how children perceive their immediate social environment and respond to it. This Part focuses more on the environmental side of the equation, emphasizing the physical environment, the effects of war and famine, and the impact of the climate crisis and the Covid‐19 pandemic. However, it starts with an overview of the general ecological perspective.
Rachel Maunder introduces some main theorists of the ecological perspective on development, including Gibson, who argued that the environment offers opportunities or “affordances” for behavior, and Elder, whose life course theory considers historical context and social timing within developmental trajectories, exemplified by the famous three‐generational study of the impact on children who lived through the Great Depression in the United States in the 1930s. The preeminent theorist is Bronfenbrenner, who proposed concentric circles of influence, moving out from microsystems (the home, family, peer group, and school), the mesosystem (relationships between microsystems such as the home–school relationship), the exosystem (indirect effects on the child such as parental employment), and the macrosystem (societal factors such as cultural beliefs, laws, and politics). A later addition was the chronosystem (the influence of time on development). Maunder looks in detail at two areas. One is parenting and attachment; there are important historical changes and cultural differences that impact on this relationship (see also Chapter 6). Another is school bullying, where the wider community context and social and religious norms and policies can impact on discriminatory and bullying behaviors, especially against minority groups (see also Chapter 32). She ends by considering research implications, and those for professional practice.
Sara S. Whipple and Gary W. Evans consider the impact of aspects of the physical environment on social development. Like Maunder, they cite Gibson and Bronfenbrenner as important influences, as well as Barker’s ecological psychology. They start by considering noise (unwanted sound), and note that while effects of noise on children’s psychological health are mixed, there is good evidence for an association with hyperactivity/inattention in children. Crowding has been another area of research, with varying findings regarding aggression and play behaviors perhaps explained by differentiating between spatial density, social density, and available resources. Moving to the home environment, they consider research on chaos, with an important distinction between instability (such as changes in caregivers) and disorganization (such as lack of routines). These can impact on conduct problems and social skills. Whipple and Evans also consider moderator variables for these associations, such as gender and temperament. They suggest directions for future research, such as looking for nonlinear effects, and call for more studies outside developed countries.
It is more often (although not entirely) outside the developed countries, that children experience severely distressing societal‐level phenomena such as conflict, war, and famine. Charles N. Oberg, H. R. Hodges, and Ann S. Masten point out how conflict and famine are often interrelated; an example at the time of writing is the Yemen. These can clearly impact children directly, and also through, for example loss of parents and caregivers and increased levels of stress. Famine can severely stunt physical growth, including the brain (cf. Chapter 3). These adverse effects can be cumulative. Besides the risks in these situations, the authors also discuss resilience factors, such as good attachment relationships, good self‐regulation skills, and a sense of belonging to a community. They conclude with a series of important recommendations on how to promote health and resilience during conflict and famine; these include well‐informed and culturally sensitive ways of prioritizing children’s needs in conflict and famine situations, creating child‐friendly spaces, and supporting families.
Concerns about human effects on the global climate, sometimes referred to as global warming but more generally inducing climate instability, has been increasing over decades but has reached a new level of urgency in recent years, as in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Ann Sanson, Karina V. Padilla Malca, and Judith Van Hoorn overview what we know about the impact of the climate crisis on children’s social development. Severe climate changes can of course lead to famine and conflicts, as described in Chapter 10. Besides the direct effects and via caregivers, these can impact on schooling and social networks. These can especially impact on girls, and on minority groups. The authors discuss research on what children know about climate change, their feelings about it, and how they try to cope with this. This chapter too concludes with practical implications of the research, including building children’s capacity to cope, promoting love of nature, understanding of climate change, and encouraging self‐efficacy, collective efficacy and agency (as for example in the school strike protests organized by children and young people themselves).
Finally in this Part, Rashmita S. Mistry, Aprile D. Benner, and Anna M. Kimura consider the impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on children’s social development. Appearing first at the very end of 2019, this pandemic has had a huge impact on countries across the globe, causing severe illnesses and many deaths, and huge economic disruption through lockdowns of varying length and severity, in attempts to stem transmission. Although vaccination procedures hold out hope of subduing this virus, at the time of writing this is far from accomplished. As the authors point out, although children generally appear less susceptible to direct adverse effects of Covid‐19, they are greatly affected by changes in family circumstances (deaths, financial stability) and schooling. There are also increases in racial attacks and hate incidents, for example against Asian minorities. In assessing the impact of Covid‐19, the authors use Elder’s life course theory as an explanatory framework. This highlights for example the developmental stage that children are at, at the time of the pandemic, in terms of impact on parents, family conditions, and peer networks especially at school. This area of research is growing rapidly, and besides providing important insights, may result in useful practical suggestions for ameliorating the negative effects, and making most use of alternative means of sustaining relationships through social networking and other virtual means.
CHAPTER EIGHT Ecological Perspectives and Social Development
Rachel Maunder
This chapter will introduce the central components of ecological perspectives, and how they can be used to understand children’s social development. The roots of ecological approaches will be examined, along with some key perspectives that frequent literature in the field. Two areas of social development (parenting and attachment, and bullying) will be used to demonstrate how ecological positions can be applied. Implications for both research and intervention will be explored, along with challenges in the field.
Introduction to Ecological Perspectives
The term “ecology” refers to a branch of science where organisms are studied in relation to their environment. Organisms interact with their physical surroundings and other living things creating a dynamic ecosystem, and the growth and sustainability of living things are maintained by their participation in these relational systems (Heft, 2013). Although ecology stems from biology, the term and its meaning are used and applied across various disciplines.
Within psychology, the role of the environment may be acknowledged to varying degrees, but historically psychology has been dominated by approaches that dichotomize person and environment and apply experimental techniques seeking to control contextual variables and reduce the “noise” created by external factors (Tudge et al., 1996). Therefore, ecological psychology was initially marginalized, and some of the early work only came to fruition long after it was originally published (Heft, 2013). Contemporary psychology now sees a more prominent place for ecological perspectives. The following sections will take a closer look at ecological perspectives in psychology and examine some of the underlying principles that they have in common.
The work of Gibson
