4.3 Family and Parenting Theories and Perspectives
4.3 Family and Parenting Theories and Perspectives
Shyanti Franco and Elizabeth B. Pearce
There are several important and well-accepted theories about how children develop, but in this text we will be focusing on the child within kinship relationships. We will describe the ecological systems theory as well as several theories related to attachment and parenting, visualized in figure 4.3.
The Ecological Systems Theory
Urie Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory was introduced in Chapter 3. Here we will explore it more deeply and use it to illustrate the way various systems interact to influence nurturing by parents and other caregivers. This theory helps us look more deeply at the direct and indirect influences on children’s lives without favoring one family form or family circumstance over another.
The ecological systems theory was created in the late 1970s by Urie Bronfenbrenner. He developed this theory to explain how environments affect a child’s or individual’s growth and development. The model in figure 4.4 shows six concentric circles that represent the individual, environments, and interactions:
- Individual: the main concept behind an ecological approach, “person in environment,” means that every person lives in an environment that can affect their outcome or circumstance. In helping professions such as human services and social work, professionals work to improve a person’s environment by helping them identify what is working well and what is negatively impacting them within their environments.
- Microsystem: the smallest system that focuses on the relationship between a person and their direct environment—typically the places and people that the person sees every day (often parents and school for a child or partner and work/school for an adult).
- Exosystem: the people and places that an individual interacts with on a regular basis but not daily (perhaps a place of worship, club, lesson, or social group).
- Mesosystem: the space between the microsystems and exosystems that represents how those people and places interact and cooperate.
- Macrosystem: the larger values and attitudes of the culture.
- Chronosystem: time as a system that affects individuals.
Attachment Theory
Research demonstrates the importance of connected caregiving to our mate relationships and selection. This is explained largely through attachment theory. Attachment theory implies that the capacity to form emotional attachments to others is primarily developed during infancy and early childhood. It is believed that children need to form a healthy attachment with at least one primary caregiver. The psychologists Harry Harlow, John Bowlby, and Mary Ainsworth each developed aspects of our understanding of attachment and the associated behaviors.
Psychosocial development occurs as children form relationships, interact with others, and understand and manage their feelings. In social and emotional development, forming healthy attachments is very important and is the maj