Using Eco-Mapping to Understand Family Strengths and Resources

Abstract

A s professionals and families work together to identify and celebrate the strengths and resources unique to each family, new and innovative ways to describe and discuss family characteristics are needed. The eco-map, borrowed from social science disciplines, is one method used to describe family strengths and resources. The ecomap was developed in 1975 by sociologist Hartman (1978) to help social workers in public child welfare practice better understand the needs of the families with whom they worked. An eco-map is a graphic representation or visualization of the family and linkages to the larger social system, including informal (e.g., friends, extended family members) and formal (e.g., early care and education providers, early intervention providers) supports. It illustrates how the family exists within the context of its Eco-Mapping / McCormick et al.

Support Networks of Single Puerto Rican Mothers of Children with Disabilities

“…For organizational and comparative purposes, we have grouped the 18 items of the FSS into the four main categories of support suggested by Dunst et al (1988): immediate family (e.g., spouse, children); kinship network (e.g., grandparents, aunts, uncles); informal network (e.g., church, coworkers); and professionals and organizations (e.g., school, healthcare providers, social worker). We employed the ECOMAP, a one-page visual representation of the family's relationships, as a tool to learn about the family's support system (Hartman 1978;Hodge and Williams 2002;McCormick et al 2008). Lines and circles were drawn to represent relationships with extended family and kin, friends and neighbors, church and coworkers, and schools and professional services represented by individuals or organizations.…”

Close-Person Spill-Overs in End-of-Life Care: Using Hierarchical Mapping to Identify Whose Outcomes to Include in Economic Evaluations

“…To examine the scope of close-person networks, and the influences of end of life on these networks, a hierarchical mapping [27] task was included. Pictorial tools have been found to aid rapport [34] and elicit complex information in a simple manner [36]. A number of pictorial methods such as the Pictor method [37] were considered.…”

An Inquiry of Children’s Social Support Networks Using Eco-Maps

“…It was developed by sociologist, Anne Hartman in 1975 to visually depict sources of social supports and links of an individual or group (Ray and Street 2005). It has primarily been used to aid social workers to better understand the needs of the families and children with whom they worked (McCormick et al 2008). The term eco-map is derived from the word ecology, ''the study of the connection between a living thing and its environment, and how that connection is maintained and enhanced'' (Ray and Street 2005, p. 546).…”

“…Information collected in this interview includes the strength of each relationship, frequency of interactions, and type of support provided. Multiple informants can be included in the discussion to make the picture as accurate and comprehensive as possible (McCormick et al 2008).…”