Child Called It Paper Essay

Uri Bronfenbrenners Ecological Model does a great trouble of helping to display that minor abuse is not an issue that is isolated to the main office, but rather a task that can be confronted on three-fold levels. Through his use of a target-like diagram, he is suitable to show that each systems builds on each other and are interrelated. Bronfenbrenners Ecological Model consists of five, relate systems, the Chronosystem, the Macrosystem, the Exosystem, theMesosystem, and the Microsystem. To better down the stairsstand Bronfenbrenners model, a walk through each layer of the model using explanations and examples from Dave Pelzers memoir, A barbarian Called It(Pelzer, 1995) is necessary.With the Chronosystem, Bronfenbrenner introduces the brain and pinch that a childs development would be exertioned by any major life event that happens to or around the victim that would effect their livelihood and well-being long-term. For an example of this in A Child Called It (Pelzer, 1995 ), a Chronosystem would be when Daves Father no longer stood as Daves protector, this is some blatantly seen around the time that Daves Mother stabbed him. Daves Father had grown blind and desensitized to the actions his wife was taking on their child. Around this same time, Daves Father began to not only back away from the issues and problems associated with Dave, but Daves Father began to bow out of the issues concerning the entire family. Daves Father spent to a greater extent nights and days away from the house, packing overnight bags, even when Dave knew his Father wasnt working that night. The actions that his Father took at this crucial time would set Dave up for permanent beating and lashings from his Mother. He would no longer be able to find a safe haven in his Fathers mail or ease in the fact that his Father was just down the hallway. Daves protector was gone and Daves Mother had lost her love and idea of harboring a perfect family.In the Macrosystem, Bronfenbrenner di splays a communitys overarching beliefs, attitudes, and values toward the growth and development of a child. In Pelzers memoir, this system can high hat be seen through Daves Mothers own beliefs and attitude toward family. In the chapter, Good Times, from the book (Pelzer, 1995), Dave recalled once living in an extremely good-natured household with a loving Mother and a terrific Father. Daves Mother would often cry, stating how happy she was that she finally had a real family. From this information, it can be inferred that Daves Mother came from an unloving household. She whitethorn have grown up not truly knowing the meaning of unconditional love and family. She wanted so much for her own family to be perfect, that one negative slip-up would send her on a violent rage.Perhaps, if Daves Mother had grown up under and around a healthy family relationship, Daves early, elementary life could have been much different.Through the Exosystem, Bronfenbrenner includes the economic system, political system, education system, government system, religious system, neighbors, brotherly services, and mass media into the mix of systems that can influence a childs development and can be held responsible for a childs up leaseing. In Daves memoir, there are many examples of this part of Bronfenbrenners model, one example of a neighbor that could have offered aide to Dave would have been Daves boy Scout Den Mother. It would have been clear to the Den Mother that Dave was in utter distress and torment when he ran up to her door to explain why he could not make it to the troop meeting. However, the Den Mother did not seem phased by Daves appearance and simply told him she would see him at the undermentioned meeting. another(prenominal) example of this part of the model can be demonstrated through the educators and teachers of Daves elementary teach when Daves mother comes to meet with the professionals of the take aim to talk about Daves wounds and bruises.Daves Mother expla ins to them that Dave had made up these stories with his imagination and was hurting himself because he was trying to gain his parents attention after Daves Mother gave birth to her most recent child, making Dave no longer the baby of the family. Instead of sending Daves Mother for further questioning, the education professionals took Daves Mothers word for it and dropped the case. In the second to last portion of Bronfenbrenners Ecological Model, Bronfenbrenner forms a link between the Exosystem and the Microsystem linking of religion, school, and/or healthcare with the family home life. This all occurs in the Mesosystem. An example of this system is demonstrated by the fact that Daves principal does not confront Daves mother about his concerns and Daves injuries anymore. In his memoir, Dave recalls a time that his principal did, in fact, confront Daves mother about Daves injuries, however after doing so, Dave went home and came back to school the next day with wounds and bruises t hat were even worse than the ones that the principal had originally called to confront Daves Mother about. Ever since then, Daves principal did not try to take Daves mother about his increasing amount of injuries.Last, but not least, is Bronfenbrenners section on the Microsystem, he works toinvolve the family, peers, school, workplace, church, and/or health services in the development and assessment of child abuse outside the home. For this, there are many examples within Daves memoir, such as, when Daves peers at school reject and ridicule him based on the way he dresses, looks, and smells, instead of sensing that something was terribly wrong. Of course, the children in Daves class were young, like him, and may not have fully unsounded Daves situation, however, a substitute teacher, one day, in one of Daves classrooms, joined the other children in the vexation of Dave. She fanned her nose and held out his assignment at arms length. The teacher should have known better and should have been trained to spot the warning signs of abuse. Another good example of a Microsystem working in Daves story would be when Daves brothers walked past Dave standing and staring at himself in the mirror, reciting, Im a bad boy over and over again. Instead of saying something to their Father or Mother, they shrugged off the action and continued to play as normal.As the brothers grew, they continued not to intervene when Daves Mother would beat Dave. In fact, there were some instances when they would even make the situation worse for Dave. Dave understood that they were probably just trying to save their own skin from their Mothers wrath, but as the children grew, they should have known better. Together they would have been able to team up and get the help to their Mother that she truly needed. All in all, Uri Bronfenbrenners Ecological Model does a wonderful job of displaying the systems of child abuse in a way that helps one to understand that child abuse is not just isolated t o the home, but is instead a problem that can effect and needs to be confronted on many different levels. His model does so by having each larger system build on and link to the systems below. This shows that every link is interrelated and each issue/problem builds on one another. When a community works together to notice and bring attention to a child that is suffering abuse, that is when true progress can be made to get that child and family the help that they need.ReferencePelzer, D. (1995). A Child Called It. Health Communications, Incorporated.