The mesosystem is a theory that children don’t develop mentally purely from their family environment, but rather that the greater macro environment affects them, too. It’s a part of the ecological systems theory created by Urie Bronfenbrenner.
In total, there are five environmental systems proposed:
- the microsystem, which involves the immediate environment
- the mesosystem, which is an interaction between two or more microsystems
- the exocsystem, which are indirect influences like the income level of parents and the quality of the local education
- the macrosystems, which involves cultural beliefs and norms
- the chronosystem, which are strong transitional periods of influence over a lifetime, like a war or famine, etc
