Applying Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory to Children Living in Poverty and Low Ses in South Africa

Along the life span of an individual, theories of developmental psychology can be employed in order to understand the process development better. This essay will be applying Bronfenbrenner’s theory of ecological development to a practical situation of a child that is schooling in the context of a South African setting. The theory will be broken down into its five respective stages; each one will be applied to the developmental process and schooling period of the child. Poverty and SES (Socio-Economic Status) will also be the centre if this essay as they will be scrutinized in terms of how they affect a child that is schooling and what impact do they have on its development. Furthermore issues that can arise in process such as ethnicity and culture will be briefly overlooked at.

 Bronfenbrenner’s ecological theory of development focuses on the interaction between the individual, the environment they inhabit and how individuals are active members in their environment and passively affected by everything around them. It primarily emphasizes on the interactive processes between the developing individual and the environment of development. Furthermore it states that an individual’s development is shaped by the interactions and relations between the individual and the surrounding environment. The relation between the two variables is classified into a respective set of five stages namely the Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, Macrosystem and Chronosystem. Bronfenbrenner collectively refers these successive layers as a makeup of the ecological environment. Özdoğru (2011)

According to Hook (2002) an ecological environment as a pattern of layers where bigger ones are placed on top of the smaller ones in successive order and each layer has its own environmental influence. The first layer Microsystem consists of relations that are on a face-to-face level where influences flow back and forth and interactions immediate persons that directly influence the developing individual. This is where for example a baby will have an effect on the parents and the parent’s attitudes also have an impact on the baby. Secondly the Mesosystem forms when the individual moves out to a new set of surroundings, thus the interactions of the macrosystem are enlarged to settings like school and the neighbourhood.

Exosystem consists of settings of higher order from the last two stages and are beyond the individual’s immediate experience but however they do have an effect of him/her. This is where the impact of development is overlooked in terms of how organisations such as the economic, political, educational, government and religious systems affect the individual. The Macrosystem is made up of the culture, the laws, values, traditions, customs and popular discourses that are found in the individual’s society. Thus this makes this stage to be referred to as the master model because of the impact of its setting since they play a big role in terms of how society functions which ultimately affects development. Chronosystem accounts for the dimension of time and the effects time has on the psychosocial development as time passes. Events like a loss or an addition of a family member could have a huge impact on the setting of an individual as new patterns that could alter the environment could manifest and bring in transitions over the course of the individuals life course.

Poverty is a state one’s life in terms of not having enough resources to meet the basic needs of a normal human being, the state of being in poverty is not limited to material items, it transcends to the deprivation of choice in various systems and the absence of opportunities, Neves (2012). Poverty is closely related to low socio-economic status (SES); White (1982) defines socio-economic status as a state in which house heads are positioned in terms of their income, occupation and education. People with low SES tend to live in poverty and are mostly situated in low quality environments that comprise low quality lifestyles that include access to poor health services, unemployment of parents and lack of economic opportunities.

In South Africa poverty and low SES can be closely correlated with the many lives of black South Africans. More than half the population of South Africa is classified poor and the majority of this portion is made up of black people and this is due to the historical implication of the country, mainly because of colonialism and apartheid. Poverty in South Africa started during the colonial era when black people’s valuable assets like land and livestock where dispossessed from them. Forceful removal from their original homelands to organized living locations that consisted of least favourable living conditions to man. Exposure to such predicaments has led to the perpetuation of poverty and inequality thus placing most black South Africans at the lowest point of the economic playground, Meth and Dias (2004).

The historical implication of poverty in South Africa had a rather huge impact on the lives of many black people especially in coming to development because a change in living conditions comes with a change in development. Hook writes “Time is important as it entails the patterning of environmental events and transitions over the life course, and as it refers to the unique socio-historical placement of the individual”- Hook (2002; 318)

 Due to the historical developments of South Africa and based on a per adult equivalent poverty line of R352 per month, 72% of people living below the poverty line reside in the rural areas and 71% of people living in the rural areas are poor with the majority consisting of black people. Most of the households that are in poverty stricken communities are headed by either single mothers or grandparents. Although individuals living in poverty adapt to the living conditions in time, the most seriously affected are the children, especially those whose caretakers have relatively little education.  Children living in such poverty stricken have been shown to have high infant mortality rates as high as 8 times as of infants living in middle class communities, Aliber (2003).

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