Can happiness become contagious...and what about preschoolers?

Can happines spread through social groups? This NYTimes article examines a study which suggests just that--happiness indeed does spread from friend to friend, even through friends of friends. Check it out!

This article got me thinking about one of the most powerful and fascinating child development theories-- Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory. Looking at the picture to the right, you can see that children are in three main "environment systems". Naturally, their immediate setting influences them the most directly on a day-to-day basis: their school, family, church. But other factors play a huge role--what is the overall community attitude toward their family, school, or education? What are the health opportunities, tv shows? Impacting this level is the macrosystem--the economic system, government, culture.

There is another layer, called the mesosystem in this theory, existing between the macrosystem and the microsystem. The NYTimes article's idea that habits can be transmitted by other people in our lives or social system is supported by Bronfenbrenner's mesosystem. It is the way in which immediate players in a child's life--parents, siblings, teachers, neighbors, babysitters--interact with one another. Are there connections between home and school, for instance?

A great reminder that I need to make sure to finish all of my students' home visits to ensure that we are building a strong, communicative mesosystem!