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PSY-352 Topic 3 Stress Case Study

George and Cristina are a young married couple with two children (ages 4 years and 10 months old). George (age 26) has his bachelor’s degree in elementary education and works at an inner-city school with lower socioeconomic means, and his wife Cristina (age 25) graduated from college three years ago with her bachelor’s degree in social work. Cristina is a social worker, employed in a neighboring county working with homeless single mothers. Together, the couple take home approximately $64,000 a year in their entry level positions. Their take home pay is $5,300 a month. George is the youngest of six children in his family, with his oldest sibling 20 years older. His parents are older, and his father is suffering from dementia at 72 years old. George has been spending more time at his parent’s house to help his mother and siblings with his father. It has been stressful for Cristina not having George around more in the evenings to help with dinner and nighttime routine with the kids. In addition, George and Cristina have been having financial issues due to unexpected events, which, in turn, has been putting a strain on their home life and their marriage. Even with their two-income household, they are having difficulty making ends meet. George’s car recently broke down and he had to take it into his mechanic. The mechanic wants $2900 from George to get his car back in working order. Cristina recently had a mole removed from her arm, which her health insurance has deemed cosmetic. This cost the couple an unexpected $600. Their mortgage payment is due the first of the month, and they need $1,200 set aside (excluding all their other bills) to ensure their mortgage is paid on time. Their children have daycare and school expenses that cost the couple $1600 a month. The couple have one credit card for emergencies and only $1,000 in their savings. George offered to take a second job working in the evenings for Uber to bring in additional income. However, the thought of not being available to help his parents is an added stress factor. Cristina is worried that the family does not have enough time together as it is, and that this would have a negative impact on the family. Both George and Cristina can ask their extended family members for help; however, they have asked them for help in the past, and are fearful that their family will view them as irresponsible. In addition, Cristina’s family has expressed lack of acceptance more than once about the couple being interracial. They want to try to find a way to make things work without having to reach out to their extended family members. Cristina wants to seek help from their church, but George feels that they should not ask the church for money because they do not attend service every Sunday or tithe 10% of their income every time they go.

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The strain of the stress has taken a toll on the couple. George find himself drinking in the evenings, when he is not at his parents’ house, to cope with the stress, and isolates himself by going out to the garage to work on home projects. Cristina has been feeling depressed because she has not lost the weight she thought she would after having her second child. She finds that she is more irritable with George and the kids and bottles everything up only to then cry herself to sleep at night. The couple have been arguing more lately about all the responsibility they have, the lack of immediate income, and how to go about paying their bills.