Mapping the Youth Environment

The Great Lakes Center for Youth Development has developed a community mapping system based on an ecological perspective of positive human development. This mapping system can provide you with a comprehensive visual representation of the systems that impact young people and families that you serve. The mapping process is designed to offer a comprehensive visual cue of your organizations’ strategic direction, align key partners, and serve as a communication tool for the organizations’ stakeholders such as potential funding sources. The map is laid out according to the ecological theory of human development. This developmental theory contends that, as human beings, we do not develop in isolation, but rather all aspects of the community impact our growth. The ecological map examines your community through a systems approach developed by widely-published and well-known developmental psychologist, Urie Bronfenbrenner, Professor Emeritus at Cornell University:

Microsystem – A pattern of activities, interpersonal relations, and roles experienced by a person in a given setting with particular physical or material characteristics (e.g. family, schools, peers, youth programs)

Mesosystem – Comprises the interrelations among two or more settings in which the developing person actively participates (e.g. parent involvement in the school, interaction between youth programs and the family)

Exosystem – Involves one or more settings that do not involve the developing person as an active participant, but in which events occur that affect, or are affected by what happens in the setting containing the person (e.g. social services, legal services, mass media)

Macrosystem – Refers to the culture in which people live. Culture is the beliefs, behavior patterns, and all other practices of a group of people that are transferred from generation to generation (e.g. community norms and values, cultural beliefs.)

Chronosystem – Involves the patterning of events in the environment and transitions over the course of life and time (e.g. the effects divorce have on children)

By considering the community in this way, organizations acquire an enhanced awareness of how their programs benefit the developmental outcomes of youth and how the organization is impacted by community level change such as policy and cultural shifts.

References:

Santrock, J.W. (2001). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Thomas, R.M. (2000). Comparing Theories of Child Development. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomas Learning.