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Bronfenbrenner 's Theory Of Ecological Systems

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Papalia, Olds and Feldman, (2008) states that, ‘the most important influences on a child’s development come from the family environment and atmosphere within the home.’ Positive and negative influences on a child’s development can come from an array of circumstances and situations that the family themselves are involved. Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecological systems suggests that children’s development is influenced by their surroundings (Newman and Newman, 2012). Bronfenbrenner states that every child has microsystems, which are the surroundings closest to them such as the home environment, family and the school environment including friends (Shaffer, 2009). Regular interactions within the microsystem will affect a child’s development, interactions with parents, school teachers and friends are crucial for a healthy development (Newman and Newman, 2012). Further within Bronfenbrenner’s theory is the mesosystem; the mesosystem provides children with extended interactions which impact their learning and development. Bronfenbrenner argues that development is likely to be optimised by strong supportive links between the microsystem and mesosystem (Shaffer, 2009), affecting the child positively due to different elements of the microsystem working together; however this could negatively impact a child if the different elements within the systems were working against each other. An example of this link is the interactions between parents and the school teacher, when having a

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