Compare And Contrast Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory And Family Ecological Model

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory and Family Ecological Model can be used to talk about alcohol and substance abusing parents and their children to demonstrate the bi-directional influences between the parent’s alcohol or substance abuse and the system’s in the family’s environment. This theory views families and their surroundings as a family ecosystem in which the family or an individual are influenced by the “systems” in that environment and the family or individual’s interactions with the systems (Edwards, 2017). The family is essentially a “system nested within larger systems” (Edwards, 2017). A bi-directional process can occur with the family or individual affecting the systems and the systems affecting the family or individual (Edwards, 2017). The first system, which is the most influential system is the microsystem. The
The macrosystem is the largest layer representing cultural ideologies, ways of thinking, attitudes and beliefs (Edwards, 2017). With regards to substance abusing parents an example of a macrosystem influence could be that of the children becoming more aware of the stereotypes, outcomes and statistics that are often mentioned in classes or in social media about children of substance abusing parents. Finally, the last system is the chronosystem or “invisible” system. The chronosystem represents the changes that happen within each system over time or the things that stay constant. An example of this could be whether or not the child’s parent or parents decide to get help to treat their substance abuse during the child’s life or whether or not the family is affected by the economy which could affect the amount of stressors they have either leading them to drink more or drink less as a coping