At each incident, Delaire ranted and punished Nita severely, though her punishments were ineffective, as she did not carry through on monitoring. Nita soon found another ally, a "boyfriend." An older boy had found that Nita would do almost anything for him in order to be accepted by the group and had her perform sexual acts with him, though she would not consent to intercourse in the beginning. However, as time went on, she did have sexual intercourse and became pregnant. Without her mother's knowledge, she and her girlfriend, who helped her, went to a clinic and Nita had an abortion. She told her mother what had happened in a moment of weakness and her mother was horrified, taking Nita's actions to mean that she was ruined. Delaire had been a Catholic, but was not then a practicing one. Her attitudes and ethics were derived from the Catholic religion, but she did not go to church, though she did consult a priest in times of distress. On the priest's advice, she continued to care for Nita, but her requirements were stricter and even more punitive. Nita found it difficult to live within her mother's strict limits and sneaked out of the apartment each night after her mother fell into her drunken sleep. This was only a continuation of her previous behavior, as she had found it easier to lie and sneak around to go to her chosen activities than to tell her mother the truth and put up with a long, judgmental harangue and ensuing punishment for almost anything she did, whether it was positive or not.

During the day, while her mother was at work and she was supposed to be attending high school classes, she "hung out" with her friends in Hollywood. They began to sample drugs and it was not long before Nita was failing her classes and making money to pay for drugs by having sex with friends. Now she was smarter, however, and was...

Finally, during her Junior year in high school, she dropped out and got a job at a bar where she was a "dancer." She told her mother that she had a job and that the men paid her a dollar a dance to dance with her in the bar.
Consequences of Behavior

As a result of Nita's behavior, she failed her classes and did not graduate from high school. She worked in the bar, but did not enjoy the life, though she was tied to it. She did not drink as her mother did, to avoid life, but she drank and took drugs to be acceptable and to socialize with peers. She has decided to go to a local school to become a dental hygienist and is saving her money for that. When she was 20, she studied and received a G.R.E. so she would have a high school diploma and now, at age 22, unmarried and seeing her friends now with families and careers or children, is hopeful of pulling herself out of the bar scene that she had entered so early.

Opinion on Factors Which Have Contributed to Behavior

Delaire's parenting is probably mostly to blame for Nita's failure to find self-fulfillment in positive activities, as her attempts at restricting Nita's bad behavior and keeping Nita under control were mostly desperate, half-hearted, came after the bad behavior had happened (rather than forestalling it), were not consistent and punishments were not monitored. Nita served as an irritant in Delaire's life, rather than as a child who should be loved and guided. Delaire often wondered why Nita consistently lied to her, and made dire judgments on liars,

Interventions Tried

Comparison of Person with Antisocial Behavior

Comments on Comparison of Person Profiled and People with Antisocial Behavior