The Adolescent Years of Regina Stuart - Case Study Example

?Case Study: The Adolescent Years of Regina Stuart Regina Stuart is a small and meek 16 year old Caucasian girl living in the grand of Chicago, Illinois. She leads what seems to be a normal social life in the eyes of outsiders, but at home there is struggle. Regina’s mother, Clara, is a full-time waitress. Working double shifts takes its toll, and for Regina being the only child, she’s left alone for most of the time. The whereabouts of Regina’s father are unknown, and quite frankly, she doesn’t even really care to know where he is. Struggling to make ends meet is does not bother Regina entirely; she does everything she can to help her mother out around the house. It’s the familial conflicts and losses in her life that wear her down so low that not even her love for God can even fix. About four months ago, Regina got a phone call from her best friend Sam. It was a daunting phone call. Regina knew that Sam had been going through some serious troubles over the last few years; getting two abortions, abusing prescription drugs, being victimized by every bully, and dropping out of school. Although Regina’s strong faith in God prevents her from acknowledging these risky behaviors, she loves Sam and will support her no matter what. The night of that phone call made Regina realize that something wasn’t right. Sam did not sound like herself, and this frightened Regina. Through the buzzing sound of the phone, Regina listened to Sam as she poured her heart out; wishing she kept those two babies, feeling immense hatred for her family and life. In the back of Regina’s mind she was praying. Praying for Sam to realize what life has to offer. Praying for her to love again. Regina hangs up the phone and immediately heads over to the distraught teens house. Upon arriving, she discovers something completely out of reality and not even close to what she can comprehend; Sam’s limp body dangling from a noose tied to a pipe along the ceiling of the basement. Regina is close with her cousin Brad who is a member of her father’s side of the family, but because her father abandoned them, Regina’s mother Clara forbids Regina and Brad to see each other. Regina also takes to blogging a lot with her struggles. Effects of Parental Divorce on Regina’s Life Media and literature frequently emphasizes upon the negative implications of the parental divorce on the children. The effects commonly identified include but are not limited to the development of lack of trust, lack of courage, and lack of ability to sustain relationships in the children. Many single mothers find such demonstration of the effects of parental divorce on children quite offensive. In his book, Arendell (1986) quotes the frustration of one such mother in these words, I get really upset and resentful over all the media talk about the negative effects of divorce on children…I resent the tube telling me, and my kids, that "children of divorced parents don't make good peer relationships and do poorly in school, and they're likely to live a life of crime." That's garbage! The media ignores the fact that we have crazy people running around who grew up in the so-called normal family. I think the media are really damaging. (Arendell, 1986, p. 100). Analysis of Regina’s case study suggests that the mother quoted by Arendell (1986) is correct. Regina is a very responsible girl even in her teenage, and does all that she can to help her mother in any way and is also a very responsible friend. In spite of the fact that her mother does not let her see Brad, this does not have any effect on Regina’s relationship with her mother. This response of Regina to the disapproval of her mother for Brad is quite understandable as research suggests that children with ruder natures are more likely to develop conflicts with their parents (Arnett, 1999, p. 318). In many ways, Regina is much more responsible, caring, and loving than many girls raised in families of dual parents in a nuclear family system. However, as a result of her divorce, Clara becomes excessively conscious about relationships and does not let Regina see Brad because of which, Regina might feel being controlled by her mother in her relationships. This may have negative implications on her self-perception, self-confidence, and decision making abilities in the long run. Children develop affiliation with the parents only when they develop a bond with them as the children grow. If one or both parents is missing in a child’s life, the child’s life may be negatively impacted by the lack of parent or parents, but the child may not necessarily miss the parent or parents in his/her life. Same is the case with Regina. Regina grew up with her mother alone. She never happened to see her father, which is why, there is no place of a father in her life. Children develop coping mechanisms to deal with the challenges related to the lack of parent. Likewise, Regina is doing very well even without her father and it would hardly impact her life in a positive way if the father suddenly showed up some day and expressed his love for her. Divorce is commonly believed to negative affect the cognitive performance of children. Various researches that have compared the children in the father-absent families with the children raised in the intact families and have found deficits in the cognitive performance especially in the quantitative performance area, but the conclusions drawn by these researches are mixed and vary depending upon a whole range of factors like the age and gender of child, time since the parental divorce, and the cognitive skills that these researches test (Barber and Eccles, 1992, p. 109). Effects of Sam’s Tragic Death on Regina’s Life The tragic ending of Sam’s life is obviously a big shock for Regina to absorb. Sam was a very close friend of Regina and had shared almost every secret of her life with her, which further led to strengthening the emotional bond between the two. However, Regina is a type of person who is likely to learn something from even this unfortunate incident, and may use it in many ways to spread light and awareness in the society. Regina is a brave and strong girl who can sustain the shock of broken relationships. Since her birth, she has not had her father. Although her mother is very close to her emotionally, yet she also remains distant from her for most of the day. In addition, Regina has also been denied meeting Brad by her mother. She has already suffered a lot and has yet proven her strength at every point in life. Although Regina might be overcome with shock temporarily upon the loss of her beloved friend, yet she is likely to draw positive conclusions from this as well. For example, although there is nothing Regina can do to bring Sam back to life, yet there is a lot that she can do utilizing her blogging skills and empathetic behavior. Blogging is likely to have a very positive impact on Regina’s life given she is a responsible and caring girl and a person of strong Christian faith. She can blog about how traumatic can the experience of an abortion be for a girl discussing the case of her friend Sam. If she blogs about this, many readers considering abortion might want to give their decision a second thought and might as well shun their plan of abortion, which would not only save them all the trauma that Sam went through, but also keep them from doing the sin of murder as the abortion is interpreted by the Christian faith. Effects of Social Networking and Blogging on Regina’s Life Social networking plays a very important role in Regina’s life. This is evident not only from her attachment with and concern for Sam, but also from the fact that she is an active blogger and frequently blogs about her various issues, anxieties, and frustrations. Regina quite understandably feels extremely concerned for Sam. Research suggests that the Millennials are more empathetic, community oriented, caring, as well as politically engaged than the previous generations were at their age (Twenge, Campbell, and Freeman, 2012, p. 1060). The human nature requires humans to rely upon one another. Social observation and networking transacts this reliance. With the advancement of technology, such tools and means have become available to humans that they can use to make a big change in their lives. “Because of the innate human propensity to be social and live in groups, new technology has encouraged the migration of our social lives onto the World Wide Web” (Crosier, Webster, and Dillon, 2012, p. 238). Regina can use the Internet to contact Brad over social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter and her mother would not even know about it. Research suggests that the tendency of adolescents to use the Internet to make and sustain relationships has grown manifolds in the past few years (Valkenburg, Peter, and Schouten, 2006, p. 584). Besides, research based on more than 30 years suggests that “educational environments are associated with growth in moral judgment development” (Maeda and Thoma, 2009, p. 233). Blogging provides Regina with a similar educational environment that plays the role of a catalyst in the development of a moral judgment. Therefore, Regina might also one day identify her father through Brad if she wanted to. Thus Internet is likely to affect Regina’s life in different kinds of positive ways given she is a positive person herself. The Effect of Low Socio-Economic Status on Regina’s Life Regina belongs to a low socio-economic status family. Her mother works very hard to make both ends meet, and being the daughter of a single parent, Regina is on her own while she is alone at home for the most part of the day. In the eyes of contemporary literature, she is at risk; “In the contemporary child development literature, the phrase at-risk children usually implies those from low-income families” (Luthar, 2003, p. 1581). However, analysis of Regina’s characteristics and behaviors suggests that despite being from a poor family, she is not at risk. No wonder Regina has been raised in a tense environment without the supervision and guidance of a father, and her mother’s and father’s families are not at good terms with each other, which primarily happen to be the factors negatively impacting the developmental psychology of most children, but Regina is different. Research suggests that “emotion processing and cognitive appraisal systems develop during adolescence” (Blakemore, 2008, p. 46). Probably, most of the time that Regina has always had to be just with herself has provided her with the opportunity to reflect upon her life and comprehend its complexities in a way that have ultimately made her more mature than most rich girls belonging to the intact families would be at her age. This is evident from Regina’s urge to help her mother, her empathy for her friends, and her firm religious faith. Being from a family of low socio-economic status, Regina is likely to be more realistic in her dreams and would not be shattered if she could not make all of them come true. Likewise, she is likely to understand why her mother does not approve of her relationship with Brad, and she can live without him if she had to. Conclusion This case study highlights the importance of an adolescent’s personality traits on the way he/she develops psychologically and emotionally in a single parent family with low socio-economic status. Regina is a Caucasian teenager living with her mother and has seen a very stressful life in a father-absent family. However, her positive personality traits have always helped her draw positive conclusions from complicated matters and learn something from life at every point in time. As a result, over the time, Regina grew up into a responsible, loving, and caring daughter and friend who wants to do something for others. Using her good personality traits and exceptional blogging abilities, Regina can make a very positive change in the society. References: Arendell, T. (1986). Mothers and divorce: Legal, economic, and social dilemmas. Berkeley: University of California Press. Arnett, J. J. (1999). Adolescent Storm and Stress, Reconsidered. American Psychologist. 54(5): 317-326. Barber, B. L., and Eccles, J. S. (1992). Long-Term Influence of Divorce and Single Parenting on Adolescent Family- and Work-Related Wues, Behaviors, and Aspirations. Psychological Bulletin. 111(1): 108-126. Blakemore, S. (2008). Development of the social brain during adolescence. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 61(1): 40-49. Crosier, B. S., Webster, G. D., and Dillon, H. M. (2012). Wired to Connect: Evolutionary Psychology and Social Networks. Review of General Psychology. 16(2): 230-239. Luthar, S. S. (2003). The Culture of Affluence: Psychological Costs of Material Wealth. Child Development. 74(6): 1581-1593. Maeda, Y., Thoma, S. J., and Bebeau, M. J. (2009). Understanding the Relationship Between Moral Judgment Development and Individual Characteristics: The Role of Educational Contexts. Journal of Educational Psychology. 101(1): 233-247. Twenge, J. M., Campbell, W. K., and Freeman, E. C. (2012). Generational Differences in Young Adults’ Life Goals, Concern for Others, and Civic Orientation, 1966 –2009. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 102(5): 1045-1062. Valkenburg, P. M., Peter, J., and Schouten, A. P. (2006). Friend Networking Sites and Their Relationship to Adolescents’ Well-Being and Social Self-Esteem. Cyber Psychology and Behavior. 9(5): 584-590. Read More