Bronfenbrenner's Social Influence On Health And Wellbeing
There are many social influences in the wider society that influence the health and wellbeing of children and young people, Bronfenbrenner’s social ecological model cited in Cooper & Rixon (2017) shows how a variety of interacting influences can inform a child’s approach to life, outlook on situations, values and experiences. These influences go beyond the micro system of family members and individuals within the child’s life. Local politics and welfare state can have a massive effect on the services that a child or young person can access within their locality and also experiences they encounter due to the inequality of neighbourhoods within society (Foley 2017). This essay will look at how the welfare state, social inequality and the internet
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Where you live can have quite adverse consequences for children and young people (The Open University 2017a). There are four ways cited in Foley (2017) in which inequality can affect a child or young person’s wellbeing. The first is unequal and unfair access to job opportunities and education. The second is social cohesion, income inequality can divide a society and lead to envy of others possessions or wealth, although there is no evidence that this would lead to actions that may threaten the wider society. Thirdly there is the utilitarian argument, some say that a fair and equal society would lead to a healthier and more educated society. This would create a more productive economy which would be beneficial for all. A fourth argument that has been put forward by Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) cited in Foley (2017) looks at evidence gathered to support their argument. They state that the main social ills that affect children and young people’s wellbeing are mental health, illness, drug abuse, violence, obesity, educational performance and large prison populations, these are more apparent in less equal societies, therefore the main focus of social and economic policy writing should be around addressing inequality. The Open University (2017b) shows an example of how social inequality has an impact on the child, the video ‘identity crisis’ shows how the children viewed the two houses, and the aspirations and way of life they deemed the people residing in these houses to have. This was contrasting based on how they viewed their own status in society. This shows that children can have very pre-determined perceptions on socio-economics ingrained from a very young
Where you live can have quite adverse consequences for children and young people (The Open University 2017a). There are four ways cited in Foley (2017) in which inequality can affect a child or young person’s wellbeing. The first is unequal and unfair access to job opportunities and education. The second is social cohesion, income inequality can divide a society and lead to envy of others possessions or wealth, although there is no evidence that this would lead to actions that may threaten the wider society. Thirdly there is the utilitarian argument, some say that a fair and equal society would lead to a healthier and more educated society. This would create a more productive economy which would be beneficial for all. A fourth argument that has been put forward by Wilkinson and Pickett (2009) cited in Foley (2017) looks at evidence gathered to support their argument. They state that the main social ills that affect children and young people’s wellbeing are mental health, illness, drug abuse, violence, obesity, educational performance and large prison populations, these are more apparent in less equal societies, therefore the main focus of social and economic policy writing should be around addressing inequality. The Open University (2017b) shows an example of how social inequality has an impact on the child, the video ‘identity crisis’ shows how the children viewed the two houses, and the aspirations and way of life they deemed the people residing in these houses to have. This was contrasting based on how they viewed their own status in society. This shows that children can have very pre-determined perceptions on socio-economics ingrained from a very young