| Course | PAC 405 Child Psychology |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 8 |
| Paper type | Integrated case plan |
| Length | About 1,036 words, 6 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Aspen University |
| Program | Psychology and Addiction Studies |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PAC 405 Module 8
Four Dimensions, One Boy: An Integrated Plan for a Twelve-Year-Old Who Started Drinking at Eleven
Student Name
Psychology and Addiction Studies Program, Aspen University
PAC 405: Child Psychology
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Four Dimensions, One Boy: An Integrated Plan for a Twelve-Year-Old Who Started Drinking at Eleven
Jaylen, now twelve, shares a Tampa apartment with Keisha, whose recovery from opioids has just passed its first anniversary, and with Loretta, the grandmother who raised him through Keisha's worst years. His father went to prison when Jaylen was eight. Beer with his cousins started the year he turned eleven, and this fall his school confiscated a cannabis vape from him. He defies his mother, explodes when corrected and plays his mother and grandmother against each other. He also laughs easily, draws comic heroes, is admired by his basketball teammates and trusts his coach. Over this course, papers have examined the drivers of his use, the adults around him, his development, his culture and four approaches to therapy. This paper brings them together into one plan at Bayview Children's Counseling, the composite agency in these papers. Jaylen and his household are fictional, unlike the studies the plan draws on.
Choosing Treatment Elements
Chorpita et al. (2005) proposed a way of using the research base for a particular child when no single tested treatment fits exactly. They analyzed evidence-based treatments for youth and identified the practice elements those treatments share, such as praise, time-out, problem solving, relaxation or exposure, and which elements appear most often in treatments for particular problems, ages and settings. Clinicians can then select the elements that best match the child's problems and characteristics, a process they called distillation and matching. The approach allows a plan to be built from evidence without forcing a child into a package designed for someone else.
For Jaylen, matching his problems, disruptive behavior at home, early substance use, anger and grief, and his age and setting yields a set of elements: parent praise and consistent consequences for defiance, coping skills for anger, refusal skills and supervision for substance use, and family communication for the conflict between his caregivers. His grief, which the research base addresses less directly, is met through the psychodynamic and child-centered work already begun.
The Relationship With Child and Parent
Karver et al. (2006) conducted a meta-analysis of studies of relationship variables in youth and family therapy. The alliance between therapist and youth, the alliance between therapist and parent, the therapist's interpersonal skills and the youth's willingness to participate all predicted treatment outcomes. The parent alliance mattered in its own right, not only the child's. The authors concluded that the therapeutic relationship is an important part of effective youth treatment and should be attended to deliberately.
For Jaylen's plan, this means investing in two alliances. Jaylen's trust has been built through drawing and following his lead. Keisha's trust must be built too: she carries guilt from her years of use and fears being judged as a mother. The counselor will acknowledge her recovery and her effort and treat her as the expert on her son.
Integrating the Four Dimensions
| Dimension | What the course found | How it shapes the plan |
|---|---|---|
| Relationships | Grandmother is his steadiest adult; coach is trusted; mother rebuilding trust; teacher supportive | Each adult has a role; mother and grandmother aligned through family sessions; coach keeps his league place |
| Development | Reward sensitivity high in exciting peer settings; self-control strong in structured settings; grief newly accessible at twelve | Skills practice targets moments with cousins; structure added to after-school hours; short, active sessions |
| Culture | Family's church and history; mother's preparation for bias; changing neighborhood; school discipline concerns | Youth pastor included with consent; race discussed openly; school asked to respond with support |
| Interventions | Psychodynamic and child-centered for grief and relationship; behavioral, cognitive-behavioral and family systems for defiance, anger and drinking | Each approach assigned to the problem it fits best, delivered through combined visits |
A Weekly Schedule
The schedule fits sessions around basketball, Keisha's work hours and Loretta's sleep, and it combines individual and skills work into one weekly visit so the family is not overloaded.
| Day | Activity |
|---|---|
| Monday | Individual session with Jaylen: twenty minutes drawing and relationship, twenty minutes skills practice |
| Tuesday and Thursday | Basketball league with Mr. Brooks |
| Wednesday | Homework at the neighbor's apartment after school |
| Friday | Brief phone check-in between the counselor and Keisha |
| Every other Saturday | Parent session with Keisha, and Loretta when possible |
| Monthly | Family session with Keisha, Loretta and Jaylen; consultation with his teacher |
Goals and Measures
Six months in, Jaylen, his mother and the counselor will check progress against five goals. No alcohol or cannabis use, measured by Jaylen's report, his mother's observation and the school's reports. Fewer angry outbursts at home, tracked by Keisha on a simple weekly chart. Agreement between Keisha and Loretta on house rules, assessed in family sessions. No further school discipline incidents. And Jaylen's own goal, staying on the basketball team, which depends on his grades and behavior. His feelings about his father will not be measured as a goal, but the counselor will note whether he talks about them more openly.
Why Act Now
The longitudinal work by Odgers et al. (2008), introduced in the first module, is the strongest reason not to wait. In the Dunedin cohort, children who used alcohol or drugs before their mid-teens went on to more dependence, more convictions and more lost schooling as adults, and among children who already had behavior problems, those who stayed away from early use fared far better than those who did not. Jaylen's use is still occasional and was noticed quickly by his teacher. Read alongside his strengths, the finding suggests that the next year or two may matter more than any later period, and that a plan which delays further use, even without changing everything else, is worth the family's effort.
Conclusion
Jaylen's case brings together everything the course has examined: the adults who protect him, the developmental stage that raises his risk, the culture and community that shape him and the therapies that can help. Chorpita, Daleiden and Weisz provide a way of choosing the right elements for him, Karver and colleagues show that alliances with both Jaylen and his mother matter and Odgers and colleagues show why acting now is important. An integrated plan, built around his strengths and his family's capacity, gives a twelve-year-old who started drinking at eleven a real chance to change course.
References
Chorpita, B. F., Daleiden, E. L., & Weisz, J. R. (2005). Identifying and selecting the common elements of evidence based interventions: A distillation and matching model. Mental Health Services Research, 7(1), 5-20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11020-005-1962-6
Karver, M. S., Handelsman, J. B., Fields, S., & Bickman, L. (2006). Meta-analysis of therapeutic relationship variables in youth and family therapy: The evidence for different relationship variables in the child and adolescent treatment outcome literature. Clinical Psychology Review, 26(1), 50-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2005.09.001
Odgers, C. L., Caspi, A., Nagin, D. S., Piquero, A. R., Slutske, W. S., Milne, B. J., Dickson, N., Poulton, R., & Moffitt, T. E. (2008). Is it important to prevent early exposure to drugs and alcohol among adolescents? Psychological Science, 19(10), 1037-1044. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02196.x
PAC 405 Module 8 instructions, in plain terms
The final module of PAC 405 typically asks for an integrated case plan that brings the course's four dimensions together for one child. Rely on the Module 8 assignment as Aspen posts it; Jaylen is invented. Summarize the case across relationships, development, culture and interventions. Explain how you selected treatment elements, ideally with a systematic method. Address the therapeutic relationship with both child and caregivers. Integrate rather than list: show how each dimension shapes the others. Set a realistic schedule, measurable goals and a review date. Reference every study in APA 7, and plan within what the family can realistically manage. Include the child's own goal among the measures. Say who coordinates the plan.
How this PAC 405 Module 8 example is built
Jaylen drinks with cousins, defies his mother, grieves his father and thrives on the basketball court. Chorpita, Daleiden and Weisz's Mental Health Services Research article supplies the distillation and matching approach used to choose elements such as praise, consistent consequences, coping skills and refusal practice. Karver and colleagues' Clinical Psychology Review meta-analysis supports building the alliance with Jaylen and with his mother. Odgers and colleagues' Psychological Science study supports acting now. A four-row table integrates the dimensions. A weekly schedule fits sessions around basketball and his mother's work. Six-month goals cover drinking, defiance, school, agreement between his caregivers and his own goal of staying on the team.
Reading the PAC 405 Module 8 grading rubric
Integrated case plans earn credit for genuine integration, a systematic basis for choosing interventions and realistic goals. This example shows how each dimension shapes the others, for example how his culture and his grandmother's church affect who can support his plan. Chorpita and colleagues' method gives the selection of elements a rationale rather than a collection of preferences. Karver and colleagues' findings justify attention to the alliance with both Jaylen and his mother. The schedule respects the family's limits, and the goals are measurable with named sources of information. The paper ends with a clear reason for acting now, drawn from longitudinal research. One counselor coordinates the whole plan.
PAC 405 Module 8 help: mistakes that cost marks
Integrated case plans often list each dimension separately without connecting them. Show how relationships, development, culture and interventions interact. Use a systematic way of selecting interventions, such as common elements. Attend to the alliance with child and caregivers. Keep the plan realistic: a family can only manage so many appointments. Set measurable goals with sources of information and a review date. Include the child's own goals. Plan for setbacks, such as a slip at a family gathering. Explain why the plan matters now, using evidence. Name who coordinates the plan, so the family has one person to call, and say what happens at the six-month review. Celebrate progress the child can see.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Aspen University document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
More PAC 405 and Psychology and Addiction Studies sample papers
- PAC 405 Module 1: Helping Children and the Drivers of Juvenile Substance Use
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- PAC 405 Module 3: Developmental Processes and Helping
- PAC 405 Module 4: Multicultural Influences on Children
- PAC 405 Module 5: Psychodynamic Child Therapy
- PAC 405 Module 6: Child-Centered Therapy
- PAC 405 Module 7: Behavioral, Cognitive-Behavioral and Family Systems Approaches
- PSY 650 Module 6: Multiple Relationships and Boundaries
- PAC 102 Module 4: Substance Use on College Campuses
- ADC 660 Module 1: Addiction in the Family Context
- PAC 115 Module 7: Abbreviations and Safe Use
PAC 405 Module 8 questions, answered
What does PAC 405 Module 8 usually ask for?
Aspen's PAC 405 ends with a multidimensional case, so an integrated plan combining relationships, development, culture and intervention approaches for one child is typical. Confirm with your Module 8 prompt.
What is the common elements approach?
Chorpita, Daleiden and Weisz's method of identifying the practice elements shared by evidence-based treatments and selecting those that fit a particular child's problems.
Does the therapeutic relationship matter in child therapy?
Karver and colleagues found that the alliance with the child and with the parent, and the child's willingness to participate, predicted youth therapy outcomes.
Where can I find a free PAC 405 Module 8 sample paper?
The whole plan is on this page: an integrated multidimensional case for a twelve-year-old, with a four-dimension table, a schedule and goals.
Why intervene early with children who use substances?
Odgers and colleagues found that substance use before fifteen predicted adult dependence and other problems, even among children already at risk.