final project
Running head: 1 BIO-PYSCHO-SOCIAL ASSESSMENT 1
2 BIO-PSCHO-SOCIAL ASSESSMENT 9
Karidja Gohoure
Walden University
2 Bio-Psycho-Social Assessment
Bio-psycho-social assessment is a vital social tool in social work practice. A bio-psycho-social assessment helps social work professionals to understand clients’ problems. Usually, the assessment entails three dimensions of the problem; biological, psychological, and social (Melchert, 2015). The bio-psycho-social assessment facilitates the sharing of client’s information between the social workers and other professionals in the mental health environment. The tool helps in outlining various issues about the client, including their current health situation, potential issues that may affect the client in the future. This project focuses on the assessment of adolescent pregnancy.
Part A: 2 Bio-Psycho-Social Assessment
Presenting Issue
The case study presents adolescent pregnancy as a social problem. 3Eboni Logan is a 16-year-old biracial student in the 11th grade. 4Eboni is an honors student and hopes to major in nursing once she joins college. 5 Eboni met Darian, a 17-year-old student four months ago and started dating. They become sexually active and but didn’t use protective methods. 6 Eboni and Darian used withdrawal for birth control. She discovered that she is 2-months pregnant after taking a pregnancy test recently. Now, she is a dilemma of whether to abort or keep the baby.
Demographic Information Eboni, who is the client, in this case, is a biracial female student. 7 Her father, Anthony, is a Caucasian while her mother, Darlene, is a biracial African American/Caucasian. Eboni is 16 years old adolescent while both her parents are 34 years old. She an excellent 11th-grade student, and her dream is to become a nurse. 8 Eboni is a member of the student council, National Honors Society and an active choir member. 4 She has taken her driving test and works at the fast-food restaurant ten hours a week.
3 Current Living Situation Currently, Eboni lives with her mother Darlene and her grandmother May. 9 May is 55 years old and works as a paraprofessional in one of the elementary schools while her mother is an administrative assistant at the manufacturing company. 1 Eboni lives in the same apartment where her grandmother raised her mother. 10 Although Eboni lives with her mother, she visits her father, who lives with every weekend. 9 Eboni’s father pays child support to Darlene.
11 Birth and Developmental History Eboni was born when her mother was 17 years old. 12 Darlene dated with Anthony for a month and discovered that she was pregnant after they had broken up. She decided to keep the pregnancy and May helped her to raise Eboni. Eboni spends most of the time with her mother and grandmother. She started dating Darian at age 16, and they became sexually active. 13She found out that she is pregnant four months later.
2 School and Social Relationships
Eboni Logan an eleventh grade and a honors student. 14 She has been taking advanced placement courses and plans to major nursing when she joins college. 15 Eboni also runs track and is an active choir member. 8 Besides being an active choir member, Eboni also a member of the student council and the National Honors Society.
2 Family Members and Relationships
Eboni is a daughter to Darlene and Anthony who are both 34 years old. 16 Her parents were never married. Her immediate family members include mother and grandmother. 17 Her grandmother, May is 55 years old African American women while her mother is biracial African American/Caucasian. May sympathize with Eboni’s situation; when she learns that Eboni is pregnant, she cried and held her in her arms for a long time. 18 Eboni father has married twice and divorced once.He has four children with Eboni’s stepmother. 3 Eboni visits them every weekend.
19 Health and Medical Issues Eboni has no history of major health and medical issues. 20 She does not smoke and denies indulging in any drug abuse or regular drinking. 18 She says that she only drinks with her friends during parties, but she has never been drunk. Eboni also does not have any psychiatric or psychological functioning problems. Her boyfriend, on the other hand, does not have any medical or health problems but has been drunk a few times though he denies drinking regularly or smoking.
Spiritual Development
12 Eboni and her mother do belong to any organized religion. She, however, believes in God and often accompanies her father to church on weekends. 15 Her father attends a Catholic Church. 7 When Eboni told her father about the pregnancy, she advised her to keep the child because he believes it is a sin to abort.
2 Social, Community, and Recreational Activities
17 Eboni is an active student and participates in various social, community, and recreational activities. Some of the recreational activities that Eboni engages in include singing in the choir and runs track. She also attends parties with her friends. 14 Besides, she is a member of the student council and the National Honors Society. 21Furthermore, Eboni, for the last six months, has been working at the fast-food restaurant ten hours a week.
2 Client Strengths, Capacities, and Resources
One of the major strengths of the client is that she is willing to share her predicament with the people around her. When Eboni learns that she is pregnant, she shares with her best friend, Brandy, and her boyfriend. Despite Darian not being ready to have children at the time, he promises to support her in every way he could. Eboni also shares her situation with the social worker who advises her to seek a response from her parents. Another strength of the client is that her father is supportive of her situation. He asks her to move in with him and her stepmother. This is a good gesture at this time when her mother and grandmother are upset after learning of her pregnancy.
Part B: 20 Analysis of Assessment
Challenges Faced by the Client The main challenge facing the client in this case study is the issue of early pregnancy. 13 Eboni Logan tested positive for pregnancy after a few months dating her boyfriend, Darian. Eboni commits that they have not been using any contraceptive despite being sexually active. 12 She says that they used a withdrawal method as birth control. Eboni is now in a dilemma of whether to keep the child or abort. Her mother has asked her to abort because she wants her to have a better life while her father believes abortion is a sin and that Eboni should keep the child. Eboni also faces a challenge of potential stress and psychological trauma. Her mother shouted at her and called a slut on learning that she was pregnant. She has a hard time coping up with the new realities.
How the Social Environment Affects the Client The social environment surrounding the client affects how she is coping with the new reality. Even though Eboni has a right to make her decisions on whether to abort or keep the child, several other social factors influence her decision. First, she is afraid that her mother might disown her for keeping the child and, on the other hand, she is being pressured to keep the baby by her father. Also, the issue of social and cultural affects the client. According to Akella & Jordan (2014), the United States has the highest rate of teenage pregnancy among the first world countries. The study also shows that early childbirth is high among African Americans and other minority populations with low-income rates in the United States. Moreover, children born to teenage parents have a high likelihood to emulate and engage in sexual behaviors; hence, early pregnancies (Akella & Jordan, 2014). Eboni was born to teenage parents; both parents were 17 years old when she was born.
Social Theories Social cognitive theory can be used to assess Eboni’s case. Social cognitive approach states that learning occurs in a social context where personal factors, environmental, and behavior interact. According to McLeod (2016), people acquire their behavior from the environment through the observation process. Children tend to interact and pay attention to people around and encode their behavior. This theory informs me as a social worker that Eboni might have learned her behavior by observing people around her. Her mother became pregnant in her adolescence, and this might have influenced Eboni’s sexual behavior.
The assessment of the client will be used to address her situation. First, the assessment will be used to help the client to make her decisions. That is, the assessment evaluates all the pros and cons of carrying the child to term or aborting. All the assessment will help to analyze how the situation will affect her life. Eboni should put into consideration how pregnancy will affect her dream of becoming a nurse in the future. Therefore, the assessment will play an important role in reaching mutually agreed-upon goals and helping the client to face her challenges.
Use of Identified Strengths in a Treatment Plan Eboni’s strengths in the issue play a vital role in her treatment. First, she is a honors student, which implies that a potential of achieving a lot in her dream. If Eboni decides to follow her dream, then she would have to abort the child and continue with her education. On the other hand, if she chooses the second strength; that her father is supportive and willing to help her in the situation, then she will have to keep a child. During the treatment, one of these strengths should be used to address the situation.
Evidence-Based Practices
Evidence-based practices will be used in addressing the client’s situation. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that teenage pregnancy and birth are major contributors of high school dropout and that only 50% of teen mothers acquire their high school diploma at the age of 22-years (CDC, 2019). Evidence-based programs indicate that abstaining from sexual activities and using birth control methods are the best ways of avoiding teenage pregnancies.
Ethical Issues The main ethical issue, in this case, is abortion is right or wrong. While Eboni’s mother wants her daughter to abort the child and pursue her dreams, her father believes that abortion is a sin, and she should keep the child. I would advise Eboni to make own decision regarding the situation because whatever the case she is the one to bear most of the burden of raising the child.
Issues around Cultural Competence Cultural competence refers to the ability to interact with people from other cultures effectively. In this case, I will observe all the cultural aspects of African Americans and Caucasians, given that Eboni is a mix of both races. Some of the cultural competence issues that will be addressed in the case include Eboni’s world point of view, cultural differences, and the knowledge of cultural practices. Addressing these issues will help in proving a practical solution to the presenting issue.
References
8 Akella, D., & Jordan, M. (2014). 22 Impact of social and cultural factors on teenage pregnancy. 8 Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice, 8(1), 3.
CDC. (2019). 23 About Teen Pregnancy. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/teenpregnancy/about/index.htm McLeod, S.(2016). 24 Bandura - Social Learning Theory. 25 Retrieved from https://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html Melchert, T. P. (2015). Treatment. 19 In Biopsychosocial practice: 9 A science-based framework for behavioral health (pp. 211-233). 19 Washington, District of Columbia: 9 American Psychological Association.