Paper Example on Parental Influence on Child's Social Skills: Impact on Mental Wellness

Introduction

A parent or guardian influences a child's social skills through the management of behavior, directly or indirectly. Parents monitor their children's social and interactive environments, thus shaping their character. Therefore, a child's behavior depends on the environment they get exposed to by their parents. Social skills affect the mental wellness of a person. A mentally disturbed individual will show withdrawal signs which impacts negatively on social life. However, a happy child is friendly, outgoing, and relates well with the peers. There are four types of parenting that are likely to influence a child's behavior. A disciplinarian is a strict parent who uses punitive means like caning to instill good morals in the child. A permissive parent is involved in the child's special activities. The child feels the attention of the parent to their needs and can freely share their concerns with them. An uninvolved parent has a caregiver for her child. Such parents work longer hours and have little time for their children. Most of the child's decision is individual or impacted by peers and caregivers. An authoritarian barks orders and issues instructions to be followed without flipping. Such parents do not give room for mistakes and expect perfection. A child shaped by this style always explodes into harmful leisure activities whenever they get a chance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to create a psychological, assessment, and treatment plan and family map based on one of the case studies provided.

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Psychological Assessment Plan

Parent-Child Interaction Therapy

The case study chosen for this paper is the Parent-Child Interaction Therapy which is a treatment program that entails enhancing better relationships between parents and their children. It is a recommended treatment program for children with conduct disorders that encourages parents to change the quality of relationship patterns with their children and mold good behavior. The program covers children aged between two and seven years who show externalizing social and behavioral disorders (Hembrey-Krigin &McNeil, 2013). Parents are taught some of the positive skills that will help them nurture a good relationship with their children while discouraging bad behavior. The program occurs in two phases; child-directed interaction phases and parent-directed interaction phases. Parents attend each of these phases to gain skills on how to relate with their children. Afterward, they undergo a series of coaching sessions alongside their children in which they practice the acquired skills.

In the first phase, parents learn necessary non-directive skills that are inclusive of paly skills. They also get a chance to bond with their children by playing together as a part of the program. In the second phase, the parent is taught directive measures to impose on a child's behavior. They do this with precise knowledge of the child's age, applying relevant instructions, and identifying the possible consequences. In so doing, the parent aims to increase the child's compliance with the directions they give. During coaching, a parent is given a bug-in-the-ear hearing device through which the therapist issues guidance. The therapist views the interaction between a child and the parent through a one-way mirror. The PCIT sessions last for one hour and occur 15 times a week (Hembery-Krigin & McNeil, 2013). The program is authorized to an outpatient licensed clinic with professional qualifications. The personnel must be qualified in mental health skills working with children and families.

The research covers four essential aspects of parent-child interactions, child conduct disorders, parent distress and control locus, and occurrence of physical abuse. The outcome categories for this guide include mental health, family relations, trauma or injuries, social functioning, and violence. The psychosocial treatment plan also covers the targeted age groups, including early childhood of 0 to 5 years, youth of 6 to 12 years, and adults of 26 to 55 years(Hembrey-Krigin &McNeil, 2013). The teenagers are omitted since this guide may not be helpful to their high energy levels and peer pressures they phase. The mentioned age groups are, however, manageable and tameable. Adults understand their needs and can easily comply with what they find helpful to their lives. Both males and females are targeted for this program. All ethnic groups are included in the program, namely: black or African American, white, American Indian or Alaska Natives, Hispanic or Latino, Asians, or general populations. The program settings will be in an outpatient school.

The program locations shall include rural frontier, urban, and suburban areas. The program has a historical background of implementation since 1974. Graduated practitioners primarily established it at the University of Florida in the United States. Other universities and societal organizations have since adopted the program to improve parent-child relations in vulnerable communities. Other than the U.S, PCIT programs are ongoing in countries like Hong Kong, Australia, Germany, Russia, Norway, Netherland, Taiwan, and Puerto Rico (Hembrey-Krigin &McNeil, 2013). The program has so far not posed any adverse effects. It has been effective for its intended purpose with willing parents and children participating each day. Most parents are now aware of their children's psychosocial welfare, and they seek to improve it. The research was conducted in March 2009.

Case Study

Demographics

Janice, a 5-year old girl, is sent to a university-affiliated rural mental health care facility for disruptive and oppositional behavioral issues. She shows lengthy temper management issues, physical aggression such as pinching, hitting, and orbiting. Janice's behavior was alarming and interfered with her psychosocial life both at home and at school. Her parents, Mike and Maggie, were severely disturbed about her behavior that was getting out of control. They admitted that they could no longer manage her condition. Mike and Maggie are both highly educated with doctorate degrees and working in well-paying jobs. Mike is an engineer while Maggie is a physician. The family has Janice as the only child who spends most of her time with her nanny. She feels the absenteeism of her parents all day long, which may have impacted her behavior. The family belongs to the upper-middle-class society in Texas. Before attending the PCIT program at our clinic, Janice had only attended three therapy sessions that didn't bear any fruits. Her behavior worsened from the sessions instead of improving.

Janice remains under the care of Jane, who is legally authorized by the law to handle her as a nanny while the parents are away working. Other than the behavioral changes, Janice is a healthy child with no complications on the physical outlook. She only hurts herself once in a while when the raging emotions overcome her, but Jane always ensures that the risk is mitigated. Mike and Maggie are healthy beings despite the work demands that keep them away from home. They only experience work-related and family-related stress occasionally, which interferes with their mental health. Tight work schedules cause their work stress. The absenteeism from their daughter's life is also disheartening for the well-established couple. Janice attends Little Champs Kindergarten in the second grade and loves drawing and painting as her favorite subjects. She'd rather be in an Art class than any of the rest. Her parents are only fully available on Sundays a day, which they do cleaning, attend church services as Catholics and take walks in the park alongside Janice.

Janice is a poor feed. Jane has to go through the hustle of spoon-feeding her, which is quite cumbersome when aligned with other house chores that are assigned to her. Janice can only eat snacks and ice cream on her own, which, to some extent, relieve her somber mood. Otherwise, she will remain glued on the screen, watching some cartoon series like Sponge Bob or assembling her toys in her bedroom. She is a heavy sleeper who takes as long as 12 hours in bed. She has been accustomed to this system since she was three-years-old. Before then, her mother was always available, and they somehow bonded. However, Maggie had to get back to her feet and chase her career life that had been on a standstill since childbirth. While at school, Janice has recorded a series of withdrawal signs from her peers. Her social life is entirely dull as she shuts down herself from playgroups. She stays in class or under a shade reading stories rather than playing with fellow children. Her class teacher Madam Nancy reported that Janice performs averagely in classwork and is often distracted during learning sessions.

Nancy also stated that Janice is shy and cannot express herself well unless her emotions are triggered. Nancy reports an incident where one of the children tried to bully Janice for being too timid. Janice pounced on the boy and hit him several times before the teacher intervened. It is then that Nancy realized there was more to Janice's behavior than it meets the eye. Nancy summoned Mike and Maggie to talk about their daughter's behavior and advised them to seek therapy. She recommended a mental facility in which Janice attended alongside Jane, her nanny. Jane reported that the three sessions they attended were ineffective since Janice failed to express herself all-over again. Therefore, she recommended that Mike and Maggie should create time for their daughter and attend therapy alongside her. It is until then that they will figure out what problems Janice faces. The couple sought our Texas-based PCIT program for help, and we helped them salvage the situation in the following sections.

Treatment Plan

When I asked the beautiful couple and their daughter what brought them to the clinic, they responded that they needed to be better parents. I further asked Janice if she was ready to attend the training, and she agreed. In her opinion, she felt that she needed more of her parent's attention like when she was younger two years ago. Moreover, she needed a more durable bond from her mother and insisted that her father should create time for her and her mother. I also asked her about feeling lonely at home, and she admitted she would rather have siblings to keep her company when the parents are away. The answer blew the couple off, and they felt cornered. Maggie, for instance, thought that she would need to sacrifice her entire career life, all over again to save her daughter. Mike, on the other hand, though he would have to spend more hours at home.

From the information above, I gathered that the family undergoes what most 21st century couples face (Ruth, 2018). It is an era where women are overcoming gender stereotypes of being housewives, bearing, and raising children while they guard the homesteads. It is a century where most women seek to add value to their lives. In as much as this is entirely okay, considerations have to be made. For instance, couples have to develop a plan. For working couples, they will adjust their work shifts such that they are at home in an excellent time to spend time with children and a little more time for themselves. Relationships can only be more reliable if parents are available. So I thought, if working couples came up with a calendar of activities that include participating in house chores and attending to their family, the weight would be lifted. In this case, Maggie reported having fewer hours of sleep than her husband. She gets home to do some laundry and plans for the next day. She cleans their bedroom and does their dinner dishes before tucking in bed. It frustra...