COURSE: Interdisciplinary Human Ecology 792 – Theories and Perspectives in Human Ecology
MEDIUM: Infographic, Graphic Essay, Data Visualization, Digital Illustration
DESCRIPTION:
This infographic shows how parents, children, and environmental factors interact in ways that produce child anxiety and depression. Consistent with cognitive behavioral therapy, a child’s mental health is influenced by a combination of their cognitions, feelings, and behaviors. These, in turn, are influenced by their genes (which are a combination of their parents’ genes), as well as their interactions with their parents’ cognitions, feelings, and behaviors. Parent-child interactions are depicted by the dark blue arrows. One is dashed, to represent the fact that each parent can impact their child’s mental health differently, and both are bi-directional, to indicate that children also influence their parents. Finally, all these interactions are influenced by the cultural landscape in which parents and children operate, depicted through the grey background.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
I created this infographic for a class assignment. In particular, we were asked to create a “Mind Map” that depicted our research interests and reflected the theoretical foundations of our future work. My primary interests focus on better understanding child anxiety and depression, and I wanted to combine multiple theories to show how child outcomes are influenced by the complex interactions between parents, children, and broader environmental factors. My final Mind Map combines cognitive behavioral theories with social learning and socio-ecological theories of development. Note that our Mind Maps were never meant to stand alone (they were a visual guide accompanying a presentation), but I am submitting it here all the same!