Introduction The ecological theory was formulated by Urie Bronfenbrenner, who theorized five environmental factors that influenced the growth and development of a person. The ecological systems theory perceives lifespan development in the domain of a system of relationships that constitutes one’s environment. According to Bronfenbrenner’s theory, each of the complex layers has an effect on one’s lifespan development. The relationships between these variables in one’s maturing biology, one’s immediate family and community environment, and the societal setting play an instrumental role in fueling and steering individual development. In order to explore lifespan development, there is the need to assess the individual and his/her individual environment as well as the interaction taking place in the larger environment. The five environmental factors that Urie Bronfenbrenner highlights in the ecological systems theory that affect lifespan development include the microsystem, mesosystem, macrosystem, exosystem, and the chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The goal of this paper is to describe the current research and application of the ecological system theory to the affects of divorce on child development. Systems Structures in the Ecological Systems Theory Bronfenbrenner hypothesized that socialization and development are determined by the various environmental variables in which an individual is in active inter-relation. The three main assumptions help by the Bronfenbrenner’s theory include: the individual is an active player and exerts substantial force on his/her own environment; the environment can force an individual to adapt to its restrictions and conditions; and that the environment is perceived to comprise of dissimilar size entities that are positioned one inside another. The environmental factors are analyzed and synthesized in the following subsections (Paquette & Ryan, 2001). The Microsystem The microsystem encompasses of the environment that the person lives and this system comprises of family members, neighborhoods, religious communities, peers, and other entities that the person interacts with directly on a regular basis. The individual usually comes to contact with the microsystem in most instances involving social interactions. In the microsystem, the individual does not only observe things happen, but also plays an instrumental role in the creation and construction of the experiences that they are likely to have (Jørgensen, 2004). Bronfenbrenner defined the microsystem as “a pattern of interpersonal relationships, roles and activities that a developing individual experiences in a particular face-to-face situation with specific material and physical entities including other people having unique belief systems and temperament and personality traits”. According to Berk (1979), the microsystem is the closest environment variable for an individual and constitutes of structures that the child has direct contacts with. Paquette & Ryan (2001) make inferences from Bronfenbrenner’s theory and asserts that, at the microsystem level, the relations between people take place in two ways, which include towards the child and from the child. For instance, the parents of a child can determine his/her behavior and beliefs; however, the child can also have an effect on the behavior and beliefs of his/her parents. Bronfenbrenner refers to this observation as bidirectional influence and highlights how these relationships manifest on the various degrees of all environmental factors. The core of the ecological systems theory stems from the interaction taking place within the various l