Erikson’s Psychosocial Development theory: Stages Case Study
Divorce or parents separation is associated with behavioral issues displayed by children. This is because family separation is a challenging obstacle for the whole family. Children are usually not emotionally mature to understand the situation; therefore, their stress and frustrations are often manifested by changing some aspects of their behavior. Erikson’s psychosocial development theory indicates that human undergo through a series of developmental stages. These include; Trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. shame, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority and identity vs. confusion (Burn et al. 2013).
Explanation of John’s behavior
In this case, John developmental stage falls under identity vs. identify confusion stage of the Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. This indicates that John’s behavior is driven by feelings of frustration, confusion and anger. These negative emotions are associated with diminished school performances and achievements. The fact that he leaves school early without permission or late of school in the past 60 days indicated that he could be indulging in risky behavioral activities such as alcohol and drugs (Bowden & Greenberg, 2010).
Two priority nursing concerns and nursing interventions
The main characteristic of divorce is impaired parenting. This refers to the inability of either parent to maintain or establish an environment that promotes optimum development of John. Therefore, the two priority nursing concerns are (Paul, 2016):
- Poor academic performance related to social isolation, poor family cohesiveness and lack of communication.
Intervention: The nurse should use active listening to explore the child developmental expectations and needs within the context of socio-cultural influences. This will be achieved by interviewing the child in absence of his care taker in order to make him express his frustrations freely (Burn et al. 2013).
- Incidence of psychological trauma related to social isolation, changes in family unit and maladaptive coping skills.
Intervention: The parenting styles and behaviors should be examined including the child’s environment, type of interaction and presence of other behavioral problem. The nurse should institute neglect/abuse protection measures if risk of neglect and abuse is suspected (Murphy, 2012).
Reference
Bowden, V. & Greenberg, C. (2010). Children and their families. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Burns, Catherine, Dunn, A., Brady, M., Starr, N. B., Blosser, C. (2013). Pediatric Primary Care, 5th Edition. [VitalSource Bookshelf Online].
Murphy, M. (2012). Parental divorce: Relationship between ego strengths and impact of divorce on adult children from an Eriksonian perspective. Retrieved from http://library.argosy.edu
Paul, H. (2016). How to Talk to Your Kids about Your Divorce, by S. Rodman. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 38(2), 184-189. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07317107.2016.1172892
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