atlanta_women_05_girls_0109

Appendix A. Case studiesNicole -16-year-old African AmericanNicole is not very talkative and her speech is difficult to understand. This is partially due to a head traumashe sustained when she was 5 years old. When Nicole was a 6-year-old, she was hit by a car and hospitalizedfor two weeks. She now suffers from headaches everyday.Nicole lives with her mother and two younger sisters in East Point. Her family is originally from the Midwest.Prior to moving to Atlanta, Nicole and her sisters lived with their father for three years while her motherworked and went to school. During that time, Nicole said her father was physically abusive to her and thather stepmother “treated her wrong.” Nicole did not want to move to Atlanta and wanted to continue livingwith her father.Nicole has a very volatile relationship with her family. Nicole feels that her mother is worried about her sistersand says, “She doesn’t care about me.” Nicole fights a lot with her sisters.When she was angry, she often threatened to kill “everybody else” in the house. At 13, while fighting with hersisters, Nicole brandished a knife and threatened to kill her sisters. She was detained at Metro Regional YouthDetention Center for several months before being placed in Angela’s House, a program that specializes in treatingsexually exploited girls between ages 13 and 18. Nicole admitted that when she was in juvenile detention shethought about killing herself. By 13, Nicole had already tried to kill herself three times.When Nicole was 12, a 17-year-old acquaintance tried to rape her outside her house. He stopped and ranaway because her mother came home. Nicole’s mother has had several physically abusive boyfriends. Nicolehas modeled her mother’s behavior.Her mother views her as competition and is back and forth about whether she wants Nicole or whether she iswilling to do anything to help her daughter. Nicole admits that she feels afraid of men but has been sexuallyactive since she was 13. Nicole feels that she was pushed into have sex but does not see anything wrong withhaving several older (adult) boyfriends.Nicole likes school but has had a hard time in school since elementary school and is in Special Education. Shehas been suspended numerous times for skipping class, being disruptive and fighting. Nicole doesn’t have abest friend and doesn’t want one because some of her friends have betrayed her.Nicole admits that she feels sad all the time. “I’m not sure if things will work out for me. I do everythingwrong. I can never be as good as other kids. Nobody really loves me.” She has a history of running away.Nicole is doing better at Angela’s House but she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Nicole’s motherreported that since Nicole was a little girl, she has had a compulsion to steal and hide food. She is withdrawnand prone to outbursts of anger and aggression. Nicole has very low self-esteem, saying that she is ugly.41