Human Development Writing Project In the movie “Thirteen” (2003), we are Introduced to a character played by Even Rachel Wood (Tracy) who comes from what appears as a broken, but loving home. Theorizing, it appears Tract’s mom Melanie (played by Holly Hunter) has custody of Tracy and her brother Mason (played by Brady Corbett), and that the father remarried and has only visitation rights with his children. Tracy starts off as a normal thirteen- year-old girl who is good in school, has nice friends, and a loving family.
The first day of school a girl by the name of Vie (played by Nikkei Reed) has apparently matured ever summer vacation and is looking and acting beyond her thirteen years of age. This eventually draws Tracy to Bevel, as she discovers drugs, sex, and petty crime In the company of her cool but troubled new best friend. This Is the point where Tracy begins to go out of control into a bad direction or choice with her life, her family, school, and the direction in which her life is headed.
Some of the causes that led to her delinquent behavior are the physical and hormonal changes that take place In an adolescent life, as well as the parent -adolescent conflict and the parenting style she s exposed to. The movie expresses Tracts transition from childhood to adolescence, one of the most troubled stages of development, where she undergoes physical and hormonal changes that make her wonder about her identity. Part of Tract’s problem could be Illustrated by Erik Erosion’s Identity vs… Role Confusion (11-18 years old) development stage in ‘Eight Stages of Man’.
By looking at the illustrations, the reader will see this manifested in Tracy with the new on the family scene Vie. Tracy is already having problems from nature as she is going through a sexual growth change y going from child to woman. She Is having rapid hormonal changes that could lead to bad Judgment In her actions with family and peers. Her reference group Is no longer her family but her friends and in particular Vie (Erikson, 1950). Tracy is having self-esteem problems as she is going through her painful struggles over self- acceptance. She is achieving her Identity through Vie.
Vie Is very self-destructive and Tracy Is learning how to live that kind of lifestyle. Vie has taught Tracy to steal (shoplifts do drugs (both illegal and prescription), and seduce boys and older men to et something. Erikson believed that “adolescence presents a pivotal crisis around the development of a sense of personal identity (Erikson, 1950). Tracy Is showing signs of suspended morality. Tracy pictures herself as being one of the popular girls. This leads her to mimic what they do to gain acceptance into their clique. This then leads into negative identity, whereas Tracy is showing signs of identity or role confusion.
To properly fit in with the ‘popular girls’ she has to change her entire moral Identity by being a bad girl (shoplifting and theft to name a couple). Tracy Is showing negative outcomes like role confusion (Erikson, 1950). Tracy is in early adolescence phase and as she adapts to the changes that describe this stage she explores how it is to be Eke someone else, and how it feels to take drugs or have sex. Tracy Is experiencing everything that she encounters not even thinking twice of the consequences of her actions. These same aspects are explained by the article “Identity Formation in Adolescence: Change or Stability’ (Slimiest et al. 010). The 1 OFF progressive changes when deal with their crisis and commitments. They go into intense explorations and also reorientation of their commitments. Also, the study reveals that adolescent girls show more maturity and stability on their way to identity formation than adolescent boys (Slimiest et al, 2010), but the movie portrayed Tracy on a different path. Compared to her brother, who is an adolescent as well, she shows more risk taking behavior, and more curiosity and willingness to explore what was unknown to her before.
She is not open-minded at all when she throws herself in the danger of drugs and delinquent behavior, and she is definitely not willing to consider her decisions when her brother confronts her about being friend with the wrong people. Present throughout the movie is the parent-adolescent conflict that is going on between Tracy and her mother Melanie. The parent-teenager conflict is what Ashram and Ninja talk about in their article “Age and Gender Differences in Parent-Adolescent Conflict”.
The authors state that the parent-adolescent conflict is indeed present during the adolescence, and it is more elevated during the beginning of adolescence. As the teenager moves toward middle and late adolescence the amply conflict decreases. It is also thought that the adolescent (son or daughter) gets more often in conflict with the father, while the mother is seen as more kind and supportive by the daughter. Also conclusions reveal that the parent and adolescent gender, as well as the teenager’s age are significant factors that determine the quality of the relationship or bond that exist between parent and adolescent.
A weak relationship leads to conflict and may have negative results on adolescent’s physical or psychological health, or on his/her academic performance (Ashram & Ninja, 2011). Different from the above research that shows that there in not too much conflict in a mother/daughter relationship, the movie portrays a lot of conflict going on between the two. There is a high amount of conflict between Melanie and Tracy which adds stress to their relationship. As a result, Melanie smokes more and Tracy practices self-mutilation by cutting herself in an attempt to release all that pressure and suffering she feels.
Besides the physical and psychological suffering, Tract’s academic performance is Jeopardized as well by this continuous conflict and strain. Tracy no longer even tries or cares to complete her schoolwork or even attend class. Her grades are suffering and she is in risk of being held back a grade. Another argument to Justify the conflict that is present between mother and daughter is brought up by Laurie B. In the article “Conflict Between Mothers and Adolescents in Single-Mother, Blended, and Two-Biological- Parent Families”.
She says that in single mother family adolescents argue more with the mother than in a traditional family where the disagreements would involve mostly the father. This is due to a change in he family structure, which limits the number of parents available for disputes. Furthermore it is discovered that it may be very difficult for single mothers to maintain a supportive relationship with her children (Lauren, 2005). This very situation is seen in the movie, where the divorced mother has to raise her two children by herself. In addition to that, she is working in order to supplement the income she receives from the children’s dad.
She is also young (beginning of her thirty) and in a relationship with a man (Rail). As one can see it is not much time hat she has left between work and romantic life to spend with her children who feel because of his Job and his new family, leaving Melanie alone in this parenting situation. In the article “Family Relationships and Parental Monitoring during Middle School as Predictors of Early Adolescent” Fresco talks about how a middle school child’s family connectedness and parental monitoring can predict someone’s outcome as adolescent.
The research emphasizes the importance of a healthy relationship between the middle school age child and his [her family and siblings in deterring the development of teenager problem behavior. This study reveals that family connectedness, and especially father -youth connectedness and reduced sibling conflict decrease the antisocial and risk taking behavior of an adolescent. Father -youth relationship is very important in predicting an adolescent tendency to antisocial behavior, strange peer relationships, or substance abuse.
The study disclosed that the research results did not differ for teenagers who live with their dads or without (Fiasco et al, 2012). Tract’s parents are divorced, the biological father Ewing portrayed as a financial “sponsor” only. Tracy and her brother do not have a healthy relation with their father. Furthermore, when he is asked for help in regards to Tract’s delinquent behavior, the answer was that he has to work; and that Melanie should spend more time with her. Therefore one of the factors contributing to Tract’s delinquent behavior is the father’s involvement in her life.
As the above research described a father-child relationship can prevent an adolescent from sliding into risky activities or dangerous friendships, and Tracy is lacking this important factor in ere development. The article “Maternal and paternal parenting styles: Unique and combined links to adolescent and early adult delinquency’ points out that permissive mother parenting can lead to delinquent behavior in adolescent females, and combined parenting style (permissive mom and neglectful dad) aggravate the delinquency level (Hove et al, 2011).
Eve’s mother looks like a loving mom, but she is very busy with financial and romantic problems. She is responsive to her daughter needs, but she is too busy to show control or to sets direct guidelines for her children. Therefore Eve takes advantage of her mom’s lack of supervision and engages in stealing, smoking, and social drinking. In what concerns the father, he is never there (he has another family), and he only does his duty of financial “sponsor” being absent from his daughter life.
It is noticed that Melanie’s parental style (permissive) allows Tracy to walk all over her as she sees her mother as a weak parent. The daughter is verbally attacking her mother and becomes more uncontrollable in the presence of her mom, but she gets sad and cries when runs to her room. According to Milkiest, Shelter, Netter, & Keen (2007) parenting styles are related to the comfort and security that adolescences demonstrate. The permissive parenting style is not what is indicated for the psychological well-being of an adolescent.
It is shown that the parenting style that a mother should adopt is the authoritative one being related to increased self- esteem and decreased depression. The movie “Thirteen” describes the problems and the struggles that come together with a person’s transition to a new period of life development known as adolescence. Researchers investigate what causes a teenager o act in a conflicting and destructing manner during adolescence. Most of the causes lead to family connectives and parenting style, but also to the adolescent parents and peers mean a great deal in the outcome development of that person.
