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PEPSI Screening

Ariana Luna Erives

College of Southern Nevada

EDU 220 – 1001

Rochelle Hooks

January 19, 2022

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INTRODUCTION

Today I will be assessing the development of a late adolescent student using the PEPSI

Screening tool. PEPSI is an acronym that stands for: physical, emotional, philosophical, social,

and intellectual. I will study the student for about two months. I will also be using various

scholarly websites and articles to build on my examination and complete the screening. Each

developmental area will include 3 different sources.

BIOGRAPHY

Manuel Luna Erives was born on November 14, 2004, at Mountain View hospital in

North Las Vegas, Nevada. He is now a junior at Rancho high school. He went to J.D. Smith

Middle School and C.P. Squires Elementary School. He lived with his parents and sister for

about a year in a small apartment in a low-income neighborhood. They then moved out of the

apartment into his grandma’s house. In 2010, Manuel and his family moved out of his

grandmother’s house into a two-story house in a better neighborhood. His mother and father are

42 years old, and his sister is 20 years old. His father is a housekeeper for a casino and his

mother works at a call center for a dental company. His parents are middle class and did not

struggle financially as he grew up.

When Manuel was around three years old, he was diagnosed with asthma and got sick

quite often. He had to take many different medications and was not able to do any physically

challenging activities. By the time he entered middle school his asthma had improved

tremendously. He has not had an asthma attack or needed his inhaler since then.

Manuel is a first generation Mexican American. He has dealt with a lot of generational

traumas that have been passed down from his parents. His father is strict with him and his sister.
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He controls most of their life. Manuel grew to fear his dad because he did not want to disappoint

him. Manuel is an excellent student, and he has proven that with his grades. There were many

instances when Manuel shared his accomplishments with his father but was told that it was not

good enough and he can do better. After so many years of rejection from his father, Manuel grew

closer to his mother. She was more understanding and comforted him, unlike his dad. His parents

have had a rocky relationship since the day he was born. He grew up watching his parents argue

a lot. Many days he cried in his room wondering what was going on.

At the age of 15, Manuel started to make new friends. He gained more confidence and

started going out more. One school day, his friend brought an edible to school. Manuel and his

friends each had a bite and were later caught by administration. He was suspended for three days.

He was grounded for four months by his parents. After this incident, he has not gotten into any

trouble at school and continues to be an excellent student.

Today, Manuel is an intelligent, clever, creative, and kind person. He enjoys playing

guitar, writing songs, reading, and playing video games. Activism is something that is very

important to him. He is quite shy, but does not back down when he must stand up for what he

believes in. He plans on going to college and becoming a social studies teacher. He is also

interested in politics. He has struggles with anxiety, however, it is undiagnosed.

PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT

Manuel’s family has a history of health issues. Cancer and high cholesterol run in his

mother’s side of the family. Diabetes runs in his dad’s side. He has not had issues regarding

these health problems, nonetheless, he is at risk of suffering from them when he gets older. At
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the age of four Manuel was diagnosed with asthma and had asthma attacks regularly, however,

he does not get sick often anymore. His attacks were severe in elementary school. He took

several medications and used a nebulizer regularly. He stopped using his inhaler around middle

school. At the age of 15 he had an asthma attack and had to get an inhaler again. He has not had

an attack since. This may be due to the lack of physical activity in his recent life.

He is five feet and five inches tall. He is about one-hundred and thirty-five pounds.

According to his BMI he is a normal weight. His voice started getting deeper at around the age

of thirteen and started growing facial hair at the age of sixteen. He tends to stay up late at night

and only sleep about five hours. Some nights he only sleeps about 3 hours because he stays up

playing video games with friends or scrolling through social media. According to the American

Academy of Pediatrics, “the odds of being obese increased in adolescents by 80%” (Owens et al.,

2014). Manuel’s diet and loss of sleep can directly affect him negatively and makes him run the

risk of obesity.

Manuel has not been particularly athletic growing up, so he does not spend much time

doing physical activities or exercise. During his younger years, he had a great nutritious diet. His

dad was big on staying healthy, so he ate at least three meals a day which all included healthy

foods. Now that Manuel has a bit more freedom and comes home before his dad, he tends to skip

meals a couple times a week. At this age it is common for teens to have “Low levels of physical

activity (PA) and highly sedentary leisure habits (SLH)” (Schmitz et al., 2002). He has also

started to eat a lot of fast food since he has been going out with friends more.

EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
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Manuel does not have a very close relationship with his parents. Seeing them constantly

argue has directly affected him and his emotional health. Research suggests that “parents'

emotional competence and emotion socialization practices are related to children's emotional

functioning, including child internalizing difficulties” (Kehoe, 2013). Seeing the way his father

treated his mother made him gain respect for women and is protective over the women in his life.

He has a strong feeling of resentment towards his father for this and many other reasons. He tells

himself that he does not want to be like his father, however, he is still influenced by him and

developed some of his traits. For example, he is very stubborn and gets angry quickly. When he

is angry, he tends to ignore the people around him and hide away in his room; something that his

dad does as well. He manages his emotions by holding them in and not talking about them. He

was never taught how to manage negative emotions in a healthy way.

His parents are not very affectionate, and his dad is a tough love type of person. Manuel,

on the other hand, is a very affectionate person who expresses himself through words and

physical touch. Although he is closer to his mother, he does not share much about his life with

her because he feels he cannot fully trust her. He tends to “turn away from parents and towards

peer groups” (Slavin, 2018). This is something that is very common for his age. His sister is the

same way. They are not affectionate with each other but trust each other more than their parents.

They are more comfortable sharing about their lives to each other than other family.

Manuel is a shy person who rather stay home than go out and do activities. He often

whines and complains when his parents force him to come out with them. He has tried to

communicate these feelings with his mother, but it has not been taken seriously. Many Hispanic

parents do not believe in mental health, so Manuel has dealt with this on his own. His anxiety

can be due to the increase of technology use in teens. It has been revealed that “a positive
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relationship between social anxiety (not comfortable talking with others face-to-face) and (1)

talking with others online and (2) talking with others via text messaging” (Pierce, 2009). This is

true with Manuel because has no problem talking to people through social media, but once it

comes to talk to them in person, he becomes scared. His anxiety gets worse when he is around a

large group of people. He has many emotional issues that he must deal with, but it is hard

considering his parents do not believe in prioritizing mental health.

PHILOSOPHICAL DEVELOPMENT

According to Urie Bronfenbrenner, a child’s development is affected by the factors

around them. He takes a bioecological approach which is both philosophical and descriptive

(Slavin, 2018). He states that “social and institutional influences on a child’s development, from

family, schools, places of worship, and neighborhoods, to broader social and political influences,

such as mass media and government (Slavin, 2018) are all examples of factors that affect a

child’s development. Manuel grew up financially stable. He did not have to worry about money

or have to work because his parents gave him everything he needed and did not struggle

financially. His focus was his education which later influenced him to pursue teaching as a

career. His school also pushed him to become a teacher because he was places in a teaching and

training class. If they would not have given him this class, he would have not thought to pursue

this career.

Manuel’s family is his greatest influence. His entire family is Catholic; however, his

parents are not very religious. He was baptized at around the age of two but did not do his first

communion. When he was younger, he did not attend church, however, he prayed every night
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and considered himself to be Catholic like his family. He held many religious views, for

example, he believed that marriage is between a man and a woman, that the man is the head of

the household, he was pro-life, etc. He was a “product of sociocultural influences” (Simonton,

1976).

As he started getting older and began using social media, he was exposed to many other

ideas. His views completely changed. He did a lot of research on his own and concluded that he

is now an atheist. He also developed strong political viewpoints. He was no longer a product of

his parents’ beliefs. He followed his own ideologies. His sister also had a huge influence on him

because many of the ideologies that he learned, were frequently talked about by her since she

was young.

His philosophical development has grown tremendously from the time he entered middle

school to the now. Many teenagers develop “fear of missing out” and follow what others are

doing, however, Manuel has established views and opinions of his own (Ţurlea, 2006). His

development is higher than many other teens his age. He has a mature understanding of the

world and how he wants to live his life.

SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

Social interactions are so different now compared to about 50 years ago. If you want to

talk to someone all you must do is use your phone to text, call, or FaceTime. It is shown that “the

majority of activities that young people engage in can be mediated by some kind of technology

(Livingstone, 2009), it may be possible that for certain cases and for certain individuals,

technology can facilitate or support particular transitions or turning points” (Davies & Eynon,
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2013). You can now communicate with anyone around the world. If you want to order food, you

can have it delivered to your doorstep and never talk to the delivery person face to face. This has

a dramatic effect on teens today. They have technology which has both connected and

disconnected from the real world. Manuel gets nervous ordering food at restaurants, talking to

schoolteachers, and paying at the store.

It is proven that “Teens’ relationships with adults outside their families – teachers,

mentors, neighbors, and unrelated adults who may be called “aunts” or “uncles”– can promote

their social development”, however, Manuel does not have close relationships with any adults in

his life (Hair, 2002). These types of relationships can provide him with a large amount of support

he needs to be able to develop socially. Since he does not have any adult role models to confide

in and ask for advice, he is stuck figuring out things on his own or avoiding certain situations.

Friendships are an important part of being an adolescent. It appears that “friendship

experience is correlated with various indicators of social skill” (McGurk, 1993). Manuel has a

couple close friends and many more casual friends that he enjoys spending time with. When he is

around them, he is more talkative and feels more like himself. His friends increase his self-

esteem and social ability.

INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Manuel has been a good student since he started school. He has had good grades all his

life in every subject. From a young age, he has been interested in learning things outside of

school. He used computers and phones to learn more as “libraries’ roles have been adapted to

internet-dominated” sources (Behesthi & Large, 2013). He used much of his time reading articles

about many different subjects. He acquired a large amount of knowledge. He knows a lot of
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random facts as well as important information about the world and politics. He has a broad

understanding of many subjects and does very well in school because of this.

In elementary school, he was in the GATE program which is meant for students who are

above grade level. In middle and high school, he continued doing well and got A’s and B’s on

his report cards. It is common for late adolescences to “debate and develop intolerance of

opposing views” which is what Manuel often does (Cognitive Development in the Teen Years).

His family includes him in discussions about various topics. This has helped him expand his

intellectual abilities because he can openly talk about them.

Manuel’s intellectual abilities are quite advanced for his age. This is a good thing for

teens because there is research that shows that this “may positively affect the way they think for

the rest of their lives” (Healthwise Staff, 2020). He has a large amount of confidence in his

academic abilities. If he continues the way he has, he will continue to increase his intellectual

development.
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GRAPH

RECOMMENDATIONS

After taking an in depth look into each of these developmental areas, it is clear that

Manuel has to improve in three areas: physical, emotional, and social. He is doing exceptionally

well in his philosophical and intellectual developments. For his physical development, it is

important for him to start exercising and eating healthy meals regularly. He also needs to get

more sleep and return to a normal sleeping schedule in which he gets at least 8 hours of sleep.

This can improve so many aspects of his life including mental health. It can also help with the

risk factors he faces because of his family.

For his emotional development, it is vital for him to practice healthy strategies to deal

with his emotions. An example would be to confront situations rather than ignore them and hide

in his room. Something else he can do is write his emotions down if he feels he cannot share

them with others. Keeping in his emotions has been taking a toll on his mental health so it is vital
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that he starts learning new behaviors as soon as possible. I noticed that Manuel is very aware of

his emotions and that he does not del with them in a healthy way because of his parents. I think

this a great start for him to be able to move forward and improve in this area.

Social development is going to be a little harder for him to overcome. His anxiety makes

it hard for him to be social with others and be himself. Something that can help tremendously is

to gain a close relationship with an adult. An adult can give him advice and help him towards the

right path. He will also gain experience from being around them and will be more comfortable

around other adults.

CONCLUSION

Manuel is aware of the areas he needs to improve on which is a great first step for him to

start making changes that will benefit him. He is a smart young man who has a bright future

ahead of him. He is going to be an adult this year, so he has some time to improve these areas

before he turns eighteen and enters the real world.

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Cartea Universitară.