Counseling an eleven-year-old girl struggling with social isolation and low self-esteem

Beth's Case Study

The case of Beth, an eleven-year-old attending the sixth grade at a local elementary school within her community, involves many of the symptoms common in cases where a child is simply within the wrong environment. The case starts with a referral to a child counsellor, by the school guidance counsellor. The referral arises from the counsellor's opinion of Beth's relatively low disposition and related self-esteem issues.

Information regarding Beth's entrance into the school and current social stratification are obtained by the child counsellor and is thusly informed of Beth's commencement in the fourth grade and of 'difficulty' in establishing friendships. The counsellor further finds that Beth did have a close friend and shared a tight friendship with her close friend. This friend, Sally, had since left the school as her family relocated away from the area. Now relatively alone, it is reported that Beth's peers view her as an attention-seeker and have initiated bullying sessions.

The reports indicate the bullying sessions have been 'attended to', and Beth does not make a commitment to connect with her peers. Beth appears distrustful of others and so remains withdrawn however, she has no difficulty in connecting on her feelings with her school guidance counsellor. In these discussions with her counsellor, Beth has made statements that are consistent with a young adolescent that is misunderstood by the actors involved with interacting in her environment.

Beth has stated to her school counsellor that she feels alien, she hates herself, and that no-one likes her. Additionally, she is adjectively described as warm and gentle with a fragile disposition as well as self-reliant whilst the reputation of being a perfectionist in her meticulous work detail and in maintaining her physical appearance. Quite honestly, she sounds cute. Beth's academic performance is an additional indicator of her rather meticulous nature, but after all, how else will she get good grades and have the ability to gain entrance into a better school to finally be rid of these idiots. However, Beth is not receiving such advice and is not receiving proper supervision or mentorship, which is detrimental to her overall psychological health.

Beth's home life is a reflection of her personal self-worth. Her parents divorced three years earlier while at the age of eight. She sees her father, Robert every fortnight weekend. Jane, her mother, is an attorney and works hours associated with that of working within a legal environment. Beth therefore has early morning school care and after school care each day. Robert owns his business, which forces him to travel quite regularly.

Both parents have not yet re-partnered or remarried however, Beth still resides hope that her parents will 'get back together'. Beth is involved in school activities yet her parents are too busy to recognize and participate in the encouragement of these activities. Robert and Jane are aware of the school counselling their daughter is receiving and are aware of the specific school concerns. Robert and Jane are willing and supportive of the counselling support Beth is receiving.

Key Themes

The environment. Beth is currently immersed within is not conducive to the growth and development of what ostensibly is a rather special child. The description of Beth's interaction within the school is at best, contradicting and conflicting. Beth is claimed to be withdrawn and distrustful yet, her peers view her to be an attention-seeker. Children from divorcees often are emotionally starved and project the personality of an attention-seeker, however, it is unclear as to whether Beth is seeking attention from the teachers or from the student body.

The students. Beth is a high achieving student that is meticulous about her academic studies and about her appearance. Often times, students are jealous and hateful of students that demonstrate uniqueness or a sense of pretention. Students with these traits yet possessing a strong personality often "rise" to the societal equivalent of alpha female or alpha male, given the case. Beth's personality is rather meek yet she has the traits of an alpha female.

School Counsellor. The counsellor's at the school are not capable of providing the assistance Beth needs due to inherently lacking the capability to recognize Beth's emotional and psychological needs. The counsellor's view Beth as emotionally and psychologically deficient and renders her social inequities as a function of her causing. Their inability to properly diagnose and resolve Beth's situation is a sign that Beth is simply at the wrong type of school and perhaps in the wrong school district.

Theories

According to Armstrong & Boothroyd (2008), "This article examines the degree to which various demographic characteristics, personality traits, and environmental factors are associated with overall emotional well-being of 125 adolescent girls whose mothers were involved in welfare reform. Daughters participated in a 4-year, mixed method study and annually completed a structured interview protocol and a sub-group also completed a qualitative interview. The quantitative findings from the study suggest that daughters having an internal locus of control, experiencing fewer negative life events, and reporting stronger parental and teacher social support had enhanced emotional well-being over the 4-year study compared to daughters without these factors. The findings were further elaborated with examples from qualitative interviews conducted with the daughters. The findings were used to propose prevention activities used a tertiary mental health preventative intervention framework." (Armstrong, Boothroyd, 2008)

According to Zambon, Lemma, Borraccino, Dalmasso, Cavallo, (2006), "The quality of social relations in adolescence is possibly one of the major determinants of habits that can influence the health of young people, and it may also be one of the mediators of the effect of social position on health. The Italian data of the HBSC survey 2001-2002 indicates the following. The quality of relations with adults seems to decrease consistently from age 11 through age 15, while the relation with peers improves. The relation with the father seems positively correlated with economic well-being. Difficult relations with adults are associated with higher probability of smoking, drinking alcohol and using cannabis; difficult relations with peers are associated with lower physical activity and lower probability of having used cannabis. Conclusions: Even if the relations with adults become less important in adolescence, they are still associated with health behaviours." (Borraccino, Dalmasso, Cavallo, 2006)

According to Bearman, Moody (2004), "Socially isolated females were more likely to have suicidal thoughts, as were females whose friends were not friends with each other. Among adolescents thinking about suicide, suicide attempts appear largely stochastic, with few consistent risk factors between boys and girls. Conclusions: The friendship environment affects suicidality for both boys and girls. Female adolescents' suicidal thoughts are significantly increased by social isolation and friendship patterns in which friends were not friends with each other. (Am J. Public Health. 2004; 94:89-95) Adolescent well-being is largely the product of interactions among the multiple contexts in which, adolescents are embedded. Central contexts for adolescents include family, school, friendships, romantic relationships, peer groups, and larger social networks. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health provides unique data on adolescents' relationships with their friends, in that it is the only national level data set to provide unique data set to provide information on network structure." (Bearman, Moody, 2004)

According to Duncan (2001), "We use nationally representative data to calculate correlations in achievement and delinquency between genetically differentiated siblings within a family, between peers as defined by adolescents, bestfriend nominations, between schoolmates living in the same neighbourhood, and between grademates within a school. The data suggests that family-based factors are several times more powerful than neighbourhood and school contexts in affecting adolescents' achievement and behaviour." (Duncan, 2001)

According to Demir (2003), "Loneliness is generally associated with negative feelings about problems in social relationships. Although loneliness has been described in numerous ways, the most common definition is an unpleasant experience that occurs when a person's network of social relationships is significantly deficient in either quality or quantity (Peplau & Perlman, 1984). It is the psychological state that results from discrepancies between one's desire for and one's actual composition of relationship. Although loneliness is an emotionally distressing experience, it can be a valuable signal that the personal relationships of an individual are inadequate in some important way (Ponzetti, 1990). It has been stated that although adolescents have more opportunities to establish new relationships, they have more unrealistic expectations about social opportunities (Peplau & Perlman, 1984). As they grow up, they establish more realistic expectations. Some adolescents are capable of establishing new relations very easily, whereas others may experience difficulty that results in feelings of loneliness. This loneliness may express itself in a lowering of self-esteem, overeating, dropping out of high school, drinking, or becoming depressed or suicidal (Brage & Meridith, 1994; Jackson & Cochran, 1991; Medora & Woodward, 1986; Page & Cole, 1991). (Demir, 2003)

Questions

The child counsellor should ask Beth's parents about how they perceive their relationship with their daughter. Additionally, should ask the following: Are you aware of your daughter's felling of isolation from her peers and cases of bullying? Are you willing to do what is necessary for your daughter to facilitate a better life and emotional state, including relocating her from the current school? Will you enrol your daughter into extracurricular and community activities such as sports or summer camp?

The counsellor may ask the school about whether proper authorities, such as head administrators, have investigated Beth's current environmental issues. Additionally, the counsellor may ask the school whether they feel Beth is being mistreated by her classmates and whether they understand and acknowledge that there is a situation at the school, which is not beneficial to Beth's overall psychological and social development.

Conclusion

The key findings of the case are that Beth's psychological inferiority complex is a function of exogenous environmental variables and not reflective of any internal personality or social-development inabilities. Additionally, the theories point that should her situation not be corrected, the likelihood for her to commit suicide will rise each year without treatment.