Adolescent Interview

The crucial stage in an individual’s life concerning mental development is adolescence. Across generations, the evolution of adolescence bears both differences and some common features as well. This interview mainly aims to understand the evolution of adolescence spanning over time. However, this paper will explore the interview of Christine along with the contemporary research that matches her experiences and after-effects in the form of concrete analysis.

Christine is seventeen years old girl who resides nearby my residential pace. Along with marvellous academic records, she currently studies in high school with a running 6.8 GPA. She has multiple feathers in her cap to prove her uniqueness as an individual and an independent lady. She is an artistic, intelligent, and industrious young lady who does a part-time job along with her studies. Hailing from an unknown parental (father) progeny, she has one younger brother who lives under parental cover with his mother. Christiney plays her elder sister’s role with affectionate behaviour on serious and responsible grounds. As far as her personal life is concerned, she opted to be independent and have a main focus on her future career. She decided so because of the habits of her mother. Undoubtedly, the non-unifying state of youngsters has long-lasting impacts on the future lives of individuals in society. Loades et al., (2020) concluded that high rates of depression and anxiety may be observed in adolescents, during and after isolation from parents. Such a situation may lead to chronic depression disorders and affected individuals should consult clinical services.

However, the main activities that Christiney likes to do for fun are multidimensional like watching animated videos, drawing, painting, and swimming. She loves swimming as she recently took the training this summer. Meanwhile, several things pose massive stress on her nerves nowadays. Undoubtedly, living alone was the result of home abuse but her main stress is the missing phase of her younger brother. He is dependent and has a lot of financial needs. Her current residence is under the patronage of the public sector for juvenile protection, but next year turning eighteen will uproot her again for another placement at either her mother’s house or something else. Presently, she is very worried about her safety in the coming days. Such type of situation where a teenager feels fear about living with family may have several reasons along with severe repercussions. Several aftershocks of such a situation are vivid in her personality. For example, Christiney falls into that youngster’s category which we would call socially awkward. She has never been on a date nor had a boyfriend in past and also has no such intention in future due to this awkwardness. A similar research revealed that emotional abuse of adolescents and youngsters enhances loneliness, anxiety and fear of home. However, it reduces self-esteem to lead a social life (Chen & Qin, 2020).

However, she reveals that her efforts to improve her social skills may allow leading her life like other young girls if she finds a nice young man. In addition, she was not rebellious in her early life but her most rebellious aspect occurs when she told a teacher about her being abused at home. This led to her separation from her mother & brother and finally, she was placed into the foster care system. Further, like other teenagers, she is not interested in drugs, sex or building relations with boys. Her personality outcomes in this domain have roots in the living habits of her mother. Owing to a lot of male friends (who were usually her customers), her mother had to earn through sexual activities. It was only Chritiney’s grandmother who connected the little girl with the Bible along with religious teachings. But after her death, Christiney had to undergo severe house abuse which transformed her mental, emotional, social and psychological paradigm of life. It is worth mentioning that children facing such massive abuse at home have peculiar impacts on their adolescence. Copeland et al., (2021) found that 7.7 % of adolescents undergo severe mental disorders which may lead to social dis-functioning, criminal behaviours and worse health issues. Adolescent depressive symptoms leave lasting associations throughout life.

Furthermore, her student career remained bright throughout her schooling but she felt immense depression due to these severe bad episodes. After such a menace, she embedded herself in her books to read out 3-5 books in a month. Besides reading habits and focusing on their future career, she loves art. However, indulging herself in such deeds does not spare her from worrying about her past, especially her identity on the part of her father. She is unaware of who her father is as most probably Yolanda (her mom) is also unaware. Being the daughter of her mother’s unknown customer is an unbearable torture for her. Such miseries have transformed her life from a normal teenager of her age to lonely, depressed and awkward with no desire for a relationship. Hence, Mirzaei et al., (2020) pointed out that female sex workers’ children lead their life in the most pitiable way. There exists much risk of their indulgence in sex worker brothels, heinous crimes or endless depressive phases. Currently, her primary wish is to save her brother from the very depression she is undergoing. Her life’s main aim is to boost her career by playing an affectionate parental role for her brother.

Finally, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that the ongoing situation of Christiney is miserable and pitiable. Her adolescent period of life encompasses multidimensional psychotic problems that may leave lasting impacts on her personality throughout her life. However, comparing Christiney’s thoughts and feelings with contemporary adolescents reveals a huge gap between the two. For example, if I look at myself in comparison with Christiney, my worries and miseries are nothing before hers. According to my viewpoint, such disparities in life lead to abnormal behaviours that may result in chaos. So, the need of time is to ease the adolescent age of youngsters for a better future as a nation on the globe.

References

Chen, C., & Qin, J. (2020). Emotional abuse and adolescents’ social anxiety: The roles of self-esteem and loneliness. Journal of family violence, 35, 497-507.

Copeland, W. E., Alaie, I., Jonsson, U., & Shanahan, L. (2021). Associations of childhood and adolescent depression with adult psychiatric and functional outcomes. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 60(5), 604-611.

Loades, M. E., Chatburn, E., Higson-Sweeney, N., Reynolds, S., Shafran, R., Brigden, A., … & Crawley, E. (2020). Rapid systematic review: the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the mental health of children and adolescents in the context of COVID-19. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 59(11), 1218-1239.

Mirzaei, S., Khosravi, S., & Oroomiei, N. (2020). Female sex worker’s children: their vulnerability in Iran. Children Australia, 45(1), 21-29.