Leilani's Bullying Case Study

Leilani is a 12-year-old Hispanic female who is in 7th grade and attends Lincoln Middle School. She is the oldest of 3 children and comes from a middle-class single parent home. Her mother works 2 jobs to take care of the family, and she is often responsible for helping take care of her younger siblings. Leilani is a healthy individual physical, but suffers from depression and anxiety due to her experiences growing up. She does not have any history of drug or alcohol use, she is a C average student, and has difficulty creating friends. Leilani is often bullied, and has been bullied throughout her school years, she feels confused about who she is supposed to be and what she is supposed to look like. Leilani struggles with her ability to cope
There are serious negative effects of bullying, the rejection of their peers, and not having any type of positive engagement with their family, school, or community. If students are not positively engaged with their previous mentioned communities, they could feel withdrawn, not accepted, or worthy (Berns, 2013). These negative effects of bullying have truly taken a toll on Leilani and her social development, she continues to feel confused about who she is and is ultimately withdrawn from other students and her peers. The bullying of Leilani entails calling her fat and ugly, she is often told no one likes her and she is dumb because she is not a straight A student. The terms fat and ugly are what hit hardest for her and she often compares herself to other individuals and what they look like especially within the media. Children are largely vulnerable to outside influences, this is what contributes to a child’s learned behavior and socialization skills (Bushman et al., 2015). Leilani believes she should look and be how the girls in TV shows and movies are and if she is unable to look like them, she feels worthless. Bandura’s belief that children learn positive and negative behaviors through TV influencers is displayed by Leilani and her want to be and look like someone she is
All three characteristics of identity are acquired throughout adolescents for successful development. Leilani struggles with Erickson’s first stage of development being Basic Trust vs. Mistrust. From a young age into a growing adolescent, she has not had the appropriate nurturing from her mother to develop optimism, trust, confidence, and security within herself and others. As she failed to receive the proper nurturing techniques, she struggled with self-identification and a strong self-esteem. The next stage of development Leilani struggles with is Initiative vs. Guilt, she struggles in identifying her true purpose in life by following in her mother’s footsteps and helping to take on her responsibility roles. During this stage Leilani should be able to watch her mother as she grows and indemnify with her and her role in this world. The most important relationship Leilani will ever have will be the relationship she has with her family, and ultimately they are the primary influence to her social and behavioral development. As she struggles to maintain a strong and important relationship with her mother, it puts a large strain on her current stage of development, Identity vs. Role Confusion. Leilani is a 12-year-old girl who is expected to put her childhood on hold and find out who she is because she needs to take on the