The social ecological model provides a framework to understand individual development within complex multilevel systems. It is posited that individuals are embedded within systems such as schools, families and communities and these systems are further embedded within larger systems such as national governments, culture and global societies. Factors within each system can interact and influence each other as well as factors in lower systems. In other words, influences can cascade down from high systems to the lower levels to influence individual behaviors.


















The microsystem is the most embedded level in the model. The microsystem constitutes Individual-level factors such as behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes. The microsystem is embedded in the exosystem which represents the relationship between the individual and agencies within their life such as family, school, and church. Both the exosystem and microsystem are embedded in the mesosystem comprised of entities like neighborhood and community resources. The outer most level of the model, the macrosystem, refers to contextual patterns all systems and exist at the level of the culture or subculture as a whole.
These contextual patterns are underpinned by belief systems, ideology, and language. Moreover, interactions among systems may vary between countries as well as within countries as a result of diverse socioeconomic, ethnic, religious, and other subcultural groups, reflecting contrasting belief systems, language, and lifestyles.

The framework suggests that there is a mutual reciprocity whereby factors within the systems may influence each other. In addition, the ecological framework treats the interaction between factors at the different levels with equal importance to the influence of factors within a single level.
The framework also helps us identity targets for cluster intervention strategies. This ecological perspective emphasizes that for effective population-based health and education outcomes, it is important to think not only about what individuals know, believe, think, and do but also about what happens in all of their environments: in their interpersonal relationships, within the organizational structures within which they interact, in the communities where they live, and the systems or policies within which they engage. Interactions within and across each of these levels influence not only individual health and well-being but also that of the community at large.