Name: Dalia
Demographic Information
Age: 14 years old.
Ethnicity: Biracial, African, and Irish American descent.
Presenting Issue(s)
Dalia’s main problem is the lack of parental attention, which encourages her to commit such rash acts as excessive drinking and tattooing. However, the initiators of the appeal to social services are her parents concerned about her daughter’s behavior. According to the girl, her family has changed a lot since her older sister left for college. Lack of mutual understanding is the primary source of all problems in this relationship.
Referral Source
The description of this situation was obtained from the provided study, which was not supported by any additional arguments other than the mention of the medical history.
Current Living Situation
The current quality of life and the general situation at home can be clearly described as positive. Dalia lives in a middle-class family, her parents have been together for 25 years, and there are no severe disagreements or controversies.
Birth and Developmental History
Prenatal/Birth/Development
There was nothing special about Dalia’s early development, as she was an average child. No signs of any abnormalities were mentioned, and the girl was born healthy.
Early Childhood
Dalia is a representative of two races at the same time, African and Irish American, which distinguishes her from her peers. The girl is the youngest child in a large family and has a sister and brother who currently live separately. However, the situation is clouded by the parents’ unstable work schedule, which leaves little room for the youngest daughter’s attention. There were no signs of any abuse, and the girl had a normal childhood.
School and Social Relationships
Educational History and Social Development
According to Dalia’s parents, until high school, she was a cheerful child who happily participated in a variety of activities, especially singing. However, in recent years, her behavior has radically changed in all areas of action. Teachers report a deterioration in classroom concentration and frequent absenteeism, which leads to decreased learning outcomes. There is also a sharp decrease in participation in any additional activities since the girl herself notes that she considers them annoying. Dalia’s social ties are also very strained, as the girl often gets into bickering, including physical, with her peers. The teenager behaves extremely irritably, answers questions sharply, and often uses defensive behavior to enter into arguments even with authority figures. However, with all this, Dalia behaves extremely sexualized with her male peers, apparently trying to attract their attention to herself.
Family Members and Relationships
Significant Family Relationships
Signs of the aforementioned behavior are also manifested at home, as Dalia behaves aggressively. She began to enter into reasoned arguments with her parents and often show physical strength, thus demonstrating her status. All this forms a tense relationship between relatives, especially aggravated with the female part of the family. According to Dalia, her mother tries to control her, while her teenage sister is put continuously as an example both at home and at school, which only complicates the relationship. Concerning the male half, the girl does not have pronounced negative feelings; she considers her brother “cool,” and her father allows her to do what she wants. However, this situation does not contribute to the development of trusting relationships in the family. Ultimately, Dalia has no support at home, since the father has little contact with her because of his work, her brother and sister are too far away, and there are constant conflicts with her mother because of attempts to control.
Health and Medical Issues
Medical History/Health Status
From a biological point of view, two important points should be noted in the birth of a girl. Firstly, Dalia is the youngest child in the family and was born much later than her brother, who already lives separately, and her sister, who is in college. Secondly, in early childhood, the girl was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, which subsequently led to her hospitalization many times. This disease is common among Americans and is a congenital mutation of red blood cells, in which their lifespan is significantly reduced (“Sickle cell anemia,” n.d.). The consequence of this is a reduced amount of oxygen carried in the blood, which can lead to both anemia and an increased risk of infections. However, at the moment, Dalia’s condition is stable, since the last episode occurred two years ago.
Mental Status
Fortunately, estrangement from family and impaired communication with parents did not lead to the active development of any health problems or worsening of existing ones. There is no reason to believe that Dalia is in depression or any other psychological severe condition. However, aggressive behavior is presented, appearing everywhere from school to home. The girl also began to make attempts to get thrills from drinking alcohol. This fact is confirmed by both the girl and her parents, who noticed that she drank alcohol with her friends in their house. However, Dalia denies having any problem with alcohol or other substances, seemingly merely a way of spending time with her comrades.
Spiritual Development
She abandoned almost all previous activities, for example, singing, considering them dull. Her character has changed from cheerful to extremely irritable and impulsive, which manifests itself at all levels of social interaction – from school to home. Although Dalia was not left entirely alone, as she found a company of friends, together with them, she began to engage in harmful activities, for example, drinking alcohol. Besides, attempts to fake an ID to get a tattoo illegally should not be neglected. Since the influence of the parents on the girl at this stage is minimal, the course of development she has chosen can lead to very unpleasant consequences, which will be very problematic to correct.
Social, Community, and Recreational Activities
Currently, Dalia is not involved in any social activities besides attending school and spending time with her friends. The only recreational activity she has at the moment consists of drinking with comrades and committing other illegal for her age acts.
Client Strengths, Capacities and Resources
Dalia and her family have all the resources and opportunities to correct this situation, as seen at the end of the presented text. The main problem here is the lack of attention from the parents, and with the help of the restoration of communication, other elements of family relationships can be established. Since the girl had interests before middle schools, such as singing, and had a cheerful disposition, she could return to this lifestyle with enough help. Besides, the family already has relatively positive bonds with father and brother, which can be strengthened by making them the basis for future development
Bio-Psycho-Social Assessment
In this situation, Dalia and her parents are faced with several problems, the essence of which starts with the family. At first glance, the main obstacle is the client’s aggressive behavior, to which the partial violation of the law is added. Although the points described above undoubtedly require a solution, the root of this situation lies in the lack of parental attention, which the child is trying to replace with something else. In this case, Dalia’s social environment negatively affects her, as the teenager is involved in the company of people forging documents and drinking alcohol. At the same time, there is no one next to her who could pay attention to family problems. Thus, the social environment in this position only complicates the existing situation and prevents its correction.
To correctly address the client’s state, it is not enough to analyze and have a conversation. Given the circumstances, it is necessary to use social theories, with the help of which it is possible to address in more detail the existing problems. When working with the girl herself and her family, it will be useful to turn to Jean Piaget’s social development theory. In this case, parents need to internalize the central idea of his work, which is that kids perceive the world differently than adults (Cherry, 2020). Additionally, Bowlby’s theory of children’s attachment to their caregivers can be used. These theories help assess the current situation, appealing to the difficulties of relationships between children and parents.
It is possible to set a list of goals that must be achieved using the knowledge gained and combining it with the studied theories. In doing so, the focus should be on the client’s strengths, which lie in a positive relationship with the father and brother and past interests. Knowing that the difficulties began precisely after the departure of the older brother and sister, it is necessary to focus on the development of strong family ties. It is essential to convey to parents the idea that they should devote more time to their daughter. Setting such goals and putting them into practice is possible only through a complete analysis of all aspects of the client’s life.
In addition to the methods described above, it is possible to use evidence-based practice to improve the applied approach. Research shows that this therapy is widespread and effective for addressing children’s attention problems (Evans et al., 2017). These techniques involve cognitive training and psychological interventions to correct behavior. They can be based on the client’s skills and knowledge, especially those related to school education. During interviews with Dalia and her family, it is necessary to discuss their success in forming close bonds and adjust the approach used following the evidence obtained.
However, the solution to this trouble will not be evident due to the existence of a series of ethical and cultural issues that must be addressed. First of all, besides restoring relationships with parents, it is necessary to solve the problem of alcohol consumption. Practice shows that adolescents in stressful situations tend to use certain substances that help to temporarily escape from existing issues (Goldbach and Gibbs, 2015). Although Dalia herself claims that she has no issues with them, and only talks about the rare use of alcohol with friends, it is necessary to conduct an informative conversation with her. It is essential to explain the harm of drinks as gently and calmly as possible, especially at such an early age and among such a company.
At the same time, it is vital to address the issues of violation of the law, which manifests itself both in drinking and forgery of certificates. Finally, one of the last topics should be the issue of race, since the client is of two races. Since this situation may entail additional problems, a detailed cultural analysis of the biracial diaspora, the characteristics of both African and Irish-American culture, is necessary.
References
Cherry, K. (2020). Child development theories and examples. Verywell Mind. Web.
Evans, S. W., Owens, J. S., Wymbs, B. T., & Ray, A. R. (2018). Evidence-based psychosocial treatments for children and adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 47(2), 157-198. Web.
Goldbach, J. T., & Gibbs, J. (2015). Strategies employed by sexual minority adolescents to cope with minority stress. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, 2(3), 297-306. Web.
Sickle cell anemia. (n.d.). Mayo Clinic. 2020, Web.