Pepsi Screening 1

Pepsi Screening of Victoria Gallegos

Alizeah Lugo

EDU 220

Professor Hooks

February 27, 2022

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Background

The individual for this PEPSI screening is sixteen-year-old Victoria Gallegos. Victoria

was born and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada. From a young age, Victoria was taken from her

parents by the state and has been raised by her aunt and uncle. It is believed that her biological

mom abused drugs while pregnant with Victoria, and neglected Victoria, which may have

affected Victoria’s development and will be discussed in their respective areas.

Victoria has six known siblings, including one stepsister due to her father’s current

relationship. Due to lost contact with her mother, as well as an unclear history of previous

seizures of her children by the state, the true number of biological siblings that Victoria has is

unknown. Victoria, like many of her other siblings, was removed from her parents’ custody by

the state. Victoria’s biological siblings have only been involved in her life in the last four and a

half years after reaching out to Victoria’s aunt, in which they asked to become more involved in

their father’s side of the family and in Victoria’s life.

Victoria has not had contact with her mother in over a decade, though still has contact

with her father. Victoria and her father have a good relationship, and Victoria will often spend

school breaks with her father who resides in Northern Nevada. Though previously rocky,

Victoria has a good relationship with her father’s girlfriend, who she considers her stepmother.

Victoria enjoys spending time with her stepsister and her younger brother.

Victoria was raised with three other children in her aunt and uncle’s household, who are

her cousins. Despite being rehomed, things were somewhat rocky for Victoria as she had a hard

time adapting to living in a new household. She often engaged in behaviors such as writing on

walls and wanting to sleep in bed with others. Victoria also had a rocky relationship with one of
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her cousins and would often get into verbal and physical fights with her cousin. Luckily, their

relationship has improved and the two now look after one another.

Physical Development

Victoria weighs a total of 119 pounds and her height is five feet and three inches.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Victoria’s “BMI is 21.2, placing

the BMI-for-age at the 56th percentile for 16 8 months-year-old girls. This falls in the BMI

category healthy weight.”

Victoria’s diet consists of little portions of the three meals of the day: breakfast, if she eats it on

school days, lunch, and dinner. She will also engage in snacking throughout various points in the

day, mostly on chips though also enjoys desserts such as ice cream, brownies, and cookies.

When she is not snacking, Victoria tries to eat primarily chicken, potatoes, and eggs. Whenever

she gets a chance, Victoria will try to substitute a homemade dinner with a bowl of cereal. When

eating out, Victoria will normally order from the kids’ menu for a smaller portion. If there comes

a time when Victoria cannot order from the kids’ menu, she normally will not finish a regular

portion, and will take her leftovers home. Victoria would also rather eat out and eat fast food

than eat a home cooked meal. This is not a good eating habit as it can “increase prevalence of

irritable bowel Syndrome, heart diseases and diabetes, hypertension and obesity, mental health

problems and iron deficiency.” (Simbar et al. 2022). This specifically applies to female

adolescents.

Victoria has flat feet, a congenital hip, and has a gluten allergy. When Victoria was

young, there was an attempt by doctors to correct her flat feet by inserting special soles into

Victoria’s shoes. Due to Victoria’s distaste for the soles, thus leading her to wear them more

often, her feet never formed a curve, and she remains with flat feet. Luckily, Victoria does not
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suffer from pain related to her flat feet. Victoria also has a congenital hip, more commonly

known as Hip Dysplasia. Luckily, Victoria only has mild symptoms though she does continue to

experience mild pain in her hip, which is relatively common (Mayo Clinic 2020). Victoria also

has a gluten allergy, which Victoria does not let limit the foods she can eat, but she handles the

allergy by watching how much gluten she consumes. If she eats too much gluten, she will

experience a stomachache.

Despite her health issues, Victoria participates in her school’s athletics. So far, Victoria

has played soccer, flag football, volleyball, and softball. Victoria often spends her days after

school at sport practices or out with her boyfriend, in which they will play soccer or help her

practice with her softball.

Emotional Development

Victoria does not experience mood swings, though she does tend to have a very short

tolerance and does get annoyed and frustrated very easily. Actions such as teasing or her

performing a difficult task can make Victoria very frustrated. Victoria does not take her

frustration out on others but will instead isolate herself and possibly begin to cry. Victoria

exhibits the same behaviors when dealing with other negative emotions such as sadness and

anger. Victoria may also use distraction as a coping mechanism by getting out of the house to

hang out with her boyfriend or practice her athletics. One study found that though distraction

may have positive effects on emotion regulation though “distraction also can be considered ad

maladaptive if combined with an attitude of avoidance.” (Volkaert et al. 2020). So, by using

distraction while also combining it with the intention to avoid her problems, Victoria is engaging

in an unhealthy behavior. Victoria struggles with anxiety and often has panic attacks. Panic
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attacks result in Victoria crying and having poor thoughts about herself. Victoria’s panic attacks

are trigged by feeling trapped, alone, and stressed out.

Victoria has a low self-esteem. She has a poor self-image and will often say things like “I am

fat” and eat smaller portions to avoid normal bodily functions such as bloating. These thoughts

are often triggered by comments about her appearance that have been made by others. According

to a study conducted to correlate eating habits with weight perception, “In relation to dietary

behaviors, compared to adolescents who had correct perception of their weight, adolescents who

misperceived their weight were less likely to participate in healthy dietary behaviors. For

example, those in the falsepositive group (i.e., males and females who believed they were

overweight but were not truly overweight) were less likely to drink fruit juice or milk, eat fruits,

or consume breakfast regularly.” (Dues et al. 2020) Though even if Victoria were to be taught to

have a healthier diet as well as a healthier attitude towards food and eating, it may be in vain.

According to a study in the Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal changing a child’s attitude

about traditional family’s eating habits can be difficult. (Simbar 2022).

Philosophical Development

Victoria does not engage in the act of lying often. She will mostly tell “small lies”, such as lying

about when she comes home from being out or the exact details of her day/night out. When

telling lies, Victoria does consider possible punishments that can result if it is found out that she

is lying. Victoria is more likely to lie to her aunt rather than her uncle because she fears

punishment from her aunt more than her uncle. This is most likely because her aunt is more

willing to punish Victoria than her uncle. Punishments can include being grounded and not being

able to go outside as well as having her phone taken away. And as mentioned before Victoria

will only tell “small lies” because if she tells “bigger lies”, she fears that her aunt will find out
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and punish Victoria. This also comes from a desire to have more privacy from her aunt and

uncle, especially since her aunt engages in behaviors such as searching Victoria’s phone.

According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “many adolescents may

lie to protect their privacy or to help them feel psychologically separate and independent from

their parents.”

Victoria does engage in tattling at her father’s house. She engages in this behavior at his home

because her siblings are younger and often will not see Victoria as an authority figure, so they

will not listen to her or her directions. She does not do this at her aunt's house because there are

no younger children and when she is upset with her older cousin, she will talk to her cousin

instead of tattling. When tattling on her younger siblings, Victoria does consider the punishment

that may be handed down to her younger siblings.

At school, Victoria does not engage in tattling nor reports behavior that other students are

exhibiting that should not be engaged in at school. For example, if students are smoking in the

school bathroom, Victoria has stated that she will not tell the school faculty because she believes

that the actions of other students are none of her business. This may be due to a previous incident

that involved Victoria in which she spoke up about rumors that involved a former friend’s

current boyfriend. The boyfriend and his friends then retaliated to the statements made by

Victoria with violence by threatening to “jump” Victoria. The only time Victoria will speak up

about poor student behavior is in cases of bullying or when a student’s actions will affect

someone else. Victoria has noted that she is more likely to act if it involves the bullying of a

special-needs student. It is due to these findings that Victoria is most likely to be placed on stage

three of Kohlberg’s model of moral reasoning (Kohlberg 1984).

Social Development
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Victoria has a very active social life. She participates in after-school activities such as

being a member of a team sport for her school. She will often speak to her team members and do

her best to befriend them. Victoria has a small group of people who she considers friends and

talks to them outside of school though she does not make the effort to hang out with them.

Victoria does not appear to be influenced by her school’s culture and belongs to a clique which is

defined as “a fairly small, intimate group that is defined by common interests, activities, and

friends of its members” (Slavin 2021). Victoria has no problem with talking to people or

associating with people at school though will not go out of her way to start a conversation. One

notable event in Victoria’s social life was the end of a long-term friendship that Victoria had.

The friendship ended after the friend’s current boyfriend threatened Victoria with violence,

especially since Victoria was urging her friend to cut off the boyfriend since he was engaging in

toxic behavior. Victoria said that after she had lost her friend that she felt “alone” at school and

learned to deal with it since she had no one else to go to but her own boyfriend who attends a

different school.

She will also attend family parties or events and will also participate in her boyfriend's

family parties or special events. When she is spending time at her father's house, Victoria will

attend church. When talking to people outside of her family, Victoria does appear to be nervous

but does not engage in behaviors such as avoiding eye contact, fidgeting, and mumbling. The

most prevalent behavior is stumbling over her words.

As mentioned previously, Victoria does not make the effort to hang out with her friends

outside of school. Instead of interacting with friends, Victoria prefers to spend quality time with

her family. She will often go out with her sisters and hang out with their adoptive family. They

will also participate in activities such as shopping, working out, and going out to eat. Victoria
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also spends much of her quality time with another aunt of hers, and they will engage in similar

activities.

Intellectual Development

Victoria performs very well academically and currently sits at an unweighted GPA of 3.5.

Victoria enjoys her English classes and tends to perform ideally in those classes, though

struggles and her math classes. When met with a difficult concept or challenge in English

Victoria is more likely to seek help from her teacher as well as try to overcome any obstacles

rather than in her math class where she will not seek help nor try as hard to overcome any

challenges. Victoria enjoys her English classes more rather than her math classes and is more

likely to pay attention in her English class rather than her math class. Victoria prefers to learn

visually and enforce ideas and concepts with a hands-on activity such as playing a game related

to her lessons. She feels to understand a concept she needs to have fun. This is important because

Victoria has minor attention issues. She needs to constantly be kept busy or else it will result in

her losing focus, fidgeting, or even pacing.

Victoria struggles with test-taking and is more likely to perform poorly on a test rather

than a regular school assignment. To perform ideally on a test, Victoria needs to review right

before taking the test. One possible reason for poor performance is nervousness as she tends to

forget the knowledge due to being nervous. This can be due to retroactive inhibition (Slavin

2021), as looking at certain answers on a test can give Victoria issues with recalling the correct

answer. One answer can sound similar to Victoria, and she will get it mixed up with the correct

answer. This equally applies to online tests as well as physical copies of a test. Overall, Victoria

enjoys going to school and does her best to do well academically. She even participates in taking

Advanced Placement/ Dual Enrollment classes to get a head start in college credits.
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Recommendations

For Victoria’s physical development, I recommend a healthier, consistent diet that keeps up with

Victoria’s physical demands of her athletics. Ensuring Victoria eats breakfast in the morning,

would help her focus more while attending her classes. It’s also important that Victoria eats more

homecooked meals rather than fast food, because though she has a healthy weight, it can also

make her susceptible to heart disease and diabetes.

For Victoria’s Emotional Development, I recommend that she understand that she should not

take everyone’s words to heart. Victoria needs to learn to put her own opinions and thoughts

first, rather than the opinions and thoughts of others first. Victoria needs to separate the attitude

of avoidance with using distraction as a coping mechanism, as it has negative effects. Victoria

should distract herself long enough to no longer feel as emotional about the issue, then approach

it when she has a clearer mind.

Victoria needs to understand that a lie, big or small, is still a lie. Trust remains in being

transparent, and that by being transparent and doing what she is supposed to be doing, her

guardians will not invade her privacy as much. That being said, Victoria should have a

discussion with her aunt and uncle about the effects their distrust has on her and create a plan as

how to be transparent and trustworthy.

To further Victoria’s Social Development, she should make the effort to be around her friends.

Though it is healthy to maintain a good connection with family, Victoria should become more

comfortable in spending quality time with her friends, as well as confiding in them. Though it is

good she has her boyfriend to go to for support, it is important that she have other friends to talk

to when relationship issues arise.

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Victoria’s Intellectual Development can be improved by interacting with her peers, especially in

her math course. By interacting with peers, Victoria can engage in Cooperative Learning, which,

according to Vygotsky’s model of learning, can help students learn because students are typically

“operating within each other’s zones of proximal development” (Salvin 2021) Since assistance

from her teacher is not very effective, Victoria can learn from a peer who is of a similar mindset.

Another remedy for this issue lies in retention processes.

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References

National Center for Health Statistics. (2001).

https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/html_charts/wtage.htm#females

Modi, H et al. (2020) Maternal Antecedents to Adolescent Girls’ Neural Regulation of Emotion

Journal of Research on Adolescence

Simbar, Masoumeh et al. (2022) Skills-Based Education for Promoting Healthy Diet Among

Female Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial Study. Vol. 39 Issue 1, p87-95. 9p. Child &

Adolescent Social Work Journal

Volkaert et al. (2020) Training Adaptive Emotion Regulation Skills in Early Adolescents: The

Effects of Distraction, Acceptance, Cognitive Reappraisal, and Problem Solving. Vol. 44 Issue 3,

p678-696. 19p. Cognitive Therapy & Research.

Kiya Dues, MS1 , Jayanthi Kandiah, PhD, RD2 , Jagdish Khubchandani, MBBS, PhD2 , and

Amber Haroldson, PhD, RD1 (2020) Adolescent Body Weight Perception: Association With Diet

and Physical Activity Behaviors Vol. 36(5) 339-347 The Journal of School Nursing

Slavin, R. E. (2021) Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice 13e

Bandura, A. (1969) Social Learning Theory of Identificatory Processes Handbook of

Socialization Theory and Research