Julia is a 12-year-old girl who lives with her 62-year-old maternal grandmother, Beatrice, and her two older twin brothers, Juan and Sam, age 13. They live in a two-bedroom apartment in an inner city neighborhood in Brooklyn; Julia shares a bedroom with her grandmother and the two boys have the other bedroom. The apartment is clean but it is small and the furniture is old and very shabby. They are supported by SSI, food stamps and section 8 housing; there is clearly not enough money even for necessities. Julia is of average height but she is overweight for a girl her age; she has long brown hair which sometimes looks dirty and her clothes, bought at the thrift store, are clothes that a middle-aged woman would wear (her grandmother picks them out for her and then brings them home). She wears glasses. Julia has no friends; she is never invited to parties or to other girls’ houses and doesn’t feel comfortable inviting anyone to hers. She is ashamed of the furniture and she is ashamed that she is sharing a bedroom with her grandmother. She gets along well with her brothers but she doesn’t spend much time with them. The twins are very close to each other and are involved in sports at school. They also have many friends and are often not home. So Julia spends her time in the apartment, doing homework, watching TV or playing cards with her grandmother. She is not allowed outside unless Beatrice is with her. She has never been to a movie in her life. Academically Julia is doing fairly well in school and gets above average grades. She is quiet and polite and always follows the rules, which is clearly not the case with most of the other students in the school. She is well liked by her teachers but has been described by them as ‘extremely shy’ and ‘even withdrawn.’ She usually eats alone in the lunchroom. There have been several instances where some other girls have made fun of Julia and made her cry and often Julia cries herself to sleep at night. The school social worker asked to see Beatrice and was going to suggest counseling for Julia but Beatrice never responded to the social worker’s request. When Julia was six and her brothers seven, they came home from school one day and their mother, Sonia, was gone. Beatrice said she had ‘gone away’ and didn’t explain further. Beatrice and Sonia have never gotten along, especially during the last several years when Beatrice was angry that she had to give up her own job to look after her daughter’s three children and that Sonia never spent any time with them. Beatrice believed that Sonia walked out because of this on-going conflict between them but she didn’t discuss this with Julia, Juan or Sam. Beatrice was never appointed as a guardian or foster parent; she just took over when Sonia left (which is why they don’t receive TANF.) Beatrice has lived with Julia and her brothers since they were born. She provided adequate physical care of them (food, clothing, medical care, etc.) but she took no interest in their schoolwork or in their social lives. She never showed any affection towards them and rarely even spoke to them, even though they were often all in the same room at the same time. She seemed to be even more distant after Sonia left. Beatrice, herself, has no social life, stating that she always has to remain home with her grandchildren. She spends her days watching TV. Julia’s mother, Sonia, is 29 years old and lives in the Bronx, supported by TANF. She is a single parent and also has a four-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter who both live with her. There is no father in the picture but being outgoing and very attractive, she dates often. Sonia gave birth to Julia and the twins when she was very young and she brought them home to live with her and Beatrice in the same apartment Julia is living in now. Sonia had a job as a waitress and spent most of her spare time with her friends so she rarely saw her children. Julia and her brothers never met their father. They were told that he was deceased but it’s not clear whether this is true or even if they have the same father. Sonia sees Julia and her brothers on their birthdays and maybe two or three other times during the year even though she lives less than an hour away. She is usually very late picking them up. For Christmas she sends them a card with a few dollars in it and she calls them every month or so. Julia, Juan and Sam don’t express any feelings one way or the other about contact with their mother but they state that they ‘have fun’ with her. Sonia has never asked that they come to live with her and she has not really demonstrated any love or caring towards them.