Pepsi Project Screening

EDU 220-2001

Abigail Torres-Jimenez

College of Southern Nevada

December 6, 2018

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Abstract

This PEPSI screening will be written on Nayely Torres. Nayely is 16 years-old and is currently

in her junior year of high school. Nayely is my younger sister, we live together along with mom,

dad, older brother, and cousin. This paper will consist of my observations, conversations with

parents, brother and cousin. The purpose of this screening is to access how different parts of her

life (physical, emotional, philosophical, social, and intellectual) compare to that of other people

her age.

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Pepsi Screening Project

Nayely Torres is sixteen years old from Las Vegas, Nevada. Nayely lives with mom, dad,

older brother, older sister (me), and cousin who is also her godfather. Nayely is a junior in high

school and describes herself as an extrovert. She is an honor student with a grade point average

of 4.4. Nayely says her social circle is quote on quote pretty alright now as she’s gotten rid of

negative people in the past couple of months. Nayely is not currently in a relationship. Health

wise Nayely is well although she does have a vitamin D deficiency and in the last year suffered

some serious anxiety attacks. Nayely is my sister and I choose her for this screening because I

have daily access to her, and I would like to get to know more of her and her development

compared to others her age.

Physical Development

Nayely is in her late adolescence per age charts from the StanfordChildrens.org website

she has reached puberty maturation. Her height is 5’3’ and she weighs around 160lbs. According

to the national heart, lung, and blood institute per Nayely’s body mass index, she is in the

overweight percentile by 3.4 percent over maximum body mass of 24.9 percent body fat. The

world health organization recommends that children and adolescents between the ages of 5-17

should at least complete 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous-intense physical activity daily.

Nayely’s current physical activity is overall sedative. She does light activity such as

walking from class to class and occasional workout videos, but mom would like her to be more

physically active. Mom mentioned that she would like Nayely to get out more and exercise because

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diabetes and high cholesterol run in the family and she wouldn’t want Nayely to have to deal with

such issues at her age. Nayely overall spends most of her time in her room watching mini-series

or doing homework. Outside of her room, she occasionally stays after school for Orchestra practice

and meetings for a college prep club she is in.

During her freshman year, she was more active as she participated in soccer but did not

continue. Her reasoning for not continuing to play is that there was no motivation coming from

the coaches and no spirit. She mentioned that when she joined the team it was to learn how to play

and play, but she didn’t learn anything because the coach's feedback was always positive even if

she had done something wrong. For the most part, Nayely doesn’t plan to go back to soccer as she

feels it's too late because she will be a senior.

Physical affection is an issue for Nayely. She does not like to be touched in the neck area,

so she explains that it feels as if the person touching her is trying to strangle her and as it’s a fear

of hers, she's not having it. Another thing she detests is people who try to/ grab her waist, she

explains that it feels gross and people's hands are dirty. Nayely enjoys her personal space and when

it’s invaded, she is not a happy camper. Through observation from watching the World Series, she

is most affectionate towards dad if I (sister) is hugging him. This is something mom has pointed

out to her asking why she is the only affection towards them if older sister is being affected. Nayely

explained to me that she doesn’t like to be overly affectionate with mom and dad because when

she hugs them, she notices their age. Therefore, when she hugs mom and dad she feels as though

she is saying goodbye and good instead of being affectionate, she withdraws.

Mom is properly informed of Nayely being in a high BMI standing for her age and height

and has tried to help by cutting some juke food out of the house. I explained to mom that even

though cutting out juke food is helpful spending time outside would be a positive, mom explained

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that she understood but it's hard to tell her teenager to go play outside. I mentioned to mom that

simple things such as walking for an hour would help her. I also recommended lowing the amount

of oil used and even switching to more health-based oils such as olive oil or coconut oil. Mom

stated that she doesn’t like the smell of hot olive oil and her corn-based oil is fine as they advertise

no cholesterol added and it contains omega-3.

120

100

80

60

40

20

0
Puberty Maturation BMI Height Phyisical Activity (mins)

Physical
Average Nayely

Emotional

In the textbook Psychology Applied to Teaching, it explains that many high school

female students’ experience periods of depression, loneliness, and anxiety (Snowden &

McCown, 2015). Although, it’s a bit unsettling to admit Nayely does form part of this emotional

state. During Nayely’s sophomore year she had severe anxiety attacks. This anxiety attacks

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would consist of a rapid heartbeat, vomiting, and uncontrollable quivers. Mom and Dad recall

these attacks as worrisome as they did not know what to do when they occurred. The anxiety

attacks lead them to consult with her pediatrician and further testing was done.

The testing to rule out serious health issues involved a heart screening, blood work, and a

heart monitor which lengthen out to about a year of varies testing and follow-ups. Thankfully

with the help of her doctors the attacks slowly receded and so far, she has not had one in about

nine months. Nayely was ruled to have anxiety due to stress. After being diagnosed with stress as

a family, we have tried to help Nayely handle her stress. For example, home chores are divided

out, so she doesn’t have to do various chores in one day and mom is a bit more lenient when

there aren’t completed. Furthermore, school work is something that can’t be avoided so that is

something she must handle with better time management. Thankfully, her Anxiety has not

affected her recently and she has been able to enjoy her daily activities without fear of an anxiety

attack.

Nayely and I had an in-depth conversation about her feelings, and she explained the

following. She often feels stressed and all over the place due to the pressure of school work and

at home chores. Nayely described that although there is plenty of time for her to complete her

tasks, she often feels that there isn’t enough time and it becomes an issue because it creates

stress. Aside from my conversation with Nayely I have observed that she doesn’t express her

feelings. For example, if she is upset or angry, she will set herself aside from a family gathering

to be alone in her room. Nayely overall doesn’t feel that she can talk to someone in our home

about everything, luckily, she does have her best friend Gema and cousin Julie whom she feels

comfortable sharing everything with.

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From an article from the Anxiety and depression association of America, it’s not

uncommon for a person with anxiety to also suffer from depression. Although not diagnosed

Nayely does show a form of depression called a depressed mood. Depressed mood as defined

from Psychology Applied to Teaching as the feeling of sadness or unhappiness. Emotional

suppression has been linked to a counteractive rebound effect in which the repressed thought or

emotion becomes more salient (Julie B. Kaplow, Polly Y. Gipson, Adam G. Horwitz, Bianca N.

Burch, Cheryl A. King, 2014), I find this section of the article read true with Nayely. For

example, mom, dad, Nayely, and I went out to eat at the mobile chicken while dad was in line to

place our order Nayely was asked what she wanted, and she stated she did not want chicken. The

restaurant has a full menu based on just chicken, so her requests couldn’t be fulfilled, she was

upset and stated she wouldn’t eat chicken. This sort of action is not abnormal for Nayely, for the

most part, if things don’t go as she plans or wants, she will become moody and lash out

depending on the situation.

Mom has mentioned that for the most part, she doesn’t understand Nayely’s reactions.

Mom overall feels that Nayely being the youngest has had the better hand of getting her way, but

at her age find that her moodiness and or lash outs aren’t much but her throwing a teen tantrum.

Mom admits she often feels frustrated with Nayely way of coping with things because she makes

it difficult to reason with her. Dad tries to not bring much attention to Nayely’s tantrums as he

says, for the most part, she gets over things quickly and well if things don’t go her way she has to

understand how to cope with things.

Being that our Hispanic culture plays a large role in the way we think my parents aren’t

aware or understanding of mental health issues. I tried to discuss my finding of Nayely being

depressed at times and having emotional suppression and mom said I did not know what I was

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talking about because it’s just Nayely being Nayely. I am not surprised my mom's reaction

because unfortunately, that mindset was the way in which she grew up, overall any kind of talk

to mental illnesses is always related to being crazy and being in a psychiatric home. Furthermore,

in trying to discuss Nayely’s feelings of not having anyone to talk to were redirected towards me.

Mom said that as Nayely’s older sister, I need to be there for here I told her I agree, but it isn’t

just about me being there for her because she also needs to be able to confide in Mom and Dad.

Overall this discussion was getting too tense to continue and the subject was dropped, but I

myself have made it my duty to have a better relationship with my sister so she feels that she has

someone she can trust in our home.

Emotional
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60

50

40

30

20

10

0
Depression Anxiety Emotional Supression
Average Nayely

Philosophical Development

According to Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Reasoning, as described by Snowman and

McCown (2015), people nine to twenty-one are at level Two, conventional Morality. Nayely fits

into level two of Kohlberg's stages because she is aware that there are rules needed to be

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followed in the outside world along with rule sets by mom and dad. Along with level two, I

found that Nayely fits into stage three and stage four, stage three is the good boy-nice girl

orientation, Nayely overall is a kind, gentle person although she doesn't like to admit it. Stage

fours are defined by the respect of authority, per Nayely she respects authority one because she

doesn’t want to make their jobs harder than what they already are and two she fears the

consequences to come if she is disrespectful.

Mom said that Nayely has never been a problem child, on the contrary, she has always

been well behaved, and dad agrees. I talked to Nayely and asked if the following rules are hard

for her. Nayely explains that she understands rules are there for a reason, therefore no follow

rules aren’t a complicated thing to do. I also asked her if there are certain rules she disagrees

with or dislikes, she stated that there is. Her example of a rule she doesn’t like is age restricting

things such as not being able to get a debit card on her own even if it’s a prepaid one. Nayely

planning to do some online shopping decided to walk to Wal-Mart to get a prepaid card. Nayely

explains that she read all the information on the card she choose and nowhere on the information

did it state she had to be 18 or older to purchase, once she got to the cashier she was asked to

verify if she was 18 she said no and the cashier stated she wouldn’t be able to get the card then.

Nayely explains that this rule was ridiculous as all she wanted to do was get a card which she

could use to for online items, aside from that it really bothered her that she walked to the store

and stood in line for over 30 minutes for nothing.

Adolescents increase their ability to think abstractly and become concerned with

philosophy, politics, and social issues per www.hopkinsmedicine.org. Nayely states that she is

not philosophically concerned outside of school work. On the other hand, Nayely is concerned

with politics and social issues she explains that overall, she is not politically informed now

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because she feels she can’t do much because she is not of voting age. Nayely does state that

when she is of the voting age, she will go like to be politically informed so she can make a

difference. Social issues are things Nayely has been aware of through school. Nayely explains

that social issues are things she has always heard about and is more aware of due to social media

and occasional news watching. Nayely explains that although watching the news is informative

for the most part, she finds that if she watches it too often it often makes her feel sad. She

explains that many things that appear on the news are depressing.

Nayely was brought up in a Catholic household and has completed her first communion

and is working on completing her confirmation. Nayely describes religion with be tricky, she

explains that yes, she believes in God, but she also like facts, she said it's often hard for her to

describe that she is or is not a religious person because no matter what she says people often

misinterpret her response. Nayely does clarify that when she was younger, she hated going to

church because she just saw it as a boring thing to do but now it's something that’s becoming

important in the matter of defining who she is as a person. The Catholic World reported that

people between age 18 and 25 were surveyed and 23% of them said they lost faith by age 10

(Garret, Thomas 2017). Nayely has been actively volunteering at our neighborhood church and

she enjoys it more than she expected to when she first began.

My recommendations for philosophical development aren’t much as overall Nayely

seems aware of who she is and what she believes in. I did talk to dad about how Nayely feels that

she can’t make a difference in political issues but should feel more reluctant to be involved. Dad

says he understands where she is coming from because, at her age, she is more concerned about

things that directly impact her being. I discussed religion to mom and how it seems to be

important to Nayely and how going to church with her may be helpful in furthering her beliefs.

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Mom said she would like to attend church more often and now that she knows she is interested in

her belief. Mom seemed surprised to know that Nayely is more involved in religion as due to the

previous experiences of going to church with younger Nayely weren’t the best.

Philosophical
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Politics Religion Social Awareness

Average Nayely

Social

Social status and being the most popular person are not something that is important to

Nayely. She overall has a small group of friends, she states that although she may talk to

numerous people, she does not consider each one her friend. Nayely defines a friend as being

someone she can talk to and hang out with outside of school and whom she gets to know on a

personal level. School social status is often viewed as important for many high scholars, but

Nayely is an exception.

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According to Snowman & McCown (2015), there are three social characteristics that are

used to describe High scholars; “parents influence values/plans; peers influence immediate

status, girls are more likely than boys to experience anxiety about friendships, and many high

scholars are employed.” Per Snowman & McCown Nayely seems to fit two characteristics,

Nayely is influenced by her parents due to the values impressed on her but mom and dad don’t

influence her plans. For example, she explains that she values family due to our parent's family-

based values but having a family of her own in the future isn’t a dream of hers. Nayely closest

friends do influence her in short-term ideas, trends, and even decisions.

Peer pressure as defined by dictionary.com is, “the influence of members of one’s peer

group.” Peer pressure overall is an issue many teens are faced with at least once during their high

school years, Nayely is no exception. Peer pressure is a massive factor in whether a person will

engage in risky behaviors, which includes underage drinking (American Addiction Center 2018).

Mom talked to me early November saying that they had given Nayely permission to go to the

movies with a friend and when she came home, she was intoxicated. Mom described the

situation as upsetting to her but also disappointing because not only had she put herself at risk,

but she misused the trust being given. Mom has never been the person to just let things slide, but

in this case, she was as confused as to why Nayely would do such a thing, knowing one she is

underage and two there are consequences for her actions. Dads reaction was like moms, but with

a higher emotional influence, dad at first cried being that Nayely is their youngest child it was

not only hard to see her like this, but it was heartbreaking to know their child isn’t a baby

anymore.

I myself was extremely shocked by the situation because we have never had behavior

issues such as that with Nayely. When my mom first told me about the situation my heart sank,

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and I was angry, sad, but most of all disappointed that she had fallen into the hand of peer

pressure. Nayely’s alcohol incident has been a situation my parents are not taking lightly, they

have become more aware of who Nayely’s friends are along with being more concerned about

her well-being. I myself have noticed that mom will have more conversations with Nayely about

topics not usually discussed. Furthermore, into Nayely’s social development she shows a certain

sign of low self-esteem.

Seven in 10 girls suffer from self-esteem issues, a thinking disorder in which individuals

feel that they are not “good enough,” whether in school, physical appearance or relationships

with friends and family members (Madison Riehle 2014). Nayely affiliates her confidence in

appearance to her hair. She explains that when she is having a good hair day, she feels the most

confident verses when she doesn’t have a good hair day. Although Nayely affiliates her

confidence to a good hair day she states that she considers herself to be confident overall. Aside

from Nayely explanation of confidence, I do note that she overall excretes having high self-

esteem many believe that those who have high self-esteem feel loved, supported and protected

by parents, they are prone to feel ‘good’ and secure about who they are.

Social circles are important and knowing who and where Nayely is, is important, but I

mentioned to mom that eventually they need to give Nayely the benefit of the doubt. I said that

giving her the benefit of the doubt will help her grow and understand that yes, mistakes are made

but they don’t define you. Mom understood what I was trying to say but is still wanting to be

stricter with Nayely due to the alcohol incident. I said strictness may help temporarily, but it

won’t solve everything, I told mom they need to be more open with conversations such as

alcohol, sex, and drugs because it's better for Nayely to be aware of the effects and understand

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the dangers then be curious about them and want to try them. Mom was attentive with my

recommendation but seemed uncomfortable.

Social
12

10

0
Parent Influence peer Influence Anxiety in Friends Employment

Other Teen Nayely

Intellectual

Doing well in school has always been a priority in our home. Education is important and

in order to be and do something great you must educate herself mom says. Our parents grew up

in a time where education wasn’t a priority and I find that for this reason, their emphasis on

education is greater. Nayely overall is an exceptional student, she currently has a 4.4-grade point

average. She participants are extracurricular activities such as her School Orchestra counsel and

a College prep program which helps with college applications, scholarships, and much more.

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Personality is defined by dictionary.com as the combination of characteristics or qualities

that form an individual's distinctive character. I had Nayely take an online quiz on

personalitymax.com that tested her abstract thinking, logical thinking, deductive reasoning, and

planning skills. Nayely’s results came back as her personality type being ESFP is based on

preferences; extraversion, sensing, feeling and perceiving. Nayely is a people person whom I for

one am surprised about I always saw and thought she was more of an introvert. Nayely’s form of

thinking is more feeling based than rational furthermore, she is a perceiving instead of a judge.

Howard Gardner theorized the idea of multiple intelligences in 1983, Gardner stated that

IQ tests were too limited and therefore proposed the theory of multiple intelligence. Along with

the personality test I had Nayely take multiple intelligence tests her results were the following;

kinesthetic, musical, linguistic and interpersonal were her four highest scored on a range of 73 to

60. Nayely has been involved in Orchestra since her 6th-grade year, therefore, her kinesthetic

and musical intelligence is no surprise. Music is something Nayely has always enjoyed and she is

superior in, during her freshman year she was moved from beginning Orchestra to advance

something that doesn’t occur often. Further along the year, she was moved from advanced

Orchestra to Chamber, Chamber is the high-level group of Orchestra.

A study, titled “Adolescents’ Expressed Meanings of Music in and out of School,”

showed from a response of 1,155 teens the importance they found in music. The top three

reasons where it provides a sense of belonging, freedom for teens to be themselves, and it helps

to release and control emotions through music. I asked Nayely if she related to the previous

statements, she said yes but her personal feeling of music is that it makes her feel good because

she is good at it along with getting a sense of peacefulness and freedom from it. I asked her if

the music is something, she would like to pursue as a career, she says “no not really”. Nayely

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aims towards getting a degree in ESL teaching and event planning, English as a second language

is something, she discovered a passion for. Being that Spanish is her first learned language she

has helped various English as second language learners in school by translating and even

tutoring.

School has never been an issue for Nayely outside of the workload stress. I talked to

brother about Nayely’s intellectual development. Overall brother doesn’t have any concerns for

Nayely’s intellect, he says that he is proud of her and how she is self-motivated to do well in

school. I talked to brother on how he can help Nayely further her intellectual development.

Brother is currently in college studying criminal justice, I mentioned to Jose brother that Nayely

overall isn’t too excited about politics and the difference she can make. Therefore, I

recommended he have more discussion with her about laws and how they help our society. I also

recommended to occasionally ask her about her school work as a form of showing interest and

that way she feels as though he is involved in her doing her best in school. Brother agreed with

me and said he would try to converse with her more and show more interest in her school work

and offer his help in areas he is knowledgeable in.

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Conclusion

Physical health is moderate overall for Nayely but I would like her to be more physically

active such as walking or intense cardio for about 30 minutes to help get her BMI to where it

should be. I mentioned to her that now would be the best time to set a fitness goal as the New

Year approaches. Physical affection is not something to be afraid of showing due to a fear of

losing the person. I mentioned to Nayely that I understood what she meant about seeing our

parents get older affects her affection towards them, but now is the time we must hug, kiss, and

express our love to our parents.

Emotionally, I found that Nayely withholds a lot of emotion and should be more

expressive. I for one have made it my goal to better my sister relationship with Nayely so she can

feel that she can confide in me and release a lot of bundled up emotion. I fear that the overall

signs of depression and emotional suppression worsen for her, but I hope that bettering my

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relationship with her will help along with seeking professional help. I feel that seeking

professional help will help Nayely not only deal with her emotions but hopefully release the

emotional build-up she has.

Philosophically Nayely is well set in what she believes and understands. On the other

hand, I do hope she can realize the importance she can make as of now even though she is not of

voting age. Along with being more politically involved I would like Nayely to expand her

horizons as far as social issues in our city. I recommend she participate in local social groups

helping those in need; I find this something that she can really benefit from as far as realizing the

impact she can make. I understand she feels the need to withdraw from social issue due to the

emotion they engrave in her but helping and being a part of something meaningful will help her

notice the impact she can make as one person.

Social status is something Nayely states isn’t important to her, but overall still is affected

by peer pressure. I would like Nayely to feel more confident in the person she is outside of the

way her hair looks because looks aren’t everything in the world. Outside of confidence, I would

recommend Nayely joining her church group to one surround herself by people who have similar

beliefs as her but also are still looking for their faith. Another thing I would recommend to

Nayely is to be true to yourself and what you know is right and wrong because trying to prove

people wrong will often get you in complicated situations. Aside from being true to herself, I feel

that Nayely should be more welcoming of people trying to be her friend.

Intellectually, Nayely is above average I do recommend she continues to work to keep

her grade point average as high as it is something that will benefit her when entering college.

Having a high-grade point average will allow for better financial aid which will benefit Nayely

further her education. I would also recommend Nayely to continue her music playing overall it is

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something she enjoys doing and it helps her feel at peace which is a great stress reliever.

Although the school is important, I would like Nayely to relax more and take some time off from

school. For example, I would like her to go outdoors more and take a breather.

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References

Physical

Calculate Your BMI - Standard BMI Calculator. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/lose_wt/BMI/bmicalc.htm

Default - Stanford Children's Health. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=puberty-adolescent-female-90-

P01635&sid=

Physical activity. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-

sheets/detail/physical-activity

Puberty - Female Puberty. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://science.jrank.org/pages/5584/Puberty-

Female-puberty.html

Emotional

Monroe, J. (2018, July 31). Adolescent Depression in Schools. Retrieved from

https://www.newportacademy.com/resources/mental-health/adolescent-depression-in-schools/

Parent's Guide to Teen Depression. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/parents-guide-to-teen-depression.htm

Riehle, M. (n.d.). Teens feel pressure to be 'perfect'. Retrieved from

https://broadview.sacredsf.org/6731/features/perfection-pressures/

Facts & Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://adaa.org/about-adaa/press-room/facts-statistics

Multiple Intelligences. (n.d.). Retrieved from

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Philosophical

Catholicism and "Nun’s": The data on youth and young adults. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/02/23/catholicism-and-nones-the-data-on-youth-

and-young-adults/

The Growing Child: Adolescent (13 to 18 Years). (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/adult/pediatrics/the_growing_child

_adolescent_13_to_18_years_90,p02175

Social

Sweeting, H., & Hunt, K. (2014). Adolescent socio-economic and school-based social status,

health and well-being. Social science & medicine (1982), 121, 39-47.

Riehle, M. (n.d.). Teens feel pressure to be 'perfect'. Retrieved from

https://broadview.sacredsf.org/6731/features/perfection-pressures/

Snowman, J., & McCown, R. (n.d.). Psychology applied to teaching (14th Ed.).

How Much Influence Does Peer Pressure Play on Teen Drinking? (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.alcohol.org/teens/peer-pressure-drinking/

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Intellectual

Multiple Intelligences. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.institute4learning.com/resources/articles/multiple-intelligences/

Study Reveals Teens' Strong Commitment to Music and Music Making. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://www.namm.org/news/press-releases/study-reveals-teens-strong-commitment-music-

and-mu

Free Personality Test - 20 Pages About You at Personality Max. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://personalitymax.com/personality-test/

Ellsworth, J. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~jde7/ese504/class/pepsi/reading2-1-

2.html

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