Middle Childhood Analysis

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Jan 9, 2024

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Middle Childhood Analysis Hayley Abler Grand Canyon University SWK-516-O502: Human Behavior in the Social Environment I Dr Susan Harding December 13 th , 2023 1

Through the three case studies found in Chapter 12 of the Human Behavior in the Social Environment I all of the children face different challenges. Looking at the first case study with Anthony who is a six-year-old African American boy living in an impoverished area of a large city. Anthony can be described as a smart boy for his age who already knows how to spell his own name and can count to twenty, but struggles in school following simple directions and rules like lining up or being a kind friend and not hitting his classmates. Anthony’s home life can attribute to some of his in-school issues being that Anthony comes from a split family household. This means that he does not see his father on a daily basis. Boys with strong male influence get better grades and perform better on achievement tests. (Baldwin, 2018) along with not coming home to both a father and a mother regularly, Anthony’s parents and maternal grandmother choose physical discipline to force Anthony into compliance. When a child is subjected to physical discipline in the home, their life at school may be adversely affected by impaired cognitive performance, peer isolation, and behavioral problems. (Wiggers, 2022) In comparison to Anthony, the next case study about Jasmine, a nine-year-old Caucasian girl who also faces the challenge of being in poverty as well as a one parent household like in Anthony’s case. Though that is where their cases end in similarity, where Anthony is able to see both of his parents, Jasmine, is unable to contact her father as he is in prison, do to possibly being addicted to heroin or other drugs. Along with not being able to contact her father Jasmine faces the challenge of being the responsible child of her three siblings. Though Jasmine is the middle child, her older sister is out of control and Jasmine’s younger brother is often left in her care because her mother works long shifts in order to maintain a steady income and provide for her three children. Jasmine’s mother places a lot of parental pressure on Jasmine, and leans on her for support. Not all parents are able to take care of their children’s physical and emotional 2

needs and in some families, the child takes over the role of caregiver in order to keep the family functioning as a whole. (Lewis, 2021) With the added pressure from her mother to continue to be the child she does not need to worry about, Jasmine hides concerning medical issues like her head hurting and that her heart starts beating fast before she needs to take a test. With the last case study, Gabriela, who is an eleven-year-old Mexican immigrant girl that live in a single-family household consisting of her, her mother and her father. She faces the challenge of a language barrier that has caused for her to not make many friends as well as being held back both of which contributed to her having low self-esteem. Along with her battle in low self-esteem, Gabriela, faces challenges at home where her father drinks heavily. When a parent or primary caregiver has an alcohol use problem, children in the home can experience a wide range of cognitive, behavioral, psychosocial, and emotional consequences(Mosel, 2023) Along with her father’s heavy drinking, Gabriela has endured and incident where her father inappropriately touched her during one of his heavy drinking episodes. There are many factors that take part in the development of children from conception to adulthood. Within each case study all of the children face many challenging factors in their physical, cognitive, cultural, emotional, and social development. Alongside those developments risk and protective factors also play a role. In Antony’s case he has the protective factors of his parents and grandmother that care for him and are proud of him. Anthony’s risk factors however, could potentially outweigh the protective factors being that Anthony is being exposed to drugs and violence at such a young age could lead him down the wrong path in adulthood. With Jasmine’s case she has the same protective factor of a mother that provides for her, but her risk factors also outweigh the protective factors. Jasmine is left to deal with many problems on her 3

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own, without her mother for support as well as living in poverty. Lastly, Gabriela, who has very little in the realm of protective factors. Though she has a connection with her mother, her mother is ill, this could lead Gabriela’s life in a poor direction when and if she were to lose her mother. Gabriela’s risk factors include language barriers, low self-esteem, and an abusive father. As the number of risks increases, the strength of each individual risk factor tends to increase. (O’ Niell, 2022) The differences of each case are apparent and would need to be addressed differently through the Social Work lens. With the first and the second case there would need to be a lot of focus on the parents’ connection with their children. As a Social Worker it would be good to look for ways to help the families in alleviating some of the outside stressors like providing food, clothing and shelter for the children. In Anthony’s case it would be a good idea to encourage the parents to look into a parenting practices class. Many times, those classes can teach parents a different method for punishment that does not include physical abuse. In Jasmine’s case, it would be good to connect her mother with resources to alleviate the stress and burden of bills. Along with that encouraging the family to become more involved with the community and events in the area where her children can be children and she can enjoy being their mother. In the last case of Gabriela from a Social Worker standpoint there would be needed child protection involvement due to the accusations against her father. With that involvement there would be conversations had about what home life looks like and how her mother planned on being protective of Gabriela against her father. As a Social Worker it would be our job to encourage protective behaviors from the mother as well as provide the mother with resources to remove herself and her daughter from their current situation. 4

Overall, the cases share many challenges and also differ in the fact that the children are all different ages, races and in different areas. The approach to each is unique and requires an open mindset as well as knowledge and understanding to the resources that are available to a Social Worker. Through training and making connections within their community a Social Worker will be able to grow in their ability to help their clients thrive. 5

References Baldwin, J. (2018). Importance of male figures in children’s lives! - CHHSM . CHHSM. https://www.chhsm.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Jenele-Baldwin-Handout.pdf Lewis, R. (2021, September 23). Parentification: What is a parentified child? . Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/parentification Mosel, S. (2023, August 31). Children of alcoholics: Growing up with an alcoholic parent. American Addiction Centers. https://americanaddictioncenters.org/alcoholism-treatment/children?scrlybrkr=4f968804 O’Neill , K. (2022, February 9). Risk and protective factors in child development. Brainwave Trust Aotearoa. https://brainwave.org.nz/article/risk-and-protective-factors-in-child-development/ Wiggers, M., & Paas, F. (2022, November 3). Harsh physical discipline and externalizing behaviors in children: A systematic review . International journal of environmental research and public health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9656315/#:~:text=Finally%2C%20the %20findings%20suggest%20that%20when%20a%20child,impaired%20cognitive %20performance%2C%20peer%20isolation%2C%20and%20behavioral%20problems . 6

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