Adolescent Case Study
I. Identification
A. 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 Family
A. The subject lives with her biological mother and stepfather. The child's
biological father resides in Bossier City as well, but he has not maintained 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 relationship or contact
with him either.
B. The subject comes from an upper middle class family. Her stepfather is a high
school graduate and owns his own construction business. Her mother is a
homemaker and quit school during her sophomore year.
C. The subject and her family live in Southern Gardens, a small subdivision
in Bossier City. The family, for the most part, keeps to themselves and does
not have any close, personal associations. The few associates they have are
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 physical
illness. The mother is 5'4" tall, blonde hair, brown eyes and has noticeable
symptoms of depression and a significant drinking problem. Presently she
is in good overall physical health.
E. Most of the family's interest revolves around the subject's athletic activities
such as baseball and church related activities such as Sunday services and
youth centered groups.
F. The family attends a full gospel, nondenominational church on a regular basis.
Their political views are primarily democratic.
G. The family is of Italian descent and somewhat antisocial. They rarely see
anyone on a personal basis and have no close personal friends.
III. History of the Case
A. 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. She plays softball
during the summer for her church league and has won numerous trophies.
During the school year, she also plays basketball for her church basketball
team. She diligently attends every practice and never misses a game in either
sport. Although her physician states that she is in good general health, she
regularly complains of stomach pain and lethargy.
B. Due to the subject's physical complaints, her school attendance is 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 as high. They
usually remained in the B to C range.
C. The subject receives an allowance of $25 per week for doing household 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, hence the expenditures on
only name brand clothing, shoes, etc.
D. Although she wants to fit in, she seems to lack the social skills required in
order to get along with her peers. She tends to be somewhat aggressive
which often results in confrontations and arguments with peers her own age.
Therefore, she only has one close friend and is not part of any clique or group.
According to her, the other adolescents describe her as being overbearing and
bossy, so ultimately she stays to herself and does not get along well with her
peers.
E. The subject's recreational habits consist of playing softball and basketball and
attending youth oriented activities at church such as youth camp and bible
studies. She is a very outgoing and aggressive teenager who 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 distant and antisocial with her.
F. Her personal philosophy and ideology is based mainly on her religious beliefs.
She believes in the teachings of the bible and that there is one God who
controls and oversees the world in which she lives. Therefore, she is against
premarital sex, drug and alcohol use, and abortion. When asked her political
views, for example who she would vote for, her reply was "Bill Clinton, simply
because he is a democrat." She seems to be heavily influenced by her families
political views, in that, she doesn't know much about politics, but she would
vote for a democrat because her family belongs to the Democratic Party.
IV. Summary
After interviewing and observing the subject, my findings relative to her
current status are the following:
Her stepfather is physically and verbally abusive toward her mother often forcing the
subject to call the police. Her mother appears to suffer from prolonged bouts of
depression and ongoing alcohol use. Therefore, the subject is required to more or
less handle the everyday household obligations such as cooking and cleaning. She
also has a deep resentment for her stepfather and feels the need to protect and take
care of her mother.
In my opinion, the subject is suffering from physical and emotional neglect
from her parents resulting in depression, low self esteem, aggressive tendencies, and
bouts of hypochondria.
V. Recommendations
My recommendations would be to remove the subject from the abusive
situation by placing her in a temporary foster home and to require her parents to undergo
a full psychiatric evaluation. She should remain in the foster home until her mother
undergoes and successfully completes an alcohol rehabilitation program and receives
counseling for the physical and emotional abuse which she has endured. The stepfather
should be required to stay away from the subject and her mother until he undergoes
counseling and no longer exhibits signs of aggressive and abusive behavior. Other
recommendations for the subject would be to prescribe antidepressants combined with
group support with other adolescents suffering similar situations and problems. Her
aggressive tendencies and low self esteem need to be addressed by placing her in a loving
and emotionally stable and supportive household where she would be allowed to
experience some freedom from the emotional burden of having to run a household
virtually by herself.
