Minimum Wage

             There are many opinions today on Minimum wage. Some think it should be raised, others think it should stay the same or be lowered? Whose right? The majority of minimum wage workers are teenagers, for their purposes the rate of compensation is appropriate. However, the main concern is when a person has to work a minimum wage job with a family, they may have to do this for a myriad of reasons: lack of education, little job skills, felony record, drug addiction or any other besetting predicament. The fact that minimum wage is too little to live on is not the problem; the problem is that the cost of living is too high. Personally I would much rather have a lower rent and heating bill every month than an hourly boost in my paycheck. Yet there is a double edged sword to the simply solution to raising the minimum wage.

             A minimum wage increase raises inflation and forces employers to lower the number of hours that can be worked or at worst fire employees. This would remove a family’s only resource albeit a poor one. The fact that families have to pay so much for health care, child care, transportation, and housing is creating a stranglehold on today’s families in America.

            Exploring possible solutions for lowering cost of living I believe is the only solution. This can be done by funding and popularizing public transit. Creating more bus stations with convenient routes coupled with a campaign highlighting “the new and improved” transit system more people would use it. I would also lower the monthly rent for those leasing apartments. These ideas and other innovations of lowering the cost of living will relieve the pressure upon our state’s minimum wage workers.

What is TANF? Part 2

               Having examined the presuppositional worldviews that precede liberal and conservative policy-making decisions and future goals in the last blogpost, I will now discuss the resultant policies from each ideology that I support or disagree with. The position that I do agree with the newly formed Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) is that states are now able to make determinations about to whom and how much aid is given. ADFC, TANF's predecessor, provided federal assistance to needy families and individuals, unlike TANF which is now at the state level.  I also agree with TANF's four purposes: that children are cared for in their own homes, to reduce dependency on welfare (by providing assistance, through marriage or work), preventing out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and formation and maintenance of 2 parent families. The focus is on enabling and empowering individuals and families who are needy to work and ultimately provide for themselves. There is no reason why someone who can work and provide for themselves should receive aid that will enable dependency on the system.

            Obviously this purpose has its limitations, for example single mothers. Single mothers have to work a certain amount of hours per week, but this means that the mother will have to spend money on childcare, have no time with their children and always be financially challenged. This brings up another purpose of TANF, which is reducing the number of people on welfare and not reducing poverty. Unfortunately dependency on welfare has decreased, but the issue of poverty persists. Also, TANF only sponsors education for a limited number of vocations (nurse, secretary etc…) instead of increasing human capital.

            Overall, TANF is not a perfect program, there are aspects of it that are great and some that just don't work. I myself take an integrationist approach, I would reduce dependency on welfare by empowering those who can work to work, while at the same time not being so rigid that a person has no quality of life because of this expectation, some allotments should made individually.

Body Image, Media and Adolescence Part 3

The Negative Impact from our Cultures Perception of Body Image on Adolescents and Gender Differences

           

Adolescents are affected in many ways by today’s cultural messages about body image. Very few people in our country measure up to the standards that we see in the media. Yet, if one consumes enough media the inevitable subconscious conclusion must be that the rail thin gaunt look for women and the beefy and muscular look for men are the norm. In turn comparisons are made with oneself and the norm, for the majority of people they don’t fit the standard and therefore the idea that “Something is wrong with me” is implanted. Now just imagine what an adolescent with little ego strength, undeveloped identity, constantly changing body, raging hormones, and extreme social pressure to conform must feel! If a child doesn’t have some way to filter the constant barrage of body image messages or at least some positive counter messages say from a pastor, parent or influential person in their life, the cultural message that they don’t meet the norm is all they have. For most adolescents two problems occur at this point, poor body image/self-esteem or body dissatisfaction and eating disorders.

Dissatisfaction with one’s body image is often seen as a correlate of eating disorders. This has been demonstrated by the high prevalence of eating disorders in groups in which there is an increased emphasis on maintaining a thin, “ideal” body (e.g., ballet dancers and models; Garner & Garfinkel, 1980) as well as athletes (Sundgot-Borgen, 1993). However, this is not universally true for each gender, at least as is reported in the literature. The link between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders has not been demonstrated for men, yet researchers are beginning to believe there is a reason for this. Since so much attention is given to the subject of eating disorder among women, men may feel discouraged from reporting. Also, men tend to not label eating large quantities of food as bingeing whereas a woman would (Franco, Tamburrino, Carroll, & Bernal, 1988). Men appear to be more interested in shape than weight, although the two are clearly related (Anderson & Di Domenico, 1992). Men and woman, have differing standards for the ideal body type. The male ideal is a V-shaped figure with an emphasis placed on large biceps, chest, and shoulders; whereas the female ideal is to be extremely thin, with the emphasis placed on slim hips, bottom, and thighs. Men’s desire for weight gain would fit with the desire to achieve the male ideal V-shaped figure and to gain additional muscle. Franco et al. (1988), and Miller, Coffman, and Linke (1980) have shown that many men are dissatisfied with their weight and shape, although somewhat less so than women; yet some researchers have indicated that men are as dissatisfied as women with their body shape and weight (Drewnowski & Yee, 1987). The body dissatisfaction experienced by both men and women lead to a destructive result.

Body dissatisfaction create various destructive behaviors and thinking patterns among young people. In large scale studies, approximately 30% of boys and over 55% over girls report using unhealthy weight control methods such as vomiting, laxatives, diet pills, cigarette smoking, and diuretics in effort to lose weight (Emmons, 1992). At 8 years-old, girls believe that weight control is strongly associated with self-worth and view dieting as a means of improving self-worth (Hill & Pallin, 1998). Poor body image often leads to dieting, which can lead to unhealthy weight control behaviors, disordered eating, and ultimately eating disorders (Taylor, et al., 1998). Poor body image is strongly associated with low self-esteem and low self-worth, both of which can severely limit the potential for youth to succeed (Taylor, et al., 1998). Teasing related to weight and shape is implicated as contributing to disordered eating (Taylor, et al., 1998). Frankly, the results are not good, adolescents exhibit a rash of destructive behaviors connected with body dissatisfaction.

In conclusion, the evidence is clear; body dissatisfaction creates various problems for adolescents which can be intensely destructive and long-lasting, such as extreme dieting, eating disorders, and feelings of low self-worth. Body dissatisfaction is formed by unrealistic body types being presented in media, textbooks, toys, families and peers as the norm. Males and females are affected differently by the cultural pressure to look a certain way, males want bigger bodies and females want smaller bodies. Yet body dissatisfaction is common among both genders, it is documented in the literature to a greater extent among females, but as previously stated, researchers suspect that the research underestimates problems among men because of the reasons already stated.

References

Altabe, M., & Thompson, J. (1996). Body image: A cognitive self-schema construct. Cognition Therapy and Research, 20, 171–193.

Anderson, A. E., & Di Domenico, L. (1992). Diet vs. shape content of popular male and

female magazines: A dose response relationship to the incidence of eating disorders.

International Journal of Eating Disorders, 11, 283–287.

Borchert, J., & Heinberg, L. (1996). Gender schema and gender role discrepancy as correlates of body image. The Journal of Psychology, 130, 547–559.

Davis, J., Oswalt, R. (1992). Societal influences on a thinner body size in children. Percept Mot Skills, 74, 697-698.

Drewnowski, A., & Yee, D. K. (1987). Men and body image: Are males satisfied with their body weight? Psychosomatic Medicine, 49, 626–634.

Emmons, L. (1992). Dieting and purging behavior in black and white high school students. J Am Diet Assoc, 92, 306-312.

Field, A. E., Cheung, L., Wolf, A. M., Herzog, D. B., Gortmaker, S. L., Colditz, G. A. (1999). Exposure to the mass media and weight concerns among girls. Pediatrics, 103, 36

Franco, S. N., Tamburrino, M. B., Carroll, B. T., & Bernal, G. A. A. (1988). Eating attitudes in college males. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 7, 285–288.

Fox, K. A., Page, A., Peters, M., Armstrong, N., & Kirby, B. (1994). Dietary restraint and

fatness in early adolescent girls and boys. Journal of Adolescence, 17, 149–161.

Garner, D. M., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1980). Socio-cultural factors in the development of

anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine, 10, 647–656.

Hill, A.J., Pallin, V. (1998). Dieting awareness and low self-worth: Related issues in 8-year-old girls. Int J Eat Disord, 24, 405-413.

Miller, T. M., Coffman, J. G., & Linke, R. A. (1980). Survey on body image, weight and

Furnham, Badmin, & Sneade 595 diet of college students. Journal of American Dietetic Association, 77, 844–846.

New York Times Magazine (1994). Billion Dollar Barbie. 27, 22.

Neumark-Sztainer, D., Story, M., Falkner, N.H., Behuring, T., Resnick, M.D. (1999). Sociodemographic and personal characteristics of adolescents engaged in weight loss and weight/muscle gain behaviors: who is doing what? Prev Med, 28, 4-5.

Rand, C. S., Resnick, J. L., Seldman, R. S. (1997). Assessment of socially acceptable body sizes by university students. Obes Res, 5, 425-429.

Sundgot-Borgen, J. (1993). Prevalence of eating disorders in elite female athletes. International Journal of Sport Nutrition, 3, 29–40.

Taylor, C. B., Sharpe, T., Shisslak, C., Bryson, S., Estes, L. S., Gray, N., McKnight, K. M., Crago, M., Kraemer, H. C., Killen, J. D. (1998). Factors associated with weight concerns in adolescent girls. Int J Eat Disord, 24, 31-42.

Teenage Research Unlimited (1996). Television Viewing Study.

Youth Markets Alert (2000). EPM Communications.12, 8.

Websites

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/index-eng.php

http://people.ucalgary.ca/~egallery/volume2/small.html

http://www.csub.edu/~lhecht/Classes/BEHS501/Articles/BodyImage.pdf

http://www.epi.umn.edu/let/pubs/img/adol_ch13.pdf

http://www.tvturnoff.org/.

Body Image, Media and Adolescence Part 2

Etiology of Body Dissatisfaction among Adolescents

            Cultural perceptions of the body has changed throughout the years, it wasn’t always the thin for girls and big for guys standard that we see today. A primary example of this would be the metamorphoses of what our North American culture has viewed as attractive in a woman’s body within the last 120 years.

The era	The look
1890s	Plump, voluptuous
Early 20th century	Corseted, hour-glass
1920s	Flat-chested, slim-hipped, androgynous
1930s and 1940s	Full-bodied, with emphasis on legs
1950s	Voluptuous and curvaceous
1960s to date	Thin, un-curvaceous (waif-look)

                                                                                                                       Health Canada (1996).

The cultural perception has undergone a radical shift from the full bodied voluptuous woman to the rail thin, anorexic look of today. The impact of this changing cultural standard can be seen when walking down the hallways of a junior high or high school, going through the checkout stand at the super market, or watching a few hours of MTV, BET or VH1.  It doesn’t take long to realize that there is a very real and serious problem in the way our culture views the body. Almost every magazine on the rack when going through the checkout stand is about getting that “Beach body” or getting “Ripped abs”, how to lose 10 lbs in a week, or a new miracle drug for losing weight. Body image is powerfully influenced and affected by cultural messages and societal standards of appearance and attractiveness. Don’t believe me? Take a look at these facts collected by TV-Turnoff Network and Teenage Research Unlimited (1996).

• Adolescents watch an average of 28 hours of television per week.

• American youth spend, on average, 900 hours a year in school and an average of 1,023 hours a year watching television.

• The average American consumes 11.8 hours per day of media of all kinds.

• Children view more than 20,000 commercials per year.

• 75% of all adolescents spend at least 6 hours a week watching music videos.

Adolescents are consuming more media and advertising than any generation before them. But the influence is not restricted solely to TV and broadcast media, the cultural shift in body perception can even be seen in the textbooks and toys adolescents interact with everyday. Over 800 million Barbie dolls have been sold and annual sales amount to more than 1 billion dollars (New York Times Magazine, 1994). If Barbie were real, given her proportions, she would barely be able to stand upright. The same is true of the Ken doll, if Ken were a real person he would not be able to fit in normal clothes (New York Times Magazine, 1994). Textbook images of girls have gotten more slender every decade since 1900, while images of boys have not changed significantly (Davis, 1992). It is clear that the cultural messages concerning body image has changed to an unrealistic and unhealthy perspective, i.e. the Barbie and Ken doll body type, and secondly, adolescents are bombarded on a daily basis with this stereotypic body. They couldn’t get away from it even if they wanted to because the textbooks they read and toys they play with are also influenced. I do not mean to mislead the reader, culture is not entirely responsible for the shaping of adolescents perceptions of body image, family and peers play a crucial also. Yet I focused heavily on culture since culture also influences the thinking patterns of families and peers, and its connection to body image is massively represented in the literature. This leads us to the next question, what is the impact of the body image messages bombarding today’s adolescents through media, family, peers, education and play?

To learn more read Part 3

Body Image, Media and Adolescence Part 1

Body Image, Media and Adolescence 

            Today’s youth are faced with enumerable challenges. These struggles can range from trying to make the school’s basketball team, pressure to fit in, confused by body changes, and raging hormones. To bigger issues which indirectly affect their daily lives like the ineffective educational systems that is under constant pressure to produce successful student so that our country can compete in the world market, or the high divorce and remarriage rate and the gradual disintegration of the family structure. It is without a doubt that today’s adolescent has got a lot on their plate, but one area in particular has become increasingly problematic, the issue of body image. Yet this isn’t something we often take notice of in our culture, sure there is the occasional Lifetime movie or episode on one the popular primetime shows about this issue, but the efforts to increase awareness have had little impact. Consider these findings as evidence of the widespread nature of the issue of body image has had on our nations’ youth, over one-third of males think their current size is too small, while only 10% of women consider their size too small (Field, et al., 1999). 50-88% of adolescent girls feel negatively about their body shape or size (Rand, et al., 1997). These are big and scary numbers, think about it, if you were to walk through one of today’s schools, one out of every three boys that would walk past you thinks their too small and 5 to 8 out of every 10 girls think negatively about their body! One would think with numbers that big there would be more awareness and greater concern about this issue, but it has only been in the last 20 to 30 years that attention and research has been done into this issue (Altabe & Thompson, 1996; Borchert & Heinberg, 1996). That is why I would like to investigate this topic and gain a greater understanding of what causes such prevalent body dissatisfaction among adolescents and its impact.

Startling Statistics: Definitions and the Problem

Health Canada defined body image as “The picture an individual has of his or her body, what it looks like in the mirror, and what he or she thinks it looks like to others” (Health Canada, 1994, p.29). In other words, body image is the dynamic perception of one’s body– how it looks, feels, and moves. Several elements go into the construction of body image, it is shaped by perception, emotions, physical sensations, and is not static, and however it is also variable to mood, physical experience, and environment. As if body image isn’t hard enough to deal with as an adult, adolescents experience significant physical changes in their bodies during puberty; which results in continuously changing perceptions of body image. So the question may arise, everyone struggles with body image so why it is so important to understand the adolescent experience of body image?  Because many problems related to body image start around this time, for example, in their study Fox, Page, Peters, Armstrong, & Kirby (1994) found that many eating disorders appear to start soon after puberty and persist through secondary school years. Therefore, what adolescents think and feel about their body during this age in particular has a significant impact for many years.

Another fascinating aspect of body image in adolescents is that body image is influenced strongly by self-esteem and self-evaluation, more so than by external evaluation by others. Now, some might think this is counter-intuitive, but our own perceptions matter a lot. Rand et al. did a study in 1997 that found only 30% of older adolescents surveyed consider their current size acceptable to them, while 85% of females and 95% of males considered their current size socially acceptable for others. It seems that adolescents judge harshly when it comes to their own bodies, but are more accepting of others bodies. So there are two major takeaways from what was just discussed, an adolescent’s body image has a major significance because that image with stick with them for many more years and most of their body image judgment is based on their own self-perceptions. This is very important to note, because it leads us to the next important question of, what shapes adolescents self-perceptions of body image? For that answer we turn to an analysis of the influential power culture has on adolescents self-perceptions.

To learn more read Part 2

Catfish is a great show and...

Maybe you have seen the new show Catfish on MTV. It centers around the experience of Nev Shulman (hope I'm spelling his name correctly), when he was "catfished", which I suppose means when you are having an online relationship with someone and they turn out to be someone they're actually not. This happened to Nev, so he's making a show to help others.

I gotta be honest the entertainment factor on this show is great. I mean the twist half way through the show, when the actual catfish on the other end of the modem is revealed, is brilliant. The shock, the fear, the utter drama, muah, beautiful! I savor the drama. But apart from the entertaining quality of the show, taking a step back, the show does give us an insight into the changing nature of relationship in our culture.

Since this is a blog, I don't  have to make an overt effort to be articulate, so here's my thoughts. Technology has in a way connects us in great ways, we are more connected than ever, but the quality of our connection is purely artificial. The internet degrades relationships. It reduces us, the entire multidimensionality complex interaction of personality, experience, family of origin, environment, language, culture, community etc... are reduced to a chat box. You are getting to know someone in such a restricted way. Now, don't get me wrong, the internet is a great thing, it has the potential to increase and facilitate preexisting relationships. But if your depending the internet for your only source of relationship and connection, all your really expressing and getting is a reduced and restricted form of relationship.

So this begs the question, is people depending on the internet for relationship the cause or the result of the problem? I think its true that technology has increased our contact with others, and has reduced meaningful contact among people. I also think life has sped up rapidly from even a hundred years ago, were doing more, working more, eating more, driving more, have more things, and have more bills, so its hard to meet that need for relationship. So people seek it out on the internet, and then people get dooped by Catfishes. So, not to cop out, but I think its a mixture of both cause and effect. It is a demonstration of a covert issue in our country, we don't know how to have balance, and how to connect with others in meaningful ways. The internet is convenient and easier.