Child and youth case study about anxiety
Description
Will and Janie are siblings. Will is 8 years old while Janie is 6. They both grew up in a two-parent middle class family where their father worked regular-hour weeks and their mother did not work until Janie was a year old at which time she returned to her job as a nurse. When their mother went back to work Will entered preschool and a neighbor who was home with her own child cared for Janie. Both Will and Janie have a strong relationship with both of their parents who have taken an active role in their upbringing.
Will is currently in grade 3 and Janie is in grade 1. Will is an average student doing well in all academic, social, and physical facets of school and home-life. Janie on the other hand is struggling with anxiety. She is fairing well academically when she is required to work on her own but is increasingly having difficulty when working in groups with other children. She is constantly nervous about school, particularly when engaging in new activities. She doesn’t make friends easily but with some encouragement from her mother she is able to engage in social activities at school.
Janie’s parents are concerned about her well-being and have begun to seek help from medical, school, and psychological professionals. Her parents have consulted with Janie’s pediatrician who has put them in touch with a child psychologist. In working with the psychologist it was recognized that Janie’s father has struggled with anxiety throughout his life. Although Janie’s father still experiences anxiety in some situations, he has adopted many effective strategies and has learned to cope well with anxiety-provoking situations.
The first broad topic of CHYS 1F90 was “Foundations of Development”. In these two lectures, we talked about various different theories and approaches to understanding how children develop. The purpose of this paper is to explore Will and Janie’s development from various theoretical models. Please keep in mind that although this case mentions anxiety, this paper is not about anxiety per se. Rather it is about the interaction between biology and environment. In your paper you should answer the following questions:
1. There is some research indicating that anxiety may be biologically or genetically based. From a genetics perspective using our lecture notes and readings about genetics and development explain why Janie may be experiencing anxiety whereas Will is not.
2. From the beginning of the course, we have talked about the interaction between Nature and Nurture. In other words, we talked about how children develop with biological and environmental influences affecting their development. In your essay explain how Janie’s potential genetic propensity towards anxiety may have been influenced by her environment. To answer this question you will need to consider the multiple ways in which Janie’s environment could influence her development. Pay particular attention to Janie’s relationship with her father who also experienced anxiety but who has learned to cope with anxiety by using effective strategies. How could her father’s experience with anxiety influence how Janie learns to cope with her own anxiety? Likewise, how could her mother influence how Janie learns to cope with her own anxiety? You should base your answer on one of the learning theory perspectives covered in our class (either Watson, Skinner, and/or Bandura).
3. Piaget would suggest that to support Janie in dealing with her anxiety it would be important to change her existing schema about the experiences that make her anxious. Using cognitive theory proposed by Piaget explain how Janie’s parents might change her schema about situations that previously made her anxious.
4. Janie’s parents are working with many people to support Janie including professionals at her school as well as medical and psychological professionals. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model, explain how Janie’s “system” could be set-up (perhaps facilitated by her parents) to support her dealing with anxiety. Be sure to describe the potential interactions between the processes within Janie’s ecological system.
Your paper should be based on lecture notes, readings from the CHYS 1F90 course package, and a minimum of 2 additional academic sources. The additional sources you choose can be used in any of the above questions but both of your sources should not be used for the same question. Both additional academic sources can be journal articles, textbook chapters, or other academic papers (government reports, etc.). These sources should not be newspaper articles, websites, or other media-based articles.
Your paper should be a maximum of 5 pages in length, double-spaced, using 12pt font and APA style. Your paper should be written in essay format and your answers to the questions above should be integrated into the essay. You may use sub-sections within the paper to distinguish between the questions.
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