Components of Socialization Bronfenbrenner\'s Ecological Theory Consists

¶ … Components of Socialization

Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory consists of five components of socialization. They are the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. This creative effort attempts to demonstrate each of these components and there effects on an individual in the context of a divorce from the perspective of a child.

Divorce and Collateral Damage

Penny curled up in a ball under the blankets as the angry voices of her parents slipped under the door to her bedroom and attacked her pretty pink ears.

"You're drunk!"

"You're a whore!"

She closed her eyes and covered her ears. The war had been building for as long as the nine-year-old could remember. She suddenly jumped from her bed and ran sobbing into the living room of their middle class suburban home. "Stop!" she sobbed. "Just stop, stop, stop, stop, stop!"

"Screw it," said her father and he walked out the door for the last time.

Divorce was not common among her peers in 1959. Most of Penny's friends were still living with both parents. Her parents had filed the papers and her world was turned upside down. At school she felt her friends began to "look at her funny" and shy away from her. Her upper middle class classmates had little experience with divorce; according to their parents these things just were not done by proper people. Her teacher began to coddle her, repeatedly asking if she was "Okay" and letting her slide on missing assignments. The situation created a stigma of failure that shrouded her relationships. One of her Catholic classmates told her that because of the divorce her parents were going to hell.

Penny's mother cried often, and worried aloud about their future. This compounded her daughter's stress. One day Penny came home from school and saw a "For Sale" sign on the lawn. At first she thought her mother had moved and left her behind. She stood looking at the sign and wondered what she was supposed to do? After a time she decided to knock on the door and ask the new owners if they might know where her mother could be found. She began sobbing uncontrollably when her mother answered the door.

Penny's father moved into a home in the next own and launched a campaign to persuade her to move with him. A new bike and a weekend at Disneyland were only a few of the enticements; however his good will was dampened as he shared his true feelings about her mother. Her mother was more direct and left no doubt about her true feelings about her ex. This conflicted Penny as she loved them both and felt her loyalties being ripped apart.

For a time Penny blamed herself for her parent's separation. Her child's logic concluded that if only she had just stayed in bed that night her father would not have left, her parents would still be together, and everyone would be happy. She harbored secret dreams of her parents getting back together well into her teens.

Penny moved into a two bedroom apartment with her mother and transferred to another school. She suffered from culture shock. The young girl had difficulty establishing friends in her new environment and slowly began to withdraw into her own world. Her mother went to work as a receptionist in an office building and started dating a string of men. Sometimes Penny could hear them through the paper thin walls. Sometimes she could hear the neighbors fighting as well.

Eventually, her father's interest waned. He began dating a woman with two children of her own, a boy two years younger than Penny and a girl about her age. He remarried within the year. This left her hurt, betrayed, confused and feeling even more insecure.

Penny was a sophomore in high school in 1964 when she met a senior at the Sadie Hawkins dance who had his driver's license. She went for a ride. By the middle of 1966 the British had completed their invasion of America and love was "all ya need." By this time her mother was remarried to a man who drank too much, and her father was single once again, however by this time Penny had been parenting herself for so long that her parents influence was negligible. She had made a conscious decision that she was not going to let them hurt her anymore.