To most, September 24, 1961, has no significant value and is a day just like any other, but for Jaime and Marlen Moreno, it was the day their daughter Nidya was born. Nidya Moreno was born to a family of two parents and a one-year-old sister. This family, which later expanded and developed, formed part of her ecological system which would influence her development and growth. The Ecological Systems Theory was created by Urie Bronfenbrenner who proposed that humans interact with five different environmental systems that develop our behavior and growth (1977). These systems include the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem. The systems expand from daily close interaction with the person to very minimal, if often no interaction, with the person. In Nidya’s case, her systems would include family, school, peers, social support systems, and life-changing events. Her family dynamic was not the norm for society at that time, with a nurturing and loving father and a cruel and abusive stepmother. These two types of environments combined with the taboo of coming from a divorced household would have a huge impact on Nidya’s development and behavior throughout her ecological systems.
Her less-than-normal family dynamic would impact every ecological system she was to encounter for the rest of her life, whether she knew it or not. Especially on the most personal level, her microsystem. The microsystem, according to Bronfenbrenner, is the immediate surroundings that a person interacts with daily that have an impact on the person's foundation of behavior and development (1977). These surroundings can be things such as their family structure, parents, peers, or school (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Nidya grew up in a divorced family, which ended up having a large developmental impact on her. Her family dynamic affected how Nidya would interact within her microsystems. Growing up, she only attended private schools that prohibited children from divorced households from attending, this meant she would have to lie about her family dynamic for the following 18 years. Most kids go to school and make plenty of friends and spend time at each other’s households and getting to know each other’s families, but not Nidya. She only had one close friend growing up who truly knew her story and could go over to her house, with her other friends that she kept the facade with she would have to go to social gatherings at their houses or just at school, never at her residence. Nonetheless, there were still problems with how these separate microsystems interacted with each other in her life.
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The mesosystem is described as how microsystems interact with each other at certain developmental points in one’s life (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). The best way to see these two systems interact is for example when peer groups and home life interact, separately these two systems, family and friends, are involved in the child’s life as a microsystem, but when they come together and interact they become part of the mesosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). When Nidya’s home environment and peer groups interacted with each other, she had problems interacting the two together in her mesosystem As previously mentioned, she couldn’t have friends come over because they couldn’t know the truth of her family dynamics, which made it hard for her peer group (friends) and home life to interact. She would have to make up excuses as to why they could never play at her house. It is very common for children of divorce homes to have problems with their peer groups and home environment interacting in their mesosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1986). This problem continued until college, so growing up she had to have her peer group and family separate, unlike most children.
The micro and mesosystems require settings in which the child is actively participating in the environment; however, not all systems in the ecological system theory require the child to be actively involved for the system to have an impact on their development (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). This can be seen in the exosystem, this is where there are external environmental factors that influence the mesosystem and development (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). These external factors can be things such as their parents’ jobs or social support networks; they do not involve an active role in the child’s participation, but they still have an impact on their life. Nidya’s father, Jaime, owned a car repair shop for American-made vehicles, which was a thriving business that allowed her to have an exclusive lifestyle that allowed them to be part of certain social societies and support groups. However, when they lost the business, these lavishes were no longer part of her environment, changing the dynamic of her exosystem and in the latter her development. Nonetheless, seeing her father's hard work and dedication created the foundation of her work ethic, and drive for success, so she can live a life standard of her please.
The macrosystem includes an interaction between the child and the exosystem in their cultural environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). This means that your society’s culture can influence your belief system, lifestyle, social class, and opportunities (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). This system can also be influenced by big life changes such as death. For Nidya, her macro system was influenced by her lifestyle, the social classes she belonged to, and the passing of her father. Before her father's death, her family was part of the highest social class in the city and were members of elite societies that gave them connections that opened doors that seemed unobtainable to those outside their society. Yet, that all changed once her father passed. With his death came the closing of the business, the exile from elite societies, and a loss of exclusive and unreachable opportunities. This had a major impact on Nidya’s life and exosystem. She now had to fight twice as hard for the opportunities she once had, she became the sole provider for her family and she no longer cared to be a member of these elite societies. While her father’s passing devastated her, it helped shape her into the woman she is today.
This created the foundation for Nidya’s chronosystem. The chronosystem is described as environmental or historical events that occur throughout a person’s life that have an impact on their development (Bronfenbrenner, 1977). Growing up, Nidya saw how hard her father had to work to give her the lifestyle and opportunities she had. While she appreciated him and all his hard work, she knew that she wanted to go into a field that was more mental labor over physical labor. For Nidya, her chronosystem meant achieving her American Dream of becoming the first woman in her family to not only attend college but also become a Doctor of Food Engineering Sciences. After obtaining her PhD, Nidya went on to become the first woman to run the Nestle factories in Cartagena, and eventually all over the Colombian coast. She had made her American Dream a reality, obtaining a degree, having a fulfilling career, and doing a job she loves that requires mental strength over physical labor.
While all these ecological systems: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem, have different impacts on a person’s development, they all interact together to develop them (Bronfenrenner, 1986). Bronfenbrenner showed that all interactions in one’s life, either directly or externally involved, have an impact on the development of a person (1977). Throughout Nidya’s 57 years of life, her ecological system has grown, developed, and changed, intertwining different events, people, and environments into her life, which continue to develop her to this day. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory comes to show that while one may think a person or event has minimal impact on development, it is not true. Every person and event has an impact on development, even certain dates (Pinquart & Silbereisen, 2004). Take September 24, 1961, for example, it’s a date that has no value to most people, yet for Nidya’s family, it is the day that her family was changed forever. That day has become an important part of her children and husband’s ecological system because it was the day she was born and without her, none of their systems would be the way they are today.
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