Adolescent Case StudyI. IdentificationA.
Kathy Johnson is a 14 year old female, a freshman at Parkway High School, and resides at 789 Parkview Way, Bossier City, LA 70000. II. History of FamilyA. The subject lives with her biological mother and stepfather.
Thechild’s biological father resides in Bossier City as well, but he has notmaintained a relationship with the child since he divorced her mother in 1981. The child also has a brother who lives out of state and has no relationshipor contact with him either. B. The subject comes from an upper middle class family. Her stepfatheris a high school graduate and owns his own construction business. Her mother isa homemaker and quit school during her sophomore year.
C. The subject and her family live in Southern Gardens, a smallsubdivision in Bossier City. The family, for the most part, keeps to themselves anddoesnot have any close, personal associations. The few associates they haveare business colleagues and people from their church groups.
D. The stepfather is a relatively healthy male, approximately 6’1″tall, dark brown hair, brown eyes, weighs around 200 pounds and has no known physicalillness. The mother is 5’4″ tall, blonde hair, brown eyes and hasnoticeable symptoms of depression and a significant drinking problem. Presentlyshe is in good overall physical health.
E. Most of the family’s interest revolves around the subject’sathletic activities such as baseball and church related activities such as Sundayservices and youth centered groups. F. The family attends a full gospel, nondenominational church on aregular basis. Their political views are primarily democratic.
G. The family is of Italian descent and somewhat antisocial. Theyrarely see anyone on a personal basis and have no close personal friends. III.
History of the CaseA. The subject is approximately 5’5″ tall, long dark brown hair,brown eyes and is somewhat overweight, weighing in at 165 pounds. However,she is very athletic and is routinely involved in softball and basketball. Sheplays softball during the summer for her church league and has won numeroustrophies. During the school year, she also plays basketball for her churchbasketball team. She diligently attends every practice and never misses a gamein either sport.
Although her physician states that she is in good generalhealth, she regularly complains of stomach pain and lethargy. B. Due to the subject’s physical complaints, her school attendanceis relatively poor; however, her grades are above average in the A to B range. In the past, her attendance in school was better, but her grades were not ashigh. They usually remained in the B to C range. C.
The subject receives an allowance of $25 per week for doinghousehold chores such as cleaning her room, vacuuming, and cooking dinner. Most often, she spends her allowance on name brand clothing and shoes. Fitting in with the”Preppy” crowd seems to be very important to her, hencethe expenditures on only name brand clothing, shoes, etc. D. Although she wants to fit in, she seems to lack the socialskills required in order to get along with her peers. She tends to besomewhat aggressive which often results in confrontations and arguments withpeers her own age.
Therefore, she only has one close friend and is not partof any clique or group. According to her, the other adolescents describe heras being overbearing and bossy, so ultimately she stays to herself and doesnot get along well with her peers. E. The subject’s recreational habits consist of playing softballand basketball and attending youth oriented activities at church such asyouth camp and bible studies. She is a very outgoing and aggressive teenagerwho often tends to try and force her opinions on her peers. Which in turn,has the opposite effect and more often causes her peers to become distantand antisocial with her.
F. Her personal philosophy and ideology is based mainly on herreligious beliefs. She believes in the teachings of the bible and that thereis one God who controls and oversees the world in which she lives. Therefore,she is against premarital sex, drug and alcohol use, and abortion. Whenasked her politicalviews, for example who she would vote for, her reply was”Bill Clinton, simply because he is a democrat.
” She seems to be heavilyinfluenced by her families political views, in that, she doesn’t know muchabout politics, but she would vote for a democrat because her family belongsto the Democratic Party. IV. SummaryAfter interviewing and observing the subject, my findings relative to hercurrent status are the following:Her stepfather is physically and verbally abusive toward her motheroften forcing the subject to call the police. Her mother appears to suffer fromprolonged bouts of depression and ongoing alcohol use. Therefore, the subjectis required to more or less handle the everyday household obligations such ascooking and cleaning. She also has a deep resentment for her stepfather andfeels the need to protect and take care of her mother.
In my opinion, the subject is suffering from physical and emotional neglectfrom her parents resulting in depression, low self esteem, aggressive tendencies,and bouts of hypochondria. V. RecommendationsMy recommendations would be to remove the subject from the abusivesituation by placing her in a temporary foster home and to require her parentsto undergo a full psychiatric evaluation. She should remain in the foster homeuntil her mother undergoes and successfully completes an alcohol rehabilitationprogram and receives counseling for the physical and emotional abuse which shehas endured.
The stepfather should be required to stay away from the subjectand her mother until he undergoes counseling and no longer exhibits signs ofaggressive and abusive behavior. Other recommendations for the subject would beto prescribe antidepressants combined with group support with other adolescentssuffering similar situations and problems. Her aggressive tendencies and lowself esteem need to be addressed by placing her in a loving and emotionallystable and supportive household where she would be allowed to experience somefreedom from the emotional burden of having to run a household virtually byherself.
