parent interview 2 copy

RUNNING HEAD: PARENT-INTERVIEW CHILD ASSESSEMENT Harrison 1

Parent Interview-Child Assessment

Tartiana Harrison

Northwestern State University

SOWK 3030

Parent-Interview Child Assessment Harrison 2

Abstract

I conducted a parent-interview child assessment with a teenage single parent mother and her two

toddlers. She has a daughter age 18 months and a son age 9 months. I interviewed the parent and

child with regard to parenting and environmental stresses, child rearing practices, and parenting

styles.

Parent-Interview Child Assessment


My parent interview child assessment was conducted with an 18 year old single African

American mother named Susan Smith(DOB 12-22-1996). She is the mother of a 19 month old

daughter named Mckenzie (DOB 07-10-2013) and a 9 month old son named Michael.(DOB 6-1-

2014) (See Genogram Appendix A). This family resides in the same home Susan was raised in.

Susan and her mother Mary (DOB 05-24-1964) and her two younger sister have lived in this

same house for over 8 years. The house is located in the southern part of the city, it is neatly kept

outside. There were some toys in the yard situated to the side neatly placed near the side of the

house. The family have a friendly, little puppy named Laila. When I arrived at the home the

mother was feeding her two kids while watching the evening news. The house was very quiet

and no one else was home with them. The home was well maintained and there were a few toys

in a corner in the living room. Everything else was in it’s proper place. I found this to be strange

with having two toddler of this age.

The home was located in a low income neighborhood that appears to be very quiet. Susan

and her two kids share a room. The room appears quite small for the three of them but the seem

to adapt to the environment well. There is a queen size bed and a baby bed located in the room.

They are situated on one side of the 3 bedroom 1 bathroom house. Her mother has two other

daughters that also live in the house a set of 16 year old twins Carla and Kayla. (DOB 9-18-

1998) Her mother’s home is not paid for, but she is currently renting to own. Susan had dated her

kid’s father Jacob Doe (DOB 09-22-1994) for 3 years and they recently separated about 9 months

ago around the same time as the birth of her son. She is in the process of getting her own low in-

come apartment about 10 miles from her mother. She does not have any transportation so her

mother takes her to doctor’s appointment and to the store when she needs anything for the kids.

She dropped out of school because she had no one to watch her daughter, but while pregnant she


did take night classes to get her GED. She explained, “This was tone of he biggest moments in

my life besides my kids I had aspiration to be a high school and college nursing graduate before I

had any kids. Then she went on to say, “I will fulfill my dreams it may not be at the moment but

in time I will, I owe this to myself and to my kids.”

Susan has been on her job at Burger King now for about 4 months. She is making mini-

mum wage of $7.45 per hour and she usually works about 30-35 hour per week. She currently

utilizes the government for food stamps, Medicaid and child assistance. She also receives $500 a

month in child support from her kid’s father. She stated that having her kids at an early age was a

big transition from what she was used to. Instead getting up every morning for school now she

has to wake up at all times of the night to see about her kids. She has to prepare clothes, bottles

and snacks for the kids at night to go to daycare. It is located about 2 miles from the family

home. She has to be at work every morning at 7:30, and this has become an issue because her

mother works at night and sometime finding a ride to work can be hard. Her mother has arranged

for a family friend to drop the kids off at daycare and to bring her to work. Awaking at all times

of the night has really taken a toll on Susan, being well rested for work. Susan said, "My main

priority is to cherish, protect and nurture my kids." She also stated that her most important goal is

to raise her children to be productive members of society and ensure they are ready to face this

cruel world. She also stated she grew up in poverty, her mother utilized the government for the

same services when she was younger, her mother now has a good job at a local casino where she

is making $13.00 hour. She said, I look up to my mother she did what she had to do tp provide

for me and my sister and I will strive to ensure my kids will not have to experience the same type

of lifestyle.”


She also stated “Being a full time mom is very stressful because when I am not at work I

am with my kids all the time. I do not get much help or time away from them, except when I

work. I can’t afford to bring them to daycare because I have to pay a portion and I really can not

afford to pay anything at all, but I have to do what I have to do.” Her mother still hold her to the

same standards as her sister, yes chores are still a part of her daily routine, while she still has to

take care of the needs of her kids. Her defense mechanism for dealing with this stress is Intellec-

tualization because she is unhappy that her kid’s father does not even try to reach out to help with

the care of the kids, but at the same time she is smiling while saying this. (Hutchinson 2013, pp.

141) Although there was no emotional evidence of her sadness, she does not have any “Me

time,” she said. She also suffers from biological stress, because she is juggling the kids, chores,

full time job and preparing to take some college courses classes online, and she is beginning to

get restless taking on all of this. (Hutchinson 2013, pp. 135) Her relationship with her kid’s father

is very rocky he may pass this week and not pass the next. She appears happy with motherhood,

but she just wish she had more time for herself. Susan stated “I did not want to have kids at such

an early age but I will do what is best for them at all cost." Religion is a big tradition in their

household. They attend church every Sunday and bible study every Thursday. She states, “This is

the only free time I get from my kids and work, because they are sent to the children section at

church." This allows her time to cope with her emotions and problems. She states “I have so

many tears built up in me this is when I can let it out with no one asking me what’s wrong.”

Susan states, “I carried both of my babies to term with no complication at all.” Both ba-

bies were born healthy with no deformities. Susan stayed in labor a long, painful 26 hours with

her baby girl McKenzie, she weighed 5 pounds and 8 ounces at birth she was 24 inches long. She


was healthy and showed no signs of distress at birth. Her APGAR score was 7 because of weak

cry but after a slap on the bottom she belted it out and all was fine. She bottle fed McKenzie until

the age of 11 months, but now she currently eats by her self in a highchair. She takes a two hour

nap every day around 2 pm and she sleeps throughout the night. She has to have her favorite

teddy bear "Whitey" to go to sleep. She is a not a needy child she is able to entertain herself with

toys and blocks while mommy tends to her baby brother. Some cognitive milestone stated by Pi-

aget that she have reached are; she is able to respond with simple one word answers like yes, no

and head shakes. She is able to put two-three words together to tell mom what she wants. She

follow simple commands and directions from mom. (Hutchinson 2013, pp. 433) Upon departure

she waves bye and and blows a kiss to me. She currently wears a pull-up her mom states she

know when she need to go but there are time when she forgets and after she has wet herself she

come to me and say, "O OOOOOO mommy I wet." She has begin to explore books and colors

mommy says. She started walking around her first birthday which is within one of her milestone

achievements, and she was able to sit alone around 7 months and crawl around five in a half

months. (Hutchinson 2013, pp. 431) She plays well with her brother and she tries very hard to

show him how the toys work. She has a good appetite, but mom is trying to cut out too much

sweet. After 4 months she did not want the pacifier anymore. She likes to play in the tub with her

bath toys. She is very attentive to the tv and the bright colors on Dora the Explorer. According to

Ainsworth, McKenzie is avoidantly-attached, it does not even matter if her mother is present or

not she is in her own little zone with her toys and the t.v.(Hutchinson 2013, pp. 442) From obser-

vation her right hand seems to be her dominant hand. According to Erickson, McKenzie is in

Stage 1 the Infancy stage and she displays trust. She is able to see mom come and go in the


house and her bond with mom lets her know she will be held when she cries and and fed when

when says she is hungry.

Susan was in labor for 14 hours with her 6 pound 2 ounce baby boy Michael. The labor

went off without a hitch. There were no complications throughout this pregnancy, therefore she

was able to carry Michael to term. Michael experienced no complications had a 8 for his AP-

GAR score. He is still sucks a pacifier to go to sleep at night, he is currently bottle fed. He tries

to feed himself with a spoon but he is able to finger feed himself. He is able to suck from a sippy

cup. He still wakes up throughout the night for a bottle. He too take a two hour nap at 2pm with

his sister. Mom take their nap time to straighten up the house and get their bed clothes ready and

supper prepared. Michael is securely-attached to mom he is very needy and cling to her.

(Hutchinson 2013, pp.442) She cannot move around the house with him not on her hip. He likes

to put everything in his mouth. He is teething mommy says. He babbles a lot and mumble DaDa.

(Hutchinson 2013, pp. 433) He started crawling around 6 months and was able to sit indepen-

dently a few weeks later. He is able to pull himself up on the coffee table and move around by

holding on to it. He crawls around at a slow pace. He does respond to his name when called. He

plays well with his sister but want to boss all the toys. He does not share freely if she picks up

something and he wants it he cries for it. He looks like he will be right handed also. He is

soothed by his mothers touch. He did not display tantrum with me but mom say he does throw

tantrums. According to Erickson, Michael is also in Stage 1 Infancy and he displays mistrust, he

clings to mom and does not try to form relationships with anyone when I tried to hold him to

give mom a break he pulled away and got even closer to mom. (Hutchinson 2013, pp. 437)

There were no signs of maltreatment, negligence, or malnutrition. Based on my assess-

ment Susan seem to have an authoritative parenting style. according to the work of Diana Baum-


riad, she is very flexible with the rules of the house. (Hutchinson 2013, pp. 490) Her parenting

style is warm and nurturing, that allow her kids to see how much she loves them. She does a

great job in praising her kids when they display good behavior. She seems to repeat a lot of what

she says and I think this is important at this stage in her young kids lives. This strengthens their

vocabulary and comprehension. All of her time is spent one-on-one with her kids because they

rarely go any where. She displays a lot of affection towards her kids. Overall I think Susan is a

very good mother. She stated to me that she has been approved for her own apartment, but she is

not sure how all of this will workout without no transportation. The apartment will be located 10

miles from her mother’s home. She is worrying about the burden this will on her mother and the

family friend who helps he with transportation. She hopes to be able to get her a care next year

with her income tax check. Her mother is going to help her furnish the house with some of her

hand me down furniture for now. Susan is just so happy about getting her the apartment. She

stated, “I am tired being cramped up in that small room with all our stuff and all the kids toys”

There is a local daycare who picks up the kids and drops them off at the end of the day. There is

also a grocery store located in walking distance of her her new apartment. Hopefully within the

next few weeks she will be able to get settled in and enjoy her new home.

All of the kids needs appears to be met. Her mothers house is considered safe and I did

not spot any unsafe conditions in the house. Mom does not have any concerns for her kids and

she think she is doing a great job. She is concerned about transportation, and involvement from

the kids father. She could use more help from the kids father and her own family, but she state

they are her kids and she will do everything possible to make sure they are safe and well taken

care of.


References

Hutchinson, E. D. (2013) Essential of Human Behavior, Integrating Person, Environment

and the Life Course. SAGE Publications, Inc.


Appendix A

Genogram

Mary Smith05-24-1964Mother of three

daughters and grandmother of two infants whom she provide

with a safe clean place to stay.

No Mention of her DAD

Kayla Smith09-18-1998

Student in High School

Karla Smith09-18-1998

Student in high school

Susan Smith12-22-

1996Mother of two infants and,

full time em-ployee. Some-

Jacob Doe09-22-1994

Father of two in-fants who spend no time with his

parent interview 2 copy

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