Still Misused After All These Years? A Reevaluation of the Uses of Bronfenbrenner's Bioecological Theory of Human Development

TLDR

A 2009 review found that scholars claiming to use Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory rarely applied it correctly, and this misapplication threatens the future of family studies and developmental science. The study aims to determine whether the misuse of Bronfenbrenner’s theory has improved since 2009. The authors replicated the 2009 review’s search strategy to locate 20 studies citing Bronfenbrenner as a theoretical foundation and then propose metatheoretical, methodological, and pedagogical strategies to address the misuse. Of the 20 identified studies, 18 cited the mature version of the theory but only two properly described, tested, and evaluated its four core concepts.

Abstract

A theoretical review published in 2009 revealed that scholars who stated that their research was based on Urie Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory of human development rarely used it appropriately. To what extent has the situation changed since then? We used the same methods to identify relevant articles as had been used in the 2009 article and found 20 publications whose authors explicitly claimed that Bronfenbrenner provided the theoretical foundation for their study. Although 18 of those publications included citations to the mature (mid‐1990s) version of Bronfenbrenner's theory, only two appropriately described, tested, and evaluated the four major concepts of Bronfenbrenner's theory—proximal processes, person characteristics, context, and time. Failure either to correctly describe the theory or to critically test its central concepts poses significant problems for the future of family studies and developmental science. We discuss potential ways to improve this situation through metatheoretical, methodological, and pedagogical reflections.