Mental Health in Later Life, Ecology of

Microsystems: Activities, Roles, and Relationships

A microsystem is “a pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced by the developing person in a given setting with particular physical and material characteristics” (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, p. 22). Intrapersonal microsystemic variables such as health, personality, and cognitive functioning have been documented to influence well-being and mortality (Lang, Rieckmann, & Baltes, 2002). External contextual examples of microsystems include physical environments, institutions, relationships with family and friends, and relationships with particular health providers. The crucial role of families and friends for individual well-being is well established (Antonucci & Akiyama, 1995). Specific relationships such as marriage are relevant to both well-being and the experience of particular mental disorders such as depression and dementia. Similarly, mental health in institutions such as nursing homes is influenced by staff, characteristics of the physical environment, and nursing home policies (Smyer, Cohn, & Brannon, 1988). Other relevant contexts that relate to mental health include immediate living environment, primary health care providers, and community resource agencies.

The processes by which microsystems influence individual well-being have been conceptualized within a variety of frameworks. The diathesis-stress model and environmental press model both suggest that the balance between stressors or contextual challenges and the aging individual's capacity to respond is key to mental health (Gatz, Kasl-Godley, & Karel, 1996). Family systems models focus on the cyclical patterns of communication that shape behavior and mental health, whereas behavioral models examine proximal antecedents and consequences of desirable or undesirable behaviors within the environment or the thought patterns of individuals (Smyer & Qualls, 1999). The internal, psychological ecology of mental health is the focus of psychodynamic theories that point to the role of ego development in responding to the challenges of later life (Vaillant & Vaillant, 1990). Recently, social cognitive models have begun to shape understanding of the influence of contextual cues on cognitive frameworks and subsequent internal experiences (e.g., mood) and behavior that form the basis for mental health (Hess & Blanchard-Fields, 1999).

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