Teenage from Disadvantageous Background - Essay Example

?Introduction Teenage is the most wonderful and interesting period in human being’s life. It is this phase which marks the development of a person from childhood into youth. Teenagers go through dramatic changes in their personality as they experience changes in their body, mind, emotions and behavior pattern. Moreover, sexual maturity adds some more excitement in their lives and they feel the arrival of ‘independent’ personality during the adolescence. Hence, drive to take advantage of different opportunities available during teenage is very strong in most of the teenagers (HM Government n.d., 1). Teenagers who are strong in their emotional foundation are more capable of taking the advantage of the positive opportunities available in the surrounding. However, those teenagers, who belong to disadvantageous backgrounds (HM Government n.d., 1), are not capable of making the most of their youth as they lack support, ability and emotional foundation to utilize the benefits that teenage has to offer. This increases their frustration and drives them to take wrong decisions and indulge in anti-social behavior, drugs and sex (HM Government n.d., 1), which further deteriorate their physical and psychological health. The case study of a teenage girl Carla, which is discussed in this paper, is a good example of how a teenager from disadvantageous background can get in a repetitive destructive behavior pattern and lose all control over life. This paper aims at understanding the core of problems related to young people from disadvantageous background and what can individuals, society and government initiatives can do to improve their lives. It has been found that teenagers who lack the emotional strength and well-being suffer the additional loss as they not only lose on life opportunities but also develop a negative and destructive pattern in life which continues in their adulthood and destroys all the chances of growth, happiness and success in life. Hence, to make the most of life, every teenager should be provided with emotional well being by giving them all the support that is needed in their familial, educational and social environment and more importantly, they should be counseled to develop a strong self-esteem as only a strong self-esteem can drive them to refuse in becoming a victims of negative patterns in life and choose the best that life has to offer. Carla Case Study Carla is 14 years old girl who is going through lots of emotional, psychological and educational problems. She has a history of getting involved in destructive relationships, indulgence in unsafe sex and abortions. Currently, she is 16 weeks pregnant and it is her fourth pregnancy. Two of the pregnancies were early terminations with the last being at 20 weeks gestation, and they all with different abusive partners. Carla has a chaotic lifestyle and although she claims not to ‘use’ Class A drugs, she is a frequent Cannabis user and heavy drinker which makes it difficult for her to focus on her studies. Sadly, Carla’s mother has been in a succession of abusive relationships since Carla can remember. The insecurity and unstable home environment made Carla to spend two years between the age of 8 and 10 years, under the care of the local authority (her two younger brothers have been placed in care for the foreseeable future). Carla does not know her father and her mother is an alcoholic. Carla’s mother is incapable of giving emotional and financial support to Carla as she herself is fighting addiction, financial insecurity and emotional problems. This has negatively affected Carla’s life. Carla’s attendance at school throughout her younger years has been sporadic with exclusions for assault, theft and arson. She is currently under the supervision of the youth offending team. Carla has difficulty in building healthy relationships so she has no friends to offer support. Carla and her family are known to the local Social Services Department and Safeguarding Board. Analysis of the Case Carla’s case is an example of how a child can lose life chances as a result of negative and disadvantageous background. The most important thing in child’s life is the emotional security that she can get at home. If a person gets emotional and psychological security from parents, then the other problems like financial difficulty and social insecurity can be handled with strength. However, if a child does not get love, nourishment and support from parents, then she becomes completely weak as her emotional foundation is not formed properly and it drives her to find emotional fulfillment outside. Carla was brought up by single mother. Carla does not know her father, which means that the only influence on her is her mother. Sadly, her mother was not strong in any way to inculcate good things and habits in Carla. Moreover, her mother’s addiction to alcohol has made problems worse for Carla and her brothers. From the analysis of the case, it is evident that the lack of emotional foundation has led to unending series of problems in Carla’s life. Her relationship with abusive partners shows that she has a tendency to attract negative people in her life. Her subconscious mind drives her into situations and relationships which are negative and violent in nature. Moreover, her performance and behavior at school shows that she is trying to attract attention towards her problem by behaving in destructive and irresponsible way. Also, problems with mother have affected the development of emotional bonding with her brothers. Moreover, the absence of ‘male’ figure in life has also led her to get into sexual relationships in her life very early. This shows that she misses male figure in life and is trying to find it wherever it is available, even if it means being abused and getting exploited sexually by her boyfriend. Hence, the analysis of Carla’s case shows that the root of the problem is emotional insecurity, lack of family support and lack of bonding with close ones. Moreover, lack of proper role model in life has also led to development of anti-behavior and destructive traits in her personality. Hence, to bring Carla on a right track, it is extremely important to first build a foundation of strong personality and behavior and that is, the emotional well-being. Emotional Well-being Emotional well-being is a word that covers many aspects of development in human beings. Emotional well-being not only means healthy development of emotional aspects of life but also means the development of positive psychological traits like self-esteem, positive attitude, capacity to handle stress, healthy social interactions etc. According to Emotional Health and Well-Being (2008), children’s and young people’s capacity to learn and perform better in school depends on their confidence level, ability to express feelings and emotional resilience, which is developed if positive emotional health and well-being is promoted in them (Knowles 2009, p.60). However, it has been found that most of times, the emotional problems in children go undetected. The reason could be lack of attention from parent, care taker or teachers in schools. According to Dwivedi (2004), children whose emotional problems remain undetected develop ongoing mental health problems and emotional maladjustment as adults (Knowles 2009, p.60). The emotional problems have a tendency to go deep into the mind if they are not treated at right time. Hence, detection of problems in children is the most important aspect of promotion of emotional health in children. In Carla’s case, it is evident that her emotional problems and maladjustment pattern was not recognized by her mother. In fact, as her mother was unable to provide her support and was emotionally unstable, she was kept under the care of local authority for 2 years. However, this did not solve her problem as her problem was not only regarding the shelter but was also regarding the lack of parental nurturing and proper role model in life. Importance of Parental Care Parental nurturing and acceptance is one of the most important concepts of emotional well-being. If a child is not accepted and loved by her parents, then she develops a feeling of inferiority and feels ‘unwanted’. This leads to a weak self regard which creates a misery in the child. Child psychologists and teachers have observed that children become anxious and insecure if hey suffer from lack of security, routine and predictable environment (Goble 2004, p. 54). According to Maslow, children become socially and emotionally well-adjusted when they have freedom with certain restrictions attached to it rather than when they are left by themselves (Goble 2004, p. 54). In fact, he found that children enjoy freedom that is ‘given’ by parents rather than the freedom that does not have guidance from parents (Goble 2004, p. 54). This shows that children crave involvement of parents in their lives even if it means certain restrictions in life. In Carla’s case, there was no one to look after her and to stop her from doing anything. Her mother, being an addict, could not provide her the emotional support that she needed. Hence, the freedom that Carla got was not enjoyed by her. According to Maslow, insecure children go to any length to find stability, security and order in life (Goble 2004, p. 54) and in case they cannot find stability, they go into depression and maladjustment. Carla’s habit of getting into relationships with boys was a desperate attempt to find security and stability in life. She was also sexually involved with her series of boyfriends as she thought that making them happy will lead to a permanent relationship. Instead, she suffered from abuse and rejection. This pattern of getting into abusive relationship was a manifestation of her subconscious fear of rejection. By trying too hard, she used to lose people. Moreover, the fear of rejection also made her lonely and friendless. This was a result of lack of proper role model in life, which is also one of the important concepts of emotional well-being. Being a child of single parent was also a root cause of Carla’s emotional problem. According to Maslow, the need for belonging and love is one of the most important basic needs of a person (Goble 2004, p. 54). The love need makes a person to strive to achieve acceptance and appreciation from people around her (Goble 2004, p. 54). According to Rogers, a child gains self regard when she is understood and accepted by her parents and care takers without any conditions attached to it (Goble 2004, p. 54). Hence, for a child to feel protected, safe and ‘at home’ in the outside world, she should be accepted and loved by her parents. In Carla’s case, Carla was never loved or appreciated by her mother. She also missed the love and affection of her father, which is very important for a girl child to develop confidence and self-esteem. Adults around children are the behavior role model foe them (Murray 1996, p.32). So when a child grows up with a single mother, she is subconsciously influenced by the behavior and relationship pattern of her mother (Murray 1996, p.32). In children’s case, what they see is what they believe and hence, even if people from social services, teachers, clergies and counselor guide them with words of wisdom, they fail to understand it because what they see is totally different from what they hear (Murray 1996, p.32). This concept applies very strongly to Carla’s case. Carla was modeling her mother’s behavior pattern and was getting into all wrong and destructive behavior patterns. Sadly, loneliness, emotional abuse, feeling of insecurity, tensions and deprivation of emotional support in early age has a potential to cause depression in children (Knowles 2009, p.60). Hence, for the social working team to bring support, healing and fulfillment in Carla’s life, it is very important for them to understand the root cause of problem discussed above and implement different strategies and concepts of emotional well-being for her overall development. Every Child Matters The concept of ‘Every Child Matters’ (ECM) was designed to improve the quality of education by understanding the core needs of a child and providing her with all those requirement which can help make learning easy for her (Cheminais 2007, p. 1). It has been found that children who feel safe, accepted, healthy, happy and emotionally supported are the ones who learn effectively in schools (Cheminais 2007, p. 1). This shows that the emotional well-being of a child plays a vital role in developing strong mental skills and making child capable of learning efficiently in school and hence, educational settings alone are not responsible for performance of a child (Cheminais 2007, p. 1). This is visible from Carla’s case. Carla was finding it difficult to focus on school as her personal life was in emotional mess. Because of lack of emotional well-being, Carla was not able to express her feelings of frustration and anger to her teachers and care takers. However, when she realized that the expectations from people around her were growing, she became restless and started behaving violently in school. This was her way to attract their attention towards her emotional problems and being incapable of expressing it, she started indulging in alcohol, drugs and destructive relationships, same as her mother did. What she needed was someone to understand her and help her. If her problem was detected by her teachers earlier, it would have helped to change her emotional and psychological pattern. This is where ECM comes in the picture. It is the responsibility of child service sectors outside the schools to work together with schools to provide child with the emotional, psychological and environmental support which can make her capable of focusing on education without worrying about the insecurities and threats from parents and environment. Hence, the most important factor in achieving the aim of ECM is to provide student centred learning opportunity, personalized care and personalized services to children and young adults through extended service facilities in schools (Cheminais 2007, p. 9). For preventing addiction and mental health problems in children, ECM has also created its own trust (Muscat and Council Of Europe 2010, p.277). It has been found that the major influence on the emotional development of children is of those people who work with them on daily basis, like teachers, social workers and staff at school (Partridge and Richardson 2010, p.xvii). Hence, their unconditional support will not only ensure the development of individual qualities in child but also the improvement in emotional well-being which is so important in the healthy growth of a child. Moreover, as teenage is the important turning point in human being’s life, getting proper guidance at this stage is very important for healthy growth of a child. Hence, initiatives like ‘14-19’ can help a great deal in building a foundation for development of emotionally healthy society. 14-19 Education and Skills Learning subjects and skills for which one has aptitude is very enjoyable, satisfying and fulfilling thing to do. Hence, if education curriculum is designed in such a way that teenagers and young adults can get an opportunity to choose their own subjects and skills (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.103), then students will pursue education happily and with total attention. Hence, the core of the ‘14-19 Education and Skills’ program is ‘choice’ in education (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.103). At the same time, it is important to understand that not every teenager is capable of making right choice as choices are influenced by environmental, socio-economic and familial factors (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.104). Hence, guiding young people at every stage of their decision making in education becomes a responsibility of people working in the program (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.104). Moreover, parent’s role has been identified in school performance of a child. A study by Ball et al. (2001) has revealed that level of parent’s education is an important factor in choices that parents make for their children (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.113). Foskett et al. (2004) has found that on children from high SES localities, parents have more influence than the schools, but on children coming from low SES localities, schools have more influence than their parents (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.113). Hence, the responsibility of schools and social workers increases in case of children from low SES families as they need more help and attention from the program than the children coming from high SES families (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.113). For example, in case of Carla, her education record shows that her performance has been inconsistent from a long time and has worsened with time. This was a result of the problems in her personal life. In such a scenario, if making choice is left to her totally, then she might take wrong decisions again and put her future chances in jeopardy. Hence, in her case, it is important for someone to make her aware of decisions related to every aspect of her education. Things like aptitude test, interview, counseling and tests can help in understanding her natural bent of mind and dreams of future. Moreover, it has been found that if children experience low expectations from teachers and fail to reach their potential, then they lose interest in education (Kidd and Czerniawski 2010, p.108). Learning subjects and skills of her choice and aptitude will assure that she becomes interested and involved in her education and will make efforts to be regular and sincere in school. Hence, people from external services can help schools in promoting the information and guidance which can prove effective in touching the core of young adults and making education more effective, fun, interesting and goal oriented (Lumby and Foskett 2005, p.105). The 14-19 education and skills program can prove to be a quantum leap in improving the opportunities for children and young adults. The quantum leap is a great necessity as the youth is the future of the world. Hence, targeting development of youth through different programs is very important. Youth Matters Prevalence of addiction in young people has caught the attention of UK government very strongly (Bryant-Jefferies 2006, p.4). According to UK government paper ‘Youth Matters’ (2005), the physical, psychological and emotional health of adolescent is worsening due to their destructive behavior pattern like alcohol addiction, drug addiction, unsafe sex, volatile substance abuse etc (Bryant-Jefferies 2006, p.4). Government has realized that a firm and immediate action is the only way to stop the growth in antisocial behavior pattern in youth (HM Government n.d., 4). These problems are related to low SES background, exclusion and lack of support from social bodies. Hence, ‘inclusion’ and participation of children and young people coming from low SES background and destructive family environment, in social activities like sports, social gatherings, and cultural programs, is very important (Bryant-Jefferies 2006, p.4). This will help in diverting their minds from their problems and focus on the positive opportunities available in the society. Hence, people involved in services related to youth care should see to it that young adults are supported with basic emotional and psychological help so that they become strong, capable and independent citizens ready to face the challenges at home and in the society (Sheehan 2009, 308). Carla was helped many times by social services. However, her problems were being solved for her and hence, she was not capable of facing the challenges alone. Hence, while counseling Carla, the main objective should be to help her become emotionally independent, self sufficient and strong so that at every stage of her counseling and development, she should be able to motivate herself to win over all the adversities which are present inside her and in the environment around her. Conclusion Carla’s case study reveals that in absence of parental support, the child loses all the hopes and proper direction in life. It makes the child wander aimlessly and take out the anger and frustration on others by indulging in anti-social activities and self destructive behavior pattern. The individual is the core of the society and hence, to develop a healthy, happy and positive society, every child, regardless of background should get total support, acceptance and affection from the society. References Bryant-Jefferies, R. 2006. Counselling Young Binge Drinkers: Person-centred Dialogues. Oxon: Radcliffe Publishing Ltd. Cheminais, R., 2007. How to Achieve the Every Child Matters Standards: A Practical Guide. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Goble, F.,2004. The Third Force: The Psychology of Abraham Maslow. Richmond: Maurice Bassett Publishing. HM Government, n.d., Youth Matters. Norwich: TSO Kidd, W. and Czerniawski, G., 2010. Successful Teaching 14-19: Theory, Practice and Reflection. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Knowles, G., 2009. Ensuring Every Child Matters. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Lumby,J. and Foskett, N. 2005. 14-19 Education: Policy, Leadership and Learning. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Murray, C. 1996. The  Emerging  British  Underclass. The  IEA  Health  and  Welfare  Unit, [Online] Available at http://www.civitas.org.uk/pdf/cw33.pdf [Accessed 25th April 2011] Muscat, R. and Council Of Europe,2010. Treatment Systems Overview. Strasbourg Cedex: Council Of Europe Publishing. Partridge, I. and Richardson, G., 2010. Preface. In: G. Richardson, I. Partridge and J. Barrett, eds. 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