Intro to the Ecological Model

the ecological model describes the relationship between individuals and their environment the environment impacts us and we impact it in turn to start we look at the individual level a person's age gender knowledge beliefs and health status are all individual factors let's look at an example of child obesity the child knows something about a healthy diet but doesn't have the skills to implement this at home they might rely on their family to help them to do so so we turn to the interpersonal level which is the people you interact with directly these could be your classmates

at school co-workers families and family members and peers a family approach to childhood obesity is one in which the family is part of the intervention and can support the child's healthier eating so let's assume the child's parents attend a nutrition class at the school with their children and learn some skills for preparing healthier meals the individuals and family in the family will benefit from the family participating in the healthy cooking class then at the organizational level are institutions and organizations like the school the school is concerned for the well-being of their children so they offer

the nutrition classes for families to implement at home this is an example of the organizational level impacting families and individuals the organizational level can include programs activities policies and resources at a local level at the community level are relationships between these organizations as well as cultural norms and values for example the same school that offers these healthy activities for families might be part of a coalition of community institutions that are trying to improve the health of the community another factor is to look at the community patterns of behavior thought what are the dietary Norms what

is the culture of this community around food and how do these impact each individual sometimes people behave in certain ways because it's what the community does it's the norm at the highest level we have public policy or Society the laws and regulations that impact the masses using our example of childhood obesity we might be aware of policies such as ones that prevent unhealthy food from being served in schools or taxing sugar sweetened beverages they might even try to limit advertising on unhealthy Foods or behaviors to children so in other words the ecological model describes how

the community is affected by the individual but also the individual can impact their surroundings each level interacts with each other it's a dynamic relationship this sums up our video on the ecological model