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Final Paper
Jaime Carlson
Child Family and Society SOC312
Instructor: Bridget Morales
May 11th, 2015

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Some good friends of mine adopted there first child; a four year old. Since I have a degree in early childhood development they came to me requesting some advice about their child's best interests. Below you will find a plan I created for them to assist in the raising of their child. Many studies have been done regarding children and what effects behaviors as they grow up. Most of them have something regarding environment within them. For instance for many years people used the nurture nature theory which also says the environment plays a huge part in a child's life. Another one is the Ecological Theory. Psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner created the Ecological Systems theory. “In this theory it states that human development is influenced by the different types of environmental systems. The ecological systems theory states that we e n c o u n t e r d i ff e r e n t e n v i r o n m e n t s t h r o u g h o u t o u r l i f e t h a t i n f l u e n c e o u r behavior” (Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, 2001). These systems include the micro system, the mesosystem, the exosystem, the macro system, and the chronosystem. When you think of the circles of Bronfenbrenners theory imagine your child sitting right in the middle.
The micro system's is the most important circle in Bronfenbrenner’s theory. It is the direct circle we have in our lives. This includes family, friends, classmates, teachers, neighbors and other people who have a direct contact with you. From a very early age children pick up many things from those around us which could be good things or bad things. So it is important that we act in manners that are socially acceptable as role models for the children that are looking up to us as parents, caregivers, and teachers. The mesosystem involves the relationships between the microsystems in one's life. The exosystem is the link between the person and outside

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forces which could be positive or negative. The macrosystem circle is the culture of an individual. “The cultural contexts involve the socioeconomic status of the person and/or his family, his ethnicity or race” (Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, 2001). The chronosystem includes the decisions and lifestyle of one's life.
There are four main Parenting Styles authoritarian, authoritative, permissive and uninvolved. A parent that has the authoritarian style parenting sets the rules and requires the child or children to follow the rules with no reasoning behind them. For example if an authoritarian parent says no that means no there should be no back talk or questions asked at all. If the rules are not followed there is a strict discipline code in force. According to Baumrind, these parents
"are obedient- and status-oriented, and expect their orders to be obeyed without explanation” (Bojczyk, Shriner & Shriner, 2012). Authoritative parenting style has rules and guidelines set in place just like the authoritative style that their children are expected to follow.
However, this parenting style is more relaxed. Authoritative parents are willing to listen to questions or statements that the child has. They are more willing to provide an explanation as well. When children fails to follow the rules, these parents are more forgiving rather than just punishing. Permissive parents are referred to as indulgent parents. These parents have very few demands for their children. These parents rarely discipline their children. The last style is the uninvolved parenting style which has very few demands if any at all. Even though this type of parenting style seems like it is neglectful parents usually still fulfill the basic needs of the child they are just detached from their life.

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Authoritarian parenting styles generally lead to children who are obedient, but they aren't really happy go lucky children and they lack in the area of