rather than, argues Ogbu, offering badly needed advice on routine academic matters such as course selection. Teachers set standards low because of ‘deprived background’ of these families
Settings of power = settings in which the participants control th e allocation of resources and make decisions affecting what happens in other settings in the community or in the society at large eg. formal power settings might be board meeting or informal might be cocktail party or golf game! Taxpayers’ interests and opinions listened to more readily and taken more seriously than subordinate minorities who may have ‘their problems’ highlighted more readily within the press – to do with breaking the law or being helped by the taxpayers!

16. Concept of ‘social and cultural capital’ - Bourdieu
“ Educational achievement is a major contributor to an individual’s or family’s cultural capital. The value of an individual’s cultural capital (‘what you know’) may be enhanced by the owner-ship of social capital (‘who you know’), which does not independently benefit the individual but ‘exerts a multiplier effect on the capital he possesses in his own right’ ”.
(Bourdieu, 1997, p.48, in Brooker,2002, p.24)

17. And one final look at our case study………
Culture – working class; God-fearing; respect for those in authority; set gender roles: girls expected to marry and have children, so education not so important
Politics – between World Wars; ravages of bombing, continued rationing, ‘tighten your belts!’, depressed economy
Society – ‘know your place’; loss of loved ones; re-building infrastructures
Nationality – proud to be British

18. Small group discussion
Consider a child born now, in Jan 2009, here in England
What might the ecological model that surrounds her/ him look like?
What are some of the potential impacts upon her/ his development according to your model?
How might we seek to nurture upbringing via social policy?

19. Rebuilding the Nest: a new commitment to the American family (Bronfenbrenner, 1990)
5 propositions to maximise the nurturing and healthy development of children
Social policy to ease tensions between work and family in order to support effective child-rearing

20. References
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979) The Ecology of Human Development. Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press
Brooker, L. (2002) Starting School – Young Children Learning Cultures. Buckingham: Open University Press