Module 5 child family and community psychology

CASE STUDY

Soo- Kyung (Sue) is a sixteen-year-old Korean student with a history of self-harm, drug abuse, and theft. She has to go to counseling at her school as a condition of her probation, and to have any chance of having her record expunged when she is an adult.

Sue is usually shabbily dressed, has body odor, is hostile and refuses to open up or discuss anything at length with her counselor. She has been seen around school with one kid and was seen talking to that kid in the hall before she came into your office. You have found some information in her school file that apprises you of some pertinent details of her past experiences: You learn that she has an alcoholic mother, who was in and out of a series of relationships when Sue was a child, resulting in frequent moves and a string of different schools. A period of sexual abuse by one of her mother’s boyfriends at the age of 14 led Sue to attempt suicide. Subsequently, she has frequently inflicted injuries on herself.

She finally moved out of her mother’s home and is living with her aunt, who although she does not have a drug problem, works three jobs to provide for Sue and her five nieces and nephews and is rarely home. Sue loves helping with the kids and likes her aunt. Her aunt comes to her school occasionally for parent-teacher conferences, and will ask for suggestions for help, stating that she is trying to help Sue, but has limited resources in terms of time and money.

• Write a summary assessment of the case study to be handed out in the school meeting with the family and professionals. This summary should include the following:
• Background information about the child, explaining his or her behavior and the current situation
• Possible determinates of the stated behaviors focusing on the family
• Possible determinates of the stated behaviors focusing on the school
• Create a presentation, with detailed speaker notes, to train the parents and school personnel to better understand the socialization of this particular child and to create a training and intervention program for both parents and school personnel. The presentation should provide research support from at least two peer-reviewed articles and include the following:
• Separate title and reference slides.
• Provide a review of the role this child plays in his or her family, how that correlates with the expressed behavior, and specific interventions recommended to change problematic behaviors.
• Provide a review of the role this child plays in his or her school and peer group, how that correlates with the expressed behavior, and interventions recommended to change problematic behaviors.
• Create a guide for parents to find the resources needed in the community or methods to gain the services needed for their child. Be sure to also identify four or five resources in your own community, and provide a description of the services they provide that would be useful.
• Provide information on resiliency and the research literature that best applies to this particular case study. Present the strength areas of the child, family, and school integrated with this resiliency literature to provide positive intervention strategies.