Urie Bronfenbrenner facts for kids

Urie Bronfenbrenner (born April 29, 1917 – died September 25, 2005) was an important American psychologist. He was born in Russia but moved to the United States when he was young. He is famous for his ideas about how children grow and develop.

Bronfenbrenner believed that a child's development is shaped by many things around them. He called his main idea the 'ecological systems theory'. This theory helps us understand how different parts of a child's life, like their family, school, and community, all work together to affect them. He also helped create the US Head Start program in 1965. This program helps young children from low-income families get ready for school.

Early Life and Education

Urie Bronfenbrenner was born in Moscow, Russia, on April 29, 1917. His parents were Alexander Bronfenbrenner, a pathologist, and Eugenie Kamenetski. When Urie was six years old, his family moved to the United States. They first lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A year later, they moved to a rural area in New York State.

His father worked at a hospital for people with developmental disabilities. It was called Letchworth Village. Urie went to Cornell University in New York. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and music in 1938. He then got a master's degree in education from Harvard in 1940. In 1942, he completed his doctorate in developmental psychology at the University of Michigan.

Career Highlights

The day after getting his doctorate, Bronfenbrenner joined the U.S. military. He worked as a psychologist during World War II. After the war, he worked for a short time in Washington, D.C. He was an assistant chief clinical psychologist for a new training program.

In 1948, he became a professor at Cornell University. He worked in the Department of Child Development and Family Relations. This department focused on how children grow and how social forces affect them. He spent the rest of his career researching these topics at Cornell.

Around 1964 and 1965, Bronfenbrenner was part of a special group. This group looked at how to help children from poor families. Their work helped create the Head Start program in 1965. Bronfenbrenner wrote more than 300 research papers and 14 books. He became a very respected professor at Cornell University.

Personal Life

Urie Bronfenbrenner was married to Liese Price. They had six children together.

Death

Urie Bronfenbrenner passed away at his home in Ithaca, New York. He died on September 25, 2005, at 88 years old. He died due to health problems related to diabetes.

Understanding Human Development

Bronfenbrenner believed that a person's development is shaped by how they interact with their surroundings. He thought that things like parents, friends, school, work, and culture all influence a person's path. He felt that psychologists at the time were only studying children in unnatural settings. He wanted to understand how children developed in their real-life environments.

This led him to create his ecological systems theory. This theory says that many different levels of the environment affect a child's development. These levels range from the people closest to the child to bigger cultural forces. Later, he added the idea of time to his theory. This included how specific events and changes in culture over time can affect development. He called this the chronosystem.

He later renamed his theory the bioecological model. This was to show that biology also plays a part in development. However, he believed that biology only gives a person potential. Whether that potential is reached depends on their environment and social experiences.

The Head Start Program

In 1964, Bronfenbrenner spoke to a group of lawmakers about poverty. He said that efforts to fight poverty should focus on children. He believed this would help reduce the effects of poverty on their development. At that time, many people thought child development was only about biology. They didn't think experiences or environment mattered much.

Because of his ideas, he was invited to the White House. He talked with Lady Bird Johnson about child-care programs in other countries. He was also asked to join a special group. This group's job was to find ways to help children from poor families. They wanted to help these children get the same educational chances as wealthier students.

Bronfenbrenner worked with 12 other experts. They came from different fields like health, education, and social work. He convinced the group to involve a child's family and community in the program. This helped the program focus on creating a better environment for development. The group's ideas led to the creation of Head Start in 1965. Bronfenbrenner's input helped Head Start offer things like family support, home visits, and parenting education.

Bronfenbrenner's Legacy

Bronfenbrenner's work helped social scientists understand something important. He showed that relationships, even between a parent and child, don't happen in a vacuum. They are connected to bigger social structures like the community, society, and even politics.

His theory also encouraged researchers to study how different environmental factors affect human development. His ideas were very important in shaping the Head Start program. Many of his students at Cornell University became important researchers in the field of human development.

Awards and Recognition

• His book, The Ecology of Human Development, won the 1980 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction.
• He received the James McKeen Catell Award from the American Psychological Society.
• The American Psychological Association renamed one of its awards after him. It is now called "The Bronfenbrenner Award."
• He was the Chair of the 1970 White House Conference on Children.

See also

In Spanish: Urie Bronfenbrenner para niños