Seventeen-year-old Lyndy whose ethnic identity is British dual heritage is the first born in a family of five children. Two of the siblings aged 13 and eight are her stepbrothers. Lyndy's biological father moved back to African after divorcing with her mother when Lyndy was five years old. Lyndy has no contact with her father who lives in Africa but shares their four-bedroom house with her stepfather who does not have a steady income. Apart from that, Lyndy's maternal grandmother also lives in the house, and she often has aggressive verbal outbursts. Lyndy's mother has to be the primary financial provider for her husband, her mother and the five children something that wears her out forcing her to leave Lyndy with the responsibility of caring for the younger children. As a result, Lyndy who is in the late adolescent stage of her life is depressed and seeks consolation in the company of older men who are in their twenties. Besides, Lyndy's depression has led her to engage in an unhealthy lifestyle and drug taking. Lyndy could be depressed as a result of strained family relationships. The first part of this paper explores how family relationships can impact the mental and physical health of Lyndy and her siblings. The second section of the essay focuses on the application of social learning theory and Erik Erickson's stages of psychosocial development to understand Lyndy's situation. The aim is to demonstrate how a social service worker can apply the theories in dealing with Lyndy's condition.
Part A
A family is important for everyone's development. The family influences who an individual will be in future and family values determine the kind of relationships one holds with others in life. Therefore, if a family is abusive or dysfunctional, it can leave emotional scars on individuals. Lyndy and her siblings live in a family that can be considered dysfunctional. The mother is not always there to care for her children because she has to work extra time to cater for the big family, the father does not contribute fully to the wellbeing of the family making the oldest child's life strained. Besides, Lyndy's parents divorced when she was five and divorce can have lifelong adverse effects on the mental health of children. According to Anderson, (2014), divorce diminishes the competence of a child in all areas of life including education, family relationships, emotional wellbeing and future earning power. These effects of divorce on children happen regardless of the uniqueness of family settings, differences in family economic resources and the existence of different personalities in families (Anderson, 2014). Based on that, this paper assumes that divorce is the primary cause of Lyndy's achievement of poor grades in coursework.
Moreover, the structure of Lyndy's family has a significant effect on her mental well being. Lyndy could be experiencing decreased psychological and social maturation. In their study of family influence on children behavior and development, De Figueiredo & Dias, (2012) explain that cognitive change happens in children around the age of six and they begin to understand the world around them. That is the point of life that children start to find new solutions, learn to judge, reflect and realise that others have different opinions which impact how they interact with others around them. During that stage, the family plays a significant role in shaping the child's socialisation skills. The child learns values, beliefs and socially accepted behaviour thereby making relationships with parents and other family members critical to the child's social development (De Figueiredo & Dias, 2012). Therefore, Lyndy's lack of contact with her father from age five and the absence of a mother during her growth may have influenced the development of a personality marked by low self-esteem. That explains why Lyndy has to hang out with older men as a way of making up for the low-self-esteem instead of befriending her age mates. Besides, Lyndy could be searching for the fatherly love she missed during her childhood from the older men. Anderosn, (2014) presents that most children of divorced parents spend less time with their fathers and also have higher chances of spending less time with their mother who may be held up by long hours of work to support the family as it is with the case of Lyndy's mother.
As an adolescent living in a dysfunctional family, Lyndy has lost emotional security. Considering the fact that Lyndy and her siblings have little to no contact with their father, they might conclude that their father cares less about them and feel unwanted by a person who should be very close to them. Furthermore, by remarrying, and being overly engaged in work to support the family, the relationship between Lyndy and her mother is weakened. The aggressive verbal outbursts of Lyndy's maternal grandmother who lives with them also makes their relationship weaker leaving the children to define values and beliefs form themselves. According to Anderson, (2014), emotional insecurity increases risks of emotional distress which may cause children to develop drug or alcohol addiction, attempt or commit suicide and experience severe psychiatric disorder. Lyndy suffers some of these symptoms of emotional distress such as drug use.
Lyndy could also be experiencing psychosocial problems as a result of her mother's stressful life. Studies conducted on the influence of parenting on the emotional development of children have revealed that depressed mothers put children at risk of developing emotional problems (Moges & Weber, 2014). According to the researchers, depressed mothers tend to have maladaptive attitudes, behaviours, and thoughts as well as create stressful environments that enhance the development of emotional problems in children (Moges & Weber, 2014). Depressed mothers also have higher chances of being indifferent to their children which hinders the children from achieving normal emotional development (Moges & Weber, 2014). Lyndy's mother is often withdrawn and emotional because she faces difficulties in coping with the demands of her family members. The emotional nature of the mother probably spills over to Lyndy who is old enough to establish the psychological condition of her mother.
Part B
The eight stages of psychosocial development identified by Erik Erickson explains how family relationships are significant in shaping human behavior and personality. The fourth stage which Erickson called Industry vs. Inferiority is most suitable for establishing the analysis of Lyndy's problems since that is where her problems probably began. The fourth psychosocial stage takes place when a child is between age five and eleven. During that stage, the child starts to develop a sense of pride in abilities and accomplishments. A child who is encouraged and commended by parents and teachers has higher possibilities of developing the sense of belief and competence in their skills.
On the other hand, a child that receives little or no encouragement from parents, peers or teachers tend to doubt their abilities to achieve success (Gibson & Gibson, 2016). Between age five and eleven, Lyndy's parents were divorced and although she had a stepfather, her mother was busy working to support the family and there were other children that the parents needed to care for. The chances are high that Lyndy received neither positive nor negative feedback from both parents and that could have influenced the development of low self-esteem.
Erickson's fifth stage of psychosocial development is also relevant for understanding how family relationships are leading to adverse mental and physical health outcomes for Lyndy. The fifth stage which is about identity vs. confusion also relies on proper encouragement and reinforcement from parents, teachers, peers and other family members to promote feelings of control and independence as well as a strong sense of self (Newman& Newman, 2017). If a teenager does not receive the needed encouragement during that period, they become confused about themselves in the future (Newman & Newman, 2017). Besides, the successful completion of the fifth stage is considered to yield fidelity which is the person's ability to live according to the standards and expectations of the society. In relating Lyndy's case to the expected outcomes of the fifth stage, it is apparent that she did not complete the stage that is why she engages in deviant behaviours such as drug use and having relationships with older men.
The social learning theory is also useful in explaining how the family relationships contribute to adverse health effects on Lyndy and her siblings. The social learning theory suggests that people learn more through imitation and observation of others behaviours. According to the concept, behaviour changes can occur without being influenced by any positive or negative reinforcement (Newman & Newman, 2017). The person who observes and imitates views the performer of the task as a model and individuals can learn positive and negative behaviors from different models. Lyndy and her siblings can, therefore, be considered at risk of copying the things their parents, friends and other relatives do. For instance, the grandmother with negative verbal outbursts can influence the development of such behaviour in the children. Although the given scenario does not indicate if Lyndy's mother uses drugs or alcohol to manage the pressure of having to provide for the family, it is apparent that her children have higher possibilities of copying such behaviors. Apart from that, Lyndy's friends who are older men could be doing drugs, and as her role models, Lyndy has acquired the drug abuse behavior from them.
The analysis of Lyndy's case using theories of human development in the previous paragraphs presents the fact that there could be multiple causes to Lyndy's problems though all are related to the strained family relationships. Therefore, social workers need to evaluate all the possible scenarios to develop the most appropriate treatment plan for such a patient. Greene, (2005) explains that theories of human behaviour do not have equal utility in addressing cross-cultural and diverse ethnic concerns. Practitioners must, therefore, be armed with the most flexible approaches in their work. Based on that, an understanding of various theories that can be applied in Lyndy's situation to enable the development of an effective treatment plan. For example, the therapist can look at the theory of psychosocial development to determine what Lyndy missed in her development stages and create a method of correcting the adverse outcomes. Secondly, a therapist can utilise the social learning theory to create a treatment plan that also deals with cases of influence from friends and peers. A combined approach has higher possibilities of helping Lyndy recover. Oko, (2011) points out that the idea of theories presenting competing frameworks should enable practitioners to use an eclectic approach to theorising and draw from different ideas to understand what might be happening to a client.
Lyndy needs to go through a treatment whose components are multifaceted to deal with all the aspects of family relationships that have had a negative impact on her development. Lyndy's siblings also need to go for counseling because they have the same relationships with family members and have higher chances of experiencing similar mental health problems as Lyndy. The therapists handling Lyndy's siblings must consider various approaches to understand what they could be going through. Furthermore, Lyndy's mother should also go for counseling so that her influence on the children's behaviors yield positive results. The maternal grandmother also needs some therapy sessions on how to manage emotional surges that have negative impact on the children since she lives with them. All in all, the correct identification of the source of problems that Lyndy and her siblings are having forms the basis for the development of an effective treatment plan that can save the younger children from experiencing adverse mental health outcomes.
References
Anderson, J. (2014). The Impact of Family Structure on the Health of Children: Effects of Divorce. The Linacre Quarterly, 81(4), pp.378-387.
De Figueiredo, C. and Dias, F. (2012). Families: Influences in Children’s Development and Behaviour, From Parents and Teachers’ Point of View. Journal of Psychology Research, 2(12).
Gibson, A. and Gibson, N. (2016). Human growth, behaviour, and development. London: Sage Publications Ltd, pp.47-81.
Greene, R. (2005). Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice. 2nd Ed. New Jersey: Transaction Aldine, pp.89-90.
Moges, B. and Weber, K. (2014). Parental Influence on the Emotional Development of Children | Developmental Psychology at Vanderbilt. [Online] My.vanderbilt.edu. Available at: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/developmentalpsychologyblog/2014/05/parental-influence-on-the- emotional-development-of-children/ [Accessed 29 Nov. 2018].
Newman, B. and Newman, P. (2017). Development through life: a psychosocial approach. 11th Ed. Wadsworth Cengage Learning, pp.28-44.
Oko, J. (2011). Understanding and using theory in social work. 2nd ed. Exeter: Learning Matters, pp.16-17.
