FIGURE 9.4 The bioecological model Urie Bronfenbrenner considers the child’s environment as composed of a series of nested structures, including the microsystem (the immediate environment with which the child directly interacts), the mesosystem (the connections that exist among micro-systems), the exosystem (social settings that the child is not a part of but that nevertheless affect the child’s development), and the macrosystem (the general cultural context in which all the other systems are embedded). This figure illustrates the environment of a child living in the United States. (Adapted from Bronfenbrenner, 1979)