The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Childhood Social Development

In closing, it should be noted that there is a tendency both within the existing research literature on parenting and bullying discussed, and in the practitioner case formulation approaches described in this chapter, to focus more predominantly on the closer ecological settings (such as the micro‐ and mesosystem) and put less emphasis on the more distant influences (in the exo‐, macro‐, and chronosystem) in social development. This is understandable due to these having the most direct and visible effects on the everyday life of children and young people, and arguably presenting more tangible opportunities for direct intervention. From a practical standpoint, it is trickier to research the effect of the outer systems directly, or to influence change within them. However, changes at these levels could potentially have a significant impact on more people, so it would be recommended that there is increased attention on the exo‐, macro‐ and chronological systems in future research, and in the approaches used to address social difficulties.

After introducing the core components of ecological perspectives, we have examined how these can be used to understand social development. Focused examples of parenting and attachment, and bullying were studied to illustrate the application of ecological perspectives to domains of social development. The implications for both research and practice arising from adopting an ecological lens have also been considered. In conclusion, it is argued that there is genuine value in adopting ecological perspectives for social development and we run the risk of neglecting the crucial role of context otherwise. The world is constantly changing, and ecological perspectives can help to make sense of both the similarities and differences that we see between people and understand the way that individual and social circumstances influence who people are, who they become, and the complex processes involved. They also provide a framework for interpreting difficulties in social development that can be used in professional practice with children and young people.

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