Group+Nine

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__wiki 5 Creating Social Change__
Introduction: Eating Disorders are a huge concern in today's society. Young girls all over the country are damaging their bodies in the hope that maybe they can look a certain way. They see all the "symbols" of beauty in society. These symbols come on magazine covers, TV shows, movies, and they are all around us. Girls and women who want some kind of control over this unattainable beauty turn to drastic eating habits of binge/purge, or they just don't eat at all. With one in 200 American women suffering from anorexia, and 2-3 out of 100 suffering from bulimia, eating disorders are becoming increasingly dangerous to the health of our society, mentally and physically(4). In this wiki we will come up with a plan of action to help prevent these negative body image thoughts from forming. This wiki will talk about how eating disorders can be explained using the symbolic interactionist perspective. It will also describe what some organizations are doing to help solve the problem, and it will detail our own strategy to help. = = __Theory:__ Our group was given the symbolic interactions perspective. Interactionist perspective is “A sociological approach that generalizes about everyday forms of social interaction in order to explain society as a whole” (Witt 15). This perspective is a theory that explains how we as a society use symbols to define and understand our everyday reactions to things. When we react to something in a certain way it is because of the meaning that we give to the certain things or actions that had just taken place. Different interactions cause different meanings and symbols. Symbolic interactionists look at the daily interactions of people, and how the meaning individuals associate with these interactions cause eating disorders. One of the reason people have eating disorders is because they want to change their physical appearance. Society bombards people with magazines, TV shows, movies, and other media that portray what society believes is real beauty. These images of stick-thin models airbrushed and surgically altered represent “real beauty.” It is these messages that people come into contact with everyday that cause people to have eating disorders. They associate happiness, confidence, acceptance, and success with looking a certain way. Interactions with others can also cause eating disorders. Through our interactions with each other, people compare body types and other features. They hunt for the flaws in the other person to boost their self-confidence and self-esteem. When they cannot find a flaw in someone, they are determined to reach that same level of “beauty.” Multiple interactions throughout the day, either through media or another person, promote ideas on the ideal body type and the ideal look. It is an unattainable goal that people try to reach by any means possible, sometimes physically hurting themselves through different eating disorders. A symbolic interactionist would say that in order to fix this goal, the idea or meaning of “real beauty” needs to change. The current image of beauty is ingrained into society, and the only way to fix it would be through a social change. Society as a whole needs to move forward and decide this behavior of comparing people is not acceptable. It also needs to change the value, we as a society place on beauty, specifically flawless size two figures for females and muscular figures for males. The biggest culprit of this ideology is the media. The media needs to stop associating beauty with people who do not represent the population. They need to expand their definition of beauty to include multiple body times, and they need to stop airbrushing every photo to fix every little flaw. The media needs to portray images that are not flawless. People also need to stop comparing themselves with each other and need to find happiness in their own skin. People have to change their ideology that only “beautiful” people are happy, confident, and successful. A major social movement needs to take place in this county that focuses on changing the meaning of beauty. Only when this ideology and the meaning of real beauty changes, will the amount of eating disorders decrease.

===__Literature review:__ What does it mean to be beautiful? This question haunts the mind of many girls and women affected with eating disorders all over the world. American society tells girls that true beauty is what you see on the covers of magazines, and in the movies. This basically entails being super thin, toned, beautiful bone structure and flawless skin, which are standards no one can live up to, not even the models that flaunt them. These symbols have been branded in our minds and therefore lead to many hardships with body image and ultimately lead to eating disorders. Eating disorders are becoming an increasing cause for concern in today’s society. Irrespective of race, class, age or gender, there are thousands of people suffering due to issues such as low self-esteem, body image, guilt and an obsession with food intake ( 1). Eating disorders are a cause of concern because they not only are a huge health concern, with Anorexia nervosa having the highest death rate of any psychiatric illness, but it also threatens the definition of true beauty (3). There are numerous programs, organizations, studies and websites that are working profusely to prevent and eradicate this eating disorder problem. === Two specific kinds of prevention programs have produced favorable outcomes, namely media literacy and self-esteem enhancement (2). This wiki will focus on two of these programs. First is a very effective website called SomethingFishy.com. Part survivor story, part support structure, it was started in 1995 by a recovered anorexia sufferer and her husband and has since grown into a large and detailed site with a thriving online community (1). The site also has an informative ‘‘what are eating disorders?’’ section which includes all kinds of behaviors such as Pica, sleep-eating, body dysmorphic disorder and compulsive exercising. It also includes the more familiar disorders of anorexia and bulimia. There is also a long and detailed section which touches on the causes and signs of these disorders, the medical complications and a list of debunked misunderstandings about eating disorders (for example that people with eating disorders are always underweight) (1). Another strength of this website is the very active and popular online community (1). Members share their stories, talk about their day to day struggles, and offer a lot support for one another (1). These types of websites are huge support outlines that aid people in realizing they’re not alone, and they can overcome anything, with a little help from their friends. The second program that this wiki will talk about is a study conducted to boost girls self esteem and overall body image. For this program they found it important to start educating girls at a younger age. Given the increasing evidence that girls as young as 6 years of age desire to be thinner, it seems more useful to implement prevention programs earlier, perhaps as early as school entry, when beliefs and attitudes about weight and shape are less consolidated, and behaviors are yet to have developed. This program was called ‘Everybody’s Different’. ‘Everybody’s Different’ was a program for children aged 11–14 years, and aimed to improve body image, eating attitudes and behaviors by building self-esteem and emphasizing diversity (2). The methods to this program were simple. A total of 470 adolescents volunteered for the program, which consisted of group work, games, and dramatic skits that were used to help them in developing healthy self-esteem, good coping mechanisms and healthy eating habits (4). There was a control group, which didn’t participate, and there was an intervention group, who actually took part in the program. This program had fantastic results. Adolescents in the intervention group reported having significantly higher self-esteem than those in the control group. They also placed far less importance on social acceptance, physical appearance and athletic ability (4). Programs such as these are very vital to young girls; the more positive a person’s body image is, the less likely that person will be to take drastic measures to lose weight (4). Both of these eating disorder programs are very effective weapons in the war on eating disorders. They are small steps in overcoming the horrendous image of unreachable beauty that all the symbols of our society drill into the minds of not only young girls, but all citizens, even men. With the work of these and many other programs, America can reshape the definition of beauty and help the young members of society avoid any eating disorders and become productive, mentally healthy members of society.

__Our solution:__
Our solution to this problem, eating disorders, is to throw a media campaign. We would partner up with programs such as the website somethingfishy.com, and self-esteem programs like 'everybody's different'. We would also collaborate with the NEDA, National Eating Disorders Association, who are nationally famous for their help in the fight against eating disorders. A fundraiser would be held to gather funds for a nationwide commercial about true beauty. The funds could be collected by donations to the websites, or by conducting a walk for the fight against eating disorders. The commercial would entail a variety of celebrities speaking on the amount of hours it takes to make those magazine covers and movies so glamorous. They would talk on the importance of inner beauty and the reality of coping with there own self esteem issues. This will enable girls and women to see that even those flawless faces are just a bunch of makeup and computer tricks, and many of the people they admire most have imperfections. This can cause girls to not strive for the unattainable perfection, and make them bring out the beauty within, the beauty that matters. Symbolic interactionists focus on the symbols and meanings of interactions, and this campaign will help change the current beauty ideology. Once the ideology changes, the amount of eating disorders should decrease.

1). **Lipcyznska, Sonya (2009). “Web Review: Eating Disorders.” Journal of Mental Health, December 2005; 14(6): 649 – 651, Pdf file.**
 Main Question: To examine why today’s society suffer issues such as low self-esteem, body image, guilt, and an obsession with food intake in high numbers, to find out why some websites are encouraging eating disorders as being part of one’s lifestyle, how to raise awareness and how to truly support those who have an eating disorder, or those who know someone who needs help. ** Summary of Findings: ** - Using the internet as a means for finding help, guidance, and advise is both easily accessible, and anonymous. - Eating disorder websites have extremely strict guidelines and warning systems to prevent weight-loss and insecure attitudes from being shared, as well as the banning of posting “numbers” (their exact weight and what they want to weigh), links to “trigger websites”, and to talk about methods of food control which may be construed as tips. - Eating disorder awareness is becoming one of the main points on websites by sharing real-life stories from survivors and people going through it. - Making the websites more informative instead of insensitive, crass, or merely ill-informed. - Websites are being seen as an online community where eating disorder sufferers can share personal stories, chat about their day-to-day issues and in general offer a better deal of peer support. -Pica, sleep-eating, body dysmorphia, compulsive exercising, anorexia, and bulimia are the most common eating disorders that many people suffer from. - People with eating disorders are always underweight. - There is at any one time approximately 1.5 million people in the UK suffering from an eating disorder. - Eating disorders affect five to ten million American and 70 million individuals worldwide. - Eating disorders in men are overlooked because we believe they will fall ill with one, but many websites have a section for men to turn to.
 * Article Title**: ** Web Review: Eating disorders **
 * Author:** Sonya Lipcyznska
 * Year : ** 2005

=**Summary of Relativity:**= **<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%; font-weight: normal;">The article relates to our research because it describes the internet as being a very gray area for people suffering with an eating disorder. One can find help, guidance, and advice, but then could review a website that encourages eating disorders and suggests how to keep them going. According to something-fishy.org they say that these “triggering websites” are like a crack addict walking into a crack house, or an alcoholic walking into a liquor store. Some websites also post how important being skinny is and losing weight, they also show pictures of extremely thin people to illustrate what they think everyone should look like. **

=2)., (2008). “Promoting positive body image in young girls: An evaluation of Shapesville.” , Vol 16(3), May-Jun, 2008. pp. 222-233. Pdf file. =   ** Article title: ** <span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt; color: black;">positive body image in young girls: An evaluation of Shapesville <span style="border-bottom-color: windowtext; border-bottom-width: 1pt; border-left-color: windowtext; border-left-width: 1pt; border-right-color: windowtext; border-right-width: 1pt; border-top-color: windowtext; border-top-width: 1pt;">.     **Main Question**: This article is mainly about a very impactful book called shapesville. It evaluates how urging a healthy body image at an early age could prevent eating disorders in the future. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman Bold',serif;">Summary of Findings: · Body dissatisfaction is a pervasive social phenomenon, sometimes resulting in the development of disordered eating. As a consequence, a number of eating disorder prevention programs have been developed with the aim of reducing body dissatisfaction. (1)
 * Author: ** Hayley K. Dohnt
 * Year ** : 2008

· Two specific kinds of prevention programs have produced favorable outcomes, namely media literacy and self-esteem enhancement. An Example of media literacy program is ‘GO GIRLS’, which was successful in reducing participants’ internalization of the thin ideal and drive for thinness, and also increased their sense of self acceptance.(2)

· ‘Everybody’s Different’ program for children aged 11–14 years aimed to improve body image and eating attitudes and behaviors by building self-esteem and emphasizing diversity. The program produced significant changes in self-esteem at 12-month follow-up. Most importantly, it also significantly improved the body satisfaction of participants. (2)

· With the onset of puberty and adolescence, the severity of body dissatisfaction and disordered eating increase. Preventing the problems before they occur is the key’ and in order for prevention programs to be truly preventative, they should be initiated earlier in childhood, before body image problems arise.

Given the increasing evidence that girls as young as 6 years of age desire to be thinner, it seems more useful to implement prevention programs earlier, perhaps as early as school entry, when beliefs and attitudes about weight and shape are less consolidated, and behaviors are yet to have developed. (3)

· concepts need to be delivered using careful language, in a fun and engaging way, and materials and measures need to be age appropriate. One program that has been designed specifically for children aged 4–8 years is a picture book entitled Shapesville. (3)

· Shapesville celebrates positive body image by encouraging self-acceptance and diversity. It is designed to generate discussions about body image, self-esteem, color differences and ‘the false belief that an ‘‘ideal’’ body leads to happiness and success’(3)

· The authors believe that introducing the idea that healthy bodies come in all sizes and shapes at a young age will help prevent future body dissatisfaction, disordered eating and weight stereotyping.(3)

· Shapesville also includes information on healthy eating, physical activity, recognition of special talents, the unrealistic images presented in the media and the unacceptability of teasing based on appearance.(3)

· Reading Shapesville appeared to provide an immediate reported reduction in girls’ desire to look like television and pop stars(8)

· eight girls at post intervention reported ‘It doesn’t matter what you look like’, while many other girls commented that they learned ‘It doesn’t matter what you look like, but. . . that you are you;. . . what is on the inside is what counts;. . . .what is in your heart is what matters;. . . all have different talents’. Other girls reported that it is important not to tease others (9). <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman Bold',serif; line-height: 21px;">Summary of Relativity: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 11pt;">This relates to our eating disorder topic because it displays how certain programs are fighting to prevent eating disorders by starting at childhood. It introduces “Shapesville” and examines how affective it is. This article overall gives examples of ways to prevent eating disorders with the specific example of “Shapesville.”

3). "Eating Disorder Statistics." //www.mirasol.net// . N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. <http://www.mirasol.net/eating- disorders/information/eating-disorder-statistics.php>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 24pt;">4). "Eating Disorders: a different approach." //www.eatingdisordershelpguide.com// . N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Apr. 2010. <http://www.eatingdisordershelpguide.com/a-different-approach.html>.

Introduction: The American dream is a concept that has been promised to us from the start of our country. The constitution explains that every American citizen has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These promises however, have been more difficult to attain than first predicted. This wiki describes how the social conflict theorist would explain the unequal pursuit of the American dream. It will also discuss literature about the topic and will give methods to a possible solution to inequality. By the end of this wiki, one will have a broad answer of whether or not this dream can be realized, the dream that was promised to us by our forefathers.
 * WIKI 3 **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 27px; line-height: 41px;">Theory:
The social conflict theorist believes that power and allocation of goods and services are what demand and supply the world. It is a world where the benefactor benefits only from the benefice and who gets what from where. The society actually becomes a great arena of complex power struggles and chain of materialistic views. The beginning has to come from the base though, for example, the means and mode in a society. From there the superstructure is fed and establishes a status quo of family, government, leisure, and so on. After, it continues on to circle around and maintain the base. From this example the conflict is between the wealth and the poverty. It is a classic case of the conflict conspiracy. It has a form of the base, and a superstructure. These societies do not last long because of the rapid change. Social conflict theorists would describe the wealthy as a power elite group, which has all the power over the lower class citizens. Even the middle class sides with the wealthy in hope of someday joining with there success. This leaves the poor with a society that cares more about the wealthy, who have the control, and creates conflict in the promise of the attainment of the American dream.

**Lit. Review:**
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 110.25%; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">The American dream is an idea of ultimately achieving one’s most prized success. It is something all Americans strive for, but is it really attainable for all? The two literature pieces that were assigned for this wiki give many facts and proposals of why this American dream is extremely difficult to obtain. Jackson (2007) writes about the topics of inequality. Inequality is all over America and has been a part of all human history. From serfs of the feudal system in the middle ages, to the slaves of the civil war, inequality has been a foundation of all societies. Jackson (2007) states that our ideas about inequality and equality derive from our experience of inequality. We come up with what we think is equal, from what happens in our lives. Jackson (2007) also says that everyone of similar status stay together for the most part, and Inequality divides us into separate nations or communities; we generally accept the boundaries as simple, obvious, and unchangeable. It is easy for someone of higher class and status to accept that people are below them, however for the lower class, it is more unacceptable and unfair. This is especially unfair because research shows that parents’ income, wealth, education, occupation, and residential location all affect one’s eventual place in the economic hierarchy (Jackson 2007). This demonstrates that one can be born into poverty or extreme wealth and therefore, already possess the “American dream.” Most Americans learn in school and through the media that equal opportunity is a promise to all Americans, however while “equal opportunity” ideologies dominate policy, it is hard to blame the victims when those victims are kids. Instead, we blind ourselves about class effects by insisting—against the evidence—that opportunities must be equal (Jackson 2007). Another point that was detailed was the fact that in the 1940s, sociologists Davis and Wilbert Moore argued that places in a modern economy carry unequal rewards because higher rewards are needed to attract trained and motivated people to fill the jobs important to a society’s functioning (Jackson 2007). This basically means that the more trained and educated one is, the higher paying jobs they will attain, but what about jobs for the rest of the people? This is another problem highlighted in the literature. Rank (2003) reported that in the late 1990s, nearly 5 to 9 million more jobs were needed in order to meet the needs of the poor and disadvantaged. Also, during the past 30 years, the United States has produced more low paying jobs, part-time jobs, and jobs without benefits (Rank 2003). These statistics should open up the eyes of many Americans and help them realize that more people are impoverished than they first may have realized. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 110.25%; font-weight: normal;">By the time Americans have reached the age of 75, 59% will have spent at least a year below the poverty line (Rank 2003). Much of this poverty occurs because of loss of jobs, divorce, sickness, etc. (Rank 2003), and without the government aid to support and rebuild their economic position, many people remain in poverty. America has the highest poverty rate of any western industrialized nation, and the promise of the American dream blinds many people to the real problem; Americans blame the individual, and not the whole. In order for this so called American dream to be obtainable for all “it is time to shift the debate from one of blame, to one of justice and common concern (Rank 2003).” Only then will the country see more people being able to realize the dream, and step out of the American nightmare.

** Methods: **
Social Conflict theorist focus on what causes conflict or inequality in society. These variables focus on what causes some of these inequalities and why resources are not equally avaliable to all people. In order to collect these variables, we analyzed various graphs and statics that were provided to us. Each set of variables fell under four main categories: wealth, unemployment, wages, and poverty. Then we chose specific independent and dependent variables. All of these variables together led us to our final hypothesis. The results section then goes on to explain the statistics that support these variables and possible reasons for the inequality. · **Wealth** o Independent Variable: period of economic growth § Dependent Variable: amount of wealth gained or lost · **Unemployment** o Independent Variable: Race or Ethnicity-white, black, Hispanic Americans, or Asian Americans § Dependent Variable: Ability to get and keep a job o Independent Variable: Criminal record or lack of criminal record § Dependent Variable: Likelihood of getting a call back o Independent Variable: State of the economy § Dependent Variable: amount of jobs available · **Wages** o Independent Variable: Race or Ethnicity-white, black, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans § Dependent Variable: Ability to get a good job o Independent Variable: Minimum wage § Dependent Variable: Ability to live above the poverty line · **Poverty** o Independent Variable: Country person lives in § Dependent Variable: Odds of being poor
 * Hypothesis**: Social inequality exists because of factors such as race, ethnicity, and an unfair distribution of wealth, which leads to the American Dream not being equally available to all American citizens.

**Results:** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">From a social conflict perspective, the American Dream is not equally accessible because not all people have access to the same resources. This means that some people will not receive the same rewards. There are a variety of variables that contribute to this idea that some people can easily reach it, while for others, it is nothing more than a dream or fantasy, not a reality. The amount of wealth gained or lost depends on the period of economic growth. The top 20% of the population in 1962 owned 81% of the wealth compared to the bottom 80% who owned 19.1% of the wealth. The amount of wealth for the top 10% of the population in 2004 was 84.7%, while the amount of wealth owned by the bottom 80% was 15.3%. The most recent period of strong economic growth was between the years of 2000-2004 (Unemplyment). It was during this period that the top 10% owned the largest amount of wealth, while the bottom 80% owned the lowest amount. There was a lot of money coming in, and people were successful. However, the profits did not translate to higher wages for the lower sectors of people. Economic growth does not necessarily translate into an increase in the minimum wage. In 2009, an individual earning minimum wage earned $4,000 less then they had made in 1968 (Minimum Wage). During periods of strong economic growth, the rich get richer, and the poor stay poor or become poorer. A small percentage of the population holds the majority of the wealth. It is an unfair advantage for people, where some people benefit and others suffer. The top 20% of the population are the business owners and CEOs, etc, the ones, either through greed or other expenditures, do not pass the money down to the lower class workers. They control all the money. Money is a necessary resource for reaching the American Dream, without equal access to it people cannot have equal access to the American Dream. Another variable is race or ethnicity which affects a person ability to get and keep a job. The unemployment rate for white men is 11.3%, for black men 20.1%, for Hispanic American men 14.4%, and for Asian American men 9.6% (Unemployment). Females followed a similar pattern with Asian Americans having the lowest rate, and black females having the highest unemployment rate. These figure help prove that race or ethnicity does play a role in getting a job and keeping a job. From a social conflict perspective, this proves that some people have better access to resources. The better access to resources leads these people to have more rewards, in this case the ability to have a stable job. Some of the resources white people and Asians tend to have is the opportunity to have a better education, and they tend to have more positive stereotypes associated with them. White people have always been the dominant race and held the power. Society tends to look highly on the white population, giving them an advantage in the job market. Asian Americans also have the stereotype of being smarter and hard-working. African Americans, though their situation has improved, still have to deal with a history of racism in this country, which also impacts their access to resources. Hispanic Americans have a similar situation because many people in society see them as “illegal aliens” whether they are illegal or not. This idea mixed with the sometimes present language barrier impacts society’s view of them and their access to resources. There is a long history of discrimination in this country among all groups of people, and these statistics prove it is still a problem in the job market. Jobs provide money, security, and status, if some people cannot have equal access to employment opportunities than they cannot reach the American Dream. Race and ethnicity also affects a person’s ability to get a good job. As of 2008, 27.6% of Americans have a good job. Divided among the races, 31.5% are white, 28.1% are Asian, 21.8% are black, and 14.4% are Hispanic (Wages). A person’s ability to get a good job also depends on education level. As the education level rises, so does the chances of getting a good job. Taking into account these statistics and the need for education means education is not equally available to all people. Education is a crucial resource to reach the rewards of the American Dream. Another factor is the quality of education. Every group might have access to education, but the quality of the education could be the problem. Whites tend to live in Suburban areas with good schools, while black students and other diverse ethnic students tend to live in cities where resources are lacking. Some students from lower socioeconomic statuses also do not always get the opportunity to finish school, because they need to work to support their families. Education is an important resource that leads to many rewards, like good jobs, and it is not equally available to all races or ethnic groups. Another variable that affects the ability to get a job or at least a call back is having a criminal record. Whites with a record have between a 15-20% chance of getting a callback, and more than a 30% percent chance without a record. Blacks with a record have less than a 5% chance of getting a callback, and a 10-15% chance of getting a callback without a record (Unemployment). This major difference between white people getting a call back and blacks getting a call back goes back to the issue of race. White people generally have access to a better education and come from higher socioeconomic statuses. These ideas make society view white people as more trustworthy. Racism and discrimination are still factors in society. People do not trust blacks, and would rather hire a white person with a criminal record verses a black person without a criminal record. Whites generally have a better reputation in society, a resource that blacks do not have. The state of the economy affects the amount of jobs available. In December 2000, for every job, there were 1.1 people looking for a job. In December 2009, for every job, there were 6.1 people looking for a job. This drastic change occurred because the state of the economy changed in that time. In 2000, the economy was still strong, so there were plenty of jobs available for all people. Once the economy started to suffer, the job market started to suffer. Single individuals cannot control the state of the economy, but they do suffer the consequences. The wealthy survive and can ride out the storm, while others already living paycheck to paycheck cannot hold on. It is hard to move forward in life, if a steady job is not available. A job is an important resource that provides many rewards, but without that job, it is hard to gain any rewards. The sum of minimum wage decides whether people can live above the poverty line, only making minimum wage. From the years 1938-2008, the only years a person could live above the poverty line making minimum wage was between the years 1968-1971 (Wages). For all the other years, people making minimum wage would be living below the poverty line. Minimum wage has slowly increased compared to the cost of living which has quickly increased. People who do not have the opportunity to receive a good education or get a job that pays more than minimum wage are stuck. They do not have the ability to move up the social ladder. They are stuck living below the poverty line with no access to any resources to move up. The American Dream is inaccessible to people making minimum wage because they do not have the resources. They have to focus on survival, they cannot plan ahead. A final variable that affects a person’s ability to achieve the American Dream is what country that person lives in. What country a person lives in affects his odds of being poor. A person has the highest odds of being poor in the United States with a 17% chance, second Ireland with a 16.5% chance, and the least likely is Finland with a 5.4% chance (Poverty). The reason the country determines the poverty rate is because the government is involved. In countries like Finland, there are good programs in place that assist people in poverty and help them get out. In America with the highest poverty rate, the government is not very effective at getting people out of poverty. People tend to believe in the false idea that people are just lazy, and if they work hard enough anything is possible in the “Land of Opportunity.” This false idea is the underlying reason why the American Dream is more of a myth or fantasy than a reality. People want to believe that anything is possible, but with many variables working against people, the American Dream is not accessible to all.

** Annotated Bibliographies: **
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"> ** Jackson, Robert Max. (2007). “Keyword: Inequalities” Contexts. American Sociological Association ****. pag. 58-63. Pdf file. **


 * Article Title: ** keyword Inequalities
 * Author:** Robert Max Jackson
 * Year:** 2007


 * Main Question: **** The main idea of this Article surrounds the discussion of the topics equality and inequality, the affect this ideology has had on countries throughout history, and how they relate to societies around the globe. **

- Our thinking about inequality involves powerful ideologies of equal rights and equality that reflect social theorists’ repeated efforts to solve the intellectual problem of inequality and address the tensions and adaptations that it produces. (58)
 * Summary of Findings: **

-Our ideas about inequality and equality derive from our experience of inequality and our efforts to understand it and judge its moral implications. (58)

-Building on shared experiences, people of similar status create understandings of the world that congeal into culturally sustained identities and worldviews. (58)

-Everyone of similar status stay together for the most part, and Inequality divides us into separate nations or communities; we generally accept the boundaries as simple, obvious, and unchangeable. (59)

-According to the article, inequality refers to systematic distinctions that we can rank (more or less, higher or lower) and which concern valued qualities (such as wealth, prestige, education, and security). (59)

-Status inequalities involve differential access to desirable (and undesirable) locations in the systems of positional inequality. For this reason hunting and gathering societies, largely lacking economic or political inequalities, also have little gender inequality. (60)

-Research shows that parents’ income, wealth, education, occupation, and residential location all affect one’s eventual place in the economic hierarchy. (61)

-Even in the U.S., where “equal opportunity” ideologies dominate policy, it is hard to blame the victims when those victims are kids. Instead, we blind ourselves about class effects by insisting—against the evidence—that opportunities must be equal. (61)

-In the 1940s, sociologists Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore famously argued that positions in a modern economy carry unequal rewards because higher rewards are needed to attract trained and motivated people to fill the jobs important to a society’s functioning. (62)

-The weaknesses of the Davis-Moore argument lie in what it overlooks: the theory neglects the influence of power on rewards, does not explain how jobs become functionally important, ignores organizations’ need to maintain authority relations, and does not identify the mechanisms that would produce functional outcomes. (63)

-We all react to the promised rewards and the brutal constraints of inequality just as surely, and usually as thoughtlessly, as rats in a maze. (63).


 * This article relates to our research question in that Inequality plays a major role in whether or not the American dream is possible for all Americans. It explains how unavoidable statuses are, and how hard it is to come out of a low class, when born into it. This article enables the reader to think about the fairness of society and whether or not we should promise equal opportunity for all, when we can’t guarantee it. **

** Rank, Mark R. (2003). “As American as Apple Pie: Poverty and Welfare.” Contexts. American Sociological Association. ** **pag 158-165.** ** Pdf file **


 * Article title: as American as Apple Pie: Poverty and Welfare**
 * Author: Mark R. Rank.**
 * Year**: 2003

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">**Main Question**: To examine how to raise American’s awareness of poverty, to show the average person that at one point in their lives that they might experience poverty or go on welfare, especially coming out of college, and how to change the opinion of the people who think it’s never going to happen to them, and who think only single, unwed mothers, inner-city African Americans, high school drop outs, are homeless.

Provide more government aid. Provide more jobs. In the late 1990’s between 5 and 9 million more jobs were needed in order to meet the need of the poor and disadvantaged. We should help the people on welfare, and understand that not every people on welfare is undeserving of assistance, that they are unmotivated, and have questionable morals. Labor markets fail to produce enough decent paying jobs and social policies that are unable to pull individuals and families out of poverty when the US has the means to alleviate poverty, so fixing them both will eliminate poverty.
 * Summary of Methods:**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">**Summary of Findings:**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">By the time Americans have reached the age of 75, 59% will have spent at least a year below the poverty line during their adulthood, while 68% will have faced at least a year in near poverty.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Americans will turn to public assistance at least once during adulthood.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Typically, households are impoverished for one, two, or three years, then manage to get above the poverty line.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">25% of all American full-time workers could be classified as being in low wage work (defined as earning less than 65% of the national median for full-time jobs).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Poverty impairs the nation’s health, the quality of its workforce, race relations, and, of course, its future generation.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Many people become impoverished from loss of jobs, sickness, divorce, and so on.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">There is little government aid for households who are undergoing financial emergencies, so many become impoverished.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Compared to other western industrialized countries, the United States has far fewer resources for the financial unstable.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">During the past 30 years, the United States has produced more low paying jobs, part-time jobs, and jobs without benefits.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">By the time Americans have reached the age of 75, 59% will have spent at least a year below the poverty line.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">The reason our unemployment isn’t as big as some European countries is because we have so many people incarcerated.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">In the late 1990s, nearly 5 to 9 million more jobs were needed in order to meet the needs of the poor and disadvantaged.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">America has the highest poverty rates in the Western industrialized world and most Americans will experience poverty once in their lifetime.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">**Summary of Relativity:** This article relates to the question of whether or not the American dream is attainable in many ways. First, it opens our eyes to the fact that poverty is much closer to all of our lives then we realize. It allows for people to understand that instead of blaming the individual for being in poverty, Americans need to come together to think of ways to utilize our resources and enable everyone to work their way out of poverty and leave it behind forever.

= = = = = =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 200%;">Introduction:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13px;">Crisis pregnancy centers are located all around the United States and are helping confused and stressed pregnant women everyday. In order for these places to operate successfully, they must do research in order to find the best way to run their practice. This is the point of Best practices research and is what the following Wiki is about. Our<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> group will look at this problem through a structural functionalist perspective. Our group will provide background research on crisis pregnancy centers in our literature review, and explain the methods used to conduct best practice research in the methods section. The conclusions we make based on our research can be found in the results section. This section is where our research question, what are the best practices for crisis pregnancy centers located in rural communities is answered.

=**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Theory: **= <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Structural functionalist theory emphasizes that parts of a society are structured to maintain its stability. This theory views the world as vast networks of connected parts, each of which helps to maintain the system as a whole (class notes, 2010). This theory focuses on how institutions in a society work together with each other to reach a goal. Each institution has a function that contributes to the continued stability or equilibrium of the whole (class notes, 2010). Examples of institutions are family, health care, religion, economy, and the media. Institutions help people adapt to the environment, realize social goals, create social cohesion, and maintain cultural patterns (class notes, 2010).

Institutions greatly affect clients at crisis pregnancy centers. The majority of crisis pregnancy centers offer a Christian view in regards to pregnancy and parenting situations, while outside institutions offer a more secular view. Outside institutions promote values that for the most part are opposite those that the crisis pregnancy centers promote. One of the biggest institutions that go against the values of crisis pregnancy centers is the media. The media promotes the idea that “anything goes” and “if it feels good, do it.” The family structure is also suffering. It is not as important as before, so children are not learning important values at a young age. Family life also suffers because marriage is not as sacred as it once was. People are having children out of wedlock and the media says that is okay. Movies such as “Baby Mama” and “Juno” promote this idea, making it seem like having children out of wedlock is not a big deal. Schools do not have strong sexual awareness programs or abstinence programs, so they also seem to be supporting the “anything goes” mentality by ignoring the issue. Crisis pregnancy center clients are affected by all these different institutions, so the crisis pregnancy centers have to form a balance between these ideas of outside institutions and their ideas and values.

Literature Review:
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 106%;">Crisis pregnancy centers are wonderful safe havens for women who are struggling with a pregnancy decision. Whether they are too young, too poor, or just not ready to bear another life, these centers are built to support and give options to enable the women and their unborn children the best life possible. These centers are run more efficiently by taking into consideration best and current practices research that has been conducted. Current practice research is way of looking at the mistakes and successes of other agencies in order to better one’s own, while best practices research is defined as a means of looking at some of the “best” practices out there and emulating their practice in order to replicate their success (Eglene). There are many ways to conduct these types of research and many steps taken to ensure reliable results. The 3 important steps are: step 1: formulate the question, step 2: gather preliminary information, and step 3: Interview selected people in-depth (Eglene CTG). CPCs are put into place in order to avoid one major item, termination of the pregnancy. Unplanned pregnancy has been found to be the number one cause of abortion and unplanned birth in the United States (Henshaw). Most women that visit these centers are very worried about either being able to take care of themselves or both them and their child. According to one article, among women in poverty, pregnancies were more likely than among higher income women to be unintended and to end in unplanned births, and were slightly more likely to end in abortions (Henshaw). Women in rural areas tend to be this lower income level and therefore are more likely to need the aid of one of these centers. When women are in poverty it puts a much bigger strain on them and pressures them into making sudden, rash decisions, like abortion. They want an easy end to an emotional and extremely stressful situation. CPCs must support these women and let them understand all the options and rights as pregnant women. One of these options highly encouraged by many CPC counselors is adoption. Most pregnancy counselors agree that adoption needs to become more visible (Mathewes-Green). Much of the rest of the United States agrees with this option. This is seen in one of the articles when it explains how a poll conducted in 1995 asked respondents which course they thought would be best for an unwed, pregnant teen. Twenty-nine percent thought her best choice was to place the child for adoption. 24 percent felt she should marry the father of the child. Eleven percent thought single-parenting was her best course. Only 8 percent recommended abortion (Mathewes-Green). Although many of these women leave these centers on welfare or with children ending up in single parent homes, these CPCs ultimately help them make their life affirming decision (Mathewes-Green). With the help of these articles and other literature, a crisis pregnancy center in rural and other areas of the US, can outline how to utilize best practice research in order to make their facility a better place. This will help the future of American society and the future of the success stories of unplanned pregnancies. In such an emotional, anxious time in a woman’s life, their needs to be a non-judgmental place that will give the assistance and comfort needed to transform the fear of an unplanned child into an astonishing experience that will ultimately better their lives.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 29px; line-height: 42px;">**Methods:** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The goal of this wiki is to figure out the best practice for crisis pregnancy centers in small towns. Best practice is reached after eliminating mistakes and focusing on what is successful. In order to figure out what the best practice is for an organization, one must conduct best practice research. There are three main steps involved in best practice research. They are to formulate a question, gather preliminary information, and conduct in-depth interviews (Eglene, 2000). To formulate a good question, the researcher should think about the goal of the research and any information related to the topic. It is also helpful to figure out what information the researcher wants to avoid, this will help narrow down the topic to a specific area of focus (Eglene, 2000). The question this wiki will answer is stated above in the introduction. The next step is to gather preliminary information. The best way to start gathering this information is by going to a library to search for information or by doing a broad internet search. This extensive search can help the researcher obtain basic information, and it is also an easy way to find more specific information. A big internet search can lead the researcher to organizations that might be helpful, including places that have conducted similar best practice research (Eglene, 2000). The preliminary research for this wiki was completed through the literature review, which was made after reading a couple of articles on the topic. These articles covered information about the challenges facing crisis pregnancy centers and rates of unintended pregnancies. The last step in conducting best practice research is to conduct in-depth interviews. The interview with a knowledgeable person provides insider information, specifically highlighting any negatives that may exist. In order to conduct a good interview, the researcher should know enough information about the project and be able to describe it, should be comfortable talking to people, and needs to know how to ask the right questions and when to ask the more challenging questions (Eglene, 2000). For this wiki, a member of the group called a crisis pregnancy center in a small town and asked an employee, at the center, a series of questions. This interview was posted along with all the other groups, so each group could compare practices at a variety of crisis pregnancy centers. This wiki looked at the information from a structural functionalist perspective. With this perspective, our group focused on the impact other institutions had on crisis pregnancy centers and their clients. The results of the best practice research from this wiki can be found below in the results section.

=Analysis=

Looking through the eyes of a structural functionalist a crisis pregnancy center struggling in rural areas is the exact cause of institutions and the affect they can have on the current mass society. (Class Notes 2010) All the groups received very interesting data and responses. Many of the questions based around the best practices the institution itself implemented in and organized around the community. Interestingly enough this is exactly what a structural functionalist looks for; stability and order and or each institution connection together to help maintain a part of society, and function as a whole. What were the crisis pregnancy center’s actions that maintained a sense of institutionalized stability and connected them with the community? In the very beginning crisis pregnancy centers struggle to even get heard of. In almost all of the groups on question four when asked, “What practices has your organization implemented in order to recruit new clients?” the respondents replied with “word of mouth,” or something of spreading the word. The most basic form of communication in the human aspects focused on a simple people talking about. Some groups used media outlooks such as Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace to gain membership as another tool. Interestingly enough the respondents said the most effective way to gain new members was to use the phonebook and the internet. The phonebook already a mini institution in a way for the community makes sense to be the ultimate guided target in a crisis pregnancy centers campaign. The next question targeted specifically the structural functionalist perspective, “How do other institutions in society (mass media, schools, family, work, etc) influence your clients?” Many of the groups did agree that institutions did affect women becoming pregnant out of wedlock and a media push for the acceptance of abortions. As a group we also discovered that many of the groups find the mass media as one of their biggest competitors and rivals against. In particular, Group Six, the respondent told the student that clients come in and turn off and leave everything dealing with mass media behind. In Group Two, the respondent was especially upset about how media has treated pregnant women and their spouses in movies and in television, causing the role of fatherhood to diminish greatly into its own “crisis”. Even in the younger teen movies, the respondent quoted the movie, “Juno” as a perfect example of how the role of a teenage girl was lost and how a boy has to be transformed into a man and then radically emphasized to the point where loses maturity before he gains it. The rest of the groups pretty much agreed that a secular society had taken control of what it meant to be ‘pregnant’ and to ‘be a parent’, and each crisis pregnancy center was an outlet or different view away from the secularization. However there where two odd groups, Groups Five and Eleven, that stated the mass media did not affect that area and stated that the community was just too small. However small the community may be, it has to have institutions. (Class Notes 2010) Institutions affect people, they create values, norms, and help society maintain as a whole. Group Eleven later states that a website like that of Facebook is used for blogging to help their clients, is that not a mass media tool being used? Could the website being used in a positive of negative manner be creating some kind of connecting system of mass media? Although the mass media might not be a dominate figure in the community, one should never strike it out completely. Some have very strong values to hold to, Group Six and Group Four, others it’s about being open and creating a place where people can go to get the help they need, Groups Three and Eight. In the end it seems that many of these crisis pregnancy centers are struggling to keep their heads above water by the word of mouth through the dominate culture while against the dominate culture. The crisis pregnancy centers must remember that dominate culture and mass media will always have some effect of the society and institutions and vice versa.

1)** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">**Eglene, Ophelia. "Conducting Best and Current Practices Research."** <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal;"> //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">**Center for** //
 * Annotated Bibliographies:
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">technology in Government // <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;"> (Jan. 2000): n. pag. Pdf file. **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Article Title: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;"> Conducting Best and Current Practices Research: A Starter Kit
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Author: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;"> Ophelia Eglene: Center for Technology in Government
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Year: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;"> Revised January 2000

The main question/idea of this article is to discover issues facing any specific agency and ways to improve its practice. With this article one can discover what works and what doesn't, as well as how to replicate successes and avoid mistakes (1).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Main Question: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">

-Current practice research is way of looking at the mistakes and successes of other agencies in order to better one’s own. “The process by which you formulate your questions, identify likely sources of expertise, and probe for frank advice is what we call "current practices research (1)."
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Summary of Findings: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">

-Best practices research means looking at some of the “best” practices out there and emulating their practice in order to replicate their success.

-There are many ways in conducting this type of research, the CTG gives 3 important steps: step 1: formulate the question, step 2: gather preliminary information, and step 3: Interview selected people in-depth

- There are also many helpful research resources this article gives, including many different search engines such as northernlight.com, altavista.com, askjeeves.com, and yahoo.com.

-The result one gets from these search engines depends highly on the way they ask their questions. For example, specifically utilizing the +, - signs, and quotation marks are effective ways to narrow down a search.

this relates to our topic because in order for these crisis pregnancy centers to be successful, one needs to do best and current practices research in order to recognize former mistakes and emulate past successes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">Summary of Relativity: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 105%;">

2) **Henshaw, Stanley K. "Unintended pregnancy in the United States."** **//Guttmacher//**

 * //Institute// 30.1 (1998). Web. 28 Feb. 2010. **


 * Article title:** Unintended Pregnancy in the United States
 * Author:** Stanley K Henshaw
 * Year**: 1998


 * Main question:** Main idea of this article is to display how “current debates on how to reduce the high U.S. abortion rate often fail to take into account the role of unintended pregnancy, an important determinant of abortion(1).”


 * Methodology:** data from many sources are used to present estimates of the percentage of births and pregnancies that were unintended in many different years. In this data unintended pregnancies were estimated as the sum of abortions and of births resulting from pregnancies reported as having been unintended.

· - Unplanned pregnancy has been found to be the number one cause of abortion and unplanned birth in the United States. · - A study based on the 1988 NSFG estimated that 57% of pregnancies in 1987 (excluding miscarriages) were unintended (1). · - This study used many methods to calculate the number of unplanned births and the number of abortions. Although there could have been some error the results provided an approximate picture of the past abortion experience of U.S. women since the 1973 //Roe// v. //Wade// decision. · -The study estimated the proportion of women who have ever had an unintended pregnancy by first adding the number of women who had had an unplanned birth to the number who had had an abortion, and then subtracting those who were counted twice because they had had both an unplanned birth and an abortion. · - With miscarriages omitted, the proportion of unintended pregnancies that ended in abortion reflects actual decisions to terminate or continue pregnancies. · - The results of this study showed that “Approximately 3.95 million births and 1.43 million abortions occurred in 1994, for a total of 5.38 million pregnancies. The largest number of pregnancies occurred among women aged 20-29, among currently married women, among those with an income 200% or more of the federal poverty level, and among white and non-Hispanic women” · - Ultimately the results displayed that “among women who experienced an unintended pregnancy in 1994 (excluding miscarriages), 54% had an abortion and 46% carried the pregnancy to term.” Therefore more women had abortions from unintended pregnancies. The majority of these pregnancies were from teenagers. · - Among women in poverty, pregnancies were more likely than among higher income women to be unintended and to end in unplanned births, and were slightly more likely to end in abortions. · - Black women had higher rate of unintended pregnancy than white women. · - About 48% of all women aged 15-44 had ever had an unintended pregnancy (either an unplanned birth or an abortion, or both). The percentage increased with age, to a high of 60% among women 35-39. · - “Whether they end in abortion or unplanned birth, unintended pregnancies come at a cost both to the individuals involved and to the larger society. Reduction of unplanned pregnancy can only be achieved by decreasing risky behavior, promoting the use of effective contraceptive methods and improving the effectiveness with which all methods are used. “
 * Summary of findings:**

This article relates to our question because it gives vital information for crisis pregnancy centers. From the majority of women that will be coming to them and what the probable poverty level they will be at, especially in rural towns, and what the race of the majority of them will be. It also gives suggestion on how to prevent future unplanned pregnancies, the number one idea being an increase in contraception.
 * Summary of relativity**

**3)** ** Mathewes-Green, Frederica. "Pro-Life Dilemma: Pregnancy centers and the welfare **
 * trap." //policy Review// Aug. 1996: Web, Print. **
 * Article title: ** Pregnancy centers and the welfare trap
 * Author ** : Frederica Mathewes-Green
 * Year ** : 1996

** Main Question: ** To examine women who wanted to get an abortion, but instead went to a crisis pregnancy center for guidance and support. They unfortunately come out of the experience having to be on welfare, using food stamps and becoming homeless, when they could have given the baby up for adoption. Summary of findings in article: ** · Most pregnancy counselors agree that adoption needs to become more visible. · 80 to 90 percent of their clients--about 200,000 a year--eventually set up single-parent households. · A poll conducted by [|Family Research Council] in 1995 asked respondents which course they thought would be best for an unwed, pregnant teen. Twenty-nine percent thought her best choice was to place the child for adoption. 24 percent felt she should marry the father of the child. Eleven percent thought single-parenting was her best course. Only 8 percent recommended abortion. · In 1991, 46 percent of pregnancies to unwed mothers ended in abortion. Most of the rest, 44 percent, were carried to term. · "We don't push one decision or another, but we do help them make an informed decision," says Shirley Gibson · LIGHT house gives women who want to give their baby up for adoption individual counseling and a 20 week adoption class that tells them about the hardship that is to come. · America's 3,000 pregnancy centers have been rescuing women and their unborn children for 30 years now. · Girls who grow up without a father are more than twice as likely to have a baby out of wedlock themselves. · In 40 percent of counseling situations, adoption was not even mentioned to the client as an option · Some women who placed their infants for adoption have subsequently sued the centers where they had received counseling, saying they had felt coerced. · One problem many centers confront is the one-visit client. A woman comes in for a free pregnancy test, gets a positive result, and leaves, never to be seen again. ·  Among society's most pressing problems is the seemingly endless supply of pregnancies to unwed mothers. Pregnancy centers have 30 years' experience in offering mothers the personal support and encouragement needed to make a life-affirming choice. Summary of relativity ** This relates to our topic because it discusses what CPCs do for young frustrated pregnant women who have nowhere to turn. It displays how much they help the women make smart decisions with their lives and their children’s lives. It explains how CPC’s main focus should be on encouraging adoption. It also discusses the hardships that CPCs face and can give examples of mistakes that need to be avoided in the future, which is a part of current and best practices research.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 200%;">WIKI 1 ​
Introduction: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 42px;">obesity <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 103%;"> is a growing problem throughout the United States. The percentage of people with obesity has steadily increase in the past thirty years. This wiki will address this problem from the view of a symbolic interactionist. It will also provide some research about the background of this problem, with statistics about the rates of obesity in the United States, as well as some of the cause and effects of obesity. It will end by offering a suggested solution to the question: How can Atchison, Kansas address its growing obesity epidemic?

= = = = <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">
 * theory**

Our group was given the symbolic interactions perspective. This perspective is a theory that explains how we as a society use symbols to define and understand our everyday reactions to things. When we react to something in a certain way it is because of the meaning that we give to the certain things or actions that had just taken place. Different interactions cause different meanings and symbols. This perspective helps us understand society as a whole and how important everyday human interactions, com<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 26px;">munications, and overall connections are.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 200%;">This perspective applies to the obesity rates in Atchison because of the main problem obese people have to deal with in today’s society, food. Food is very symbolic for people. It symbolizes comfort, it’s entertaining, it’s a soothing part of our everyday lives that brings people together, and gives us energy. We give meaning to different types of food, especially "comfort food", which are famous for being extra tasty, yet extra detrimental to our health. In modern American society, food is not only faster to get, but comes in bigger, cheaper, and increasingly unhealthy ways. As our society is getting larger, we are getting lazier, not wanting to work out or cook healthy meals. Therefore, people are turning to fast foods as a way to achieve the symbolic “goodness” food offers in the symbolic “fast paced” way American society promises.

= = =Literature Review:= <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">As the world increasing grows with technological innovations and new leaps and bounds in medical and scientific advances, the American population will be grasping its breath climbing the stairs. America is reaching the top of an obesity pandemic, but that’s not all we’re reaching, we’re also reaching the other end of the scale. Unfortunately this ‘growing’ problem has been contributing to society since the 1970’s, (Yang and Beydoun) but those Twinkies are now catching up with us, and America will have to finally do something about it. Obesity according to current researchers is the second largest killer of Americans right behind tobacco. (Finkelstein) Yet when looking at the hospitalization records, obesity is costing Americans way over budget, and killing them even faster. (CDC) From 1997 to 1999 annual hospital cost just among childhood obesity increased from $35 million to $117million alone. America has witnessed, just because of obesity, a 27% increase in medical costs. (CDC) It also contributes to the decrease in jobs and in the economic state of our nation right now the news just keeps getting better; obesity has more than doubled in adults in the past three decades, and rates for children have tripled. (CDC) Going at the way the states are now, America will have a great deal, to look at in the future if nothing is done. Obesity researchers believe has many different venues. Like a hotdog stand, it can be on the street by itself selling to people as they come and go to work, or at the ball park selling to many people. However many people in the country, and a great deal of children are affected by obesity. Youfa Wang and Mary A. Beydoun used the NHANES report system to establish a validated report showing that many social-economic groups were very different than others in trends and patterns of obesity. For example, the Non-Hispanic Black women were much more obese than the Non-Hispanic White women, by almost 20 percentage points from 1999 to 2002. (Wang and Beydoun) Another trend that was strikingly odd was that the obesity in Asian Americans was the least likely socio-demographic group, however if they were born in the United States they were four times more likely to become obese than foreign born. These trends in socio-economic and racial groups and classes maybe a cause for obesity but economic factor have changed over time. (Finkelstein) How do we look to this problem on our plates, hoping it can be handeled with a fork and a knife and not a fork-lift. Researchers Erik Finkelstein, Christopher J. Ruhm, and Katherine M. Kosa have seen the growing food portions since the late 1970’s. (Finkelstein) By these food portion sizes growing the time energy wasted (Finklestein) to get dinner prepared so Americans go to fast food, and the waste of good grocery stores, Americans are out of luck. (MMWR) However the federal, state, and local governments have not given up completely on the idea of a new and ‘balanced’ society. The Center for Disease Control issued last summer a list of 23 strategies that would help state and local governments get a grip on the society’s epidemic. All of these strategies focused on a new era of promoting a general welfare that progressed the activity and health. For example, strategy number 17: “Communities should enhance infrastructure supporting bicycling”(MMWR). This strategy although small to someone, in urban areas where there is bicycling all the time and in the suburbs this promotes a general welfare and creates demands to start bicycling. Or to be more extreme such as number 7: “Communities should restrict availability of less healthy foods and beverages in public service avenues.”(MMWR) No more nachos at the swimming pool, no more popcorn at the recreation centers. Everything that was some kind of calorie max would be gone. It is time to make these changes and time to make now.

= = =<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Methods: = <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Hypothesis: If Atchison, Kansas offered health workshops once a month, then the obesity rate in Atchison would decrease. Independent Variable: Health workshops-which would include things like learning how to incorporate healthy foods into your diet and learning how to incorporate more physical activity into your daily life <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Dependent Variables: the obesity rate in Atchison These workshops will help turn some healthy foods into “comfort food,” so that people can still enjoy eating food without the consequence of gaining a lot of weight. It will also provide ways for people to fit exercising into their fast paced and very busy lives. The first step in conducting this experiment is to figure out what the obesity rate in Atchison is. This will allow us to compare the before rate to the after rate. To perform this experiment, we will have to find people willing to run the workshops, a facility to hold the workshops, and find ways to advertise the workshops in the community. While holding these workshops, we will monitor how many people attend, and if they change their lifestyles based on the information they learn in the workshops. After having a couple of these workshops, we will calculate the obesity rate again <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">and see if a decrease has occurred.

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=Annotated Bibliographies:=

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Article Title: ** <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Obesity: Halting the Epidemic by Making Health Easier; At a Glance Is there a way to create a program that, “…is working to reduce obesity and obesity conditions through state programs, technical assistance and training, leadership, surveillance and research, intervention development and evaluation, translation of practice-based evidence and research findings, and partnership development.” · Each state will have an individual plan on its own authority. · However, the program does have some variations were it should be very similar in all states for example: decrease in television watching, increase encouragement in breast feeding, more fruits and vegetables and more physical activity. · The CDC said they would offer technical support to the states that could not afford to provide research and program guidance. · More than one third of U.S. adults equating to more than 72 million people, and 16% of U.S. children and/or adolescence are obese. · Looking at records since 1980, the obesity rates for adults have doubled and for adolescents and children the rates have tripled. · Obesity is a very costly affair. In 200 it was estimated it cost the American people $117 billion. · From 1987 to 2001, medical cost increased 27% due to obesity. · The obesity in workers expenditures increased from 27%-117% than the normal weight. · Annual hospital costs rose from $35 million to $127 million for children and adolescence through the years 1979-1981 and 1997-1999. · The most common child related and obesity related disease is type two diabetes however as the child matures into an adult, obesity related illness and diseases can spawn into: o Coronary Heart Disease o Cancer (endometrial, breast, and colon) o Hypertension (high blood pressure o Dyslipidemia (high total cholesterol or levels of triglycerides) o Stroke o Liver and Gallbladder Problems o Sleep Apnea and respiratory Problems o Osteoarthritis (degeneration of cartilage and underlying bone within a joint) o Gynecological Problems (Problems with fertility) · CDC has increased media coverage and awareness on obesity from 8,000 to 28,000 articles from 2000 to 2007. · 23 states are funded through the CDC’s Nutrition Physical Activity and Obesity Cooperative Agreement Program (NPAO) Atchison has a growing obesity problem as well. Looking at the data shown by the CDC, it seems that Atchison will have a revised leadership and new outlook on how to carry out a new means of ‘tackling the obesity problem’.
 * Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Obesity: Halting the Epidemic by Making Healthy Eating Easier."<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;"> ( 2009.)
 * Author:** National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Heath Promotion
 * Year:** Revised February 2009
 * Main Question:**
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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Article Title:** The Obesity Epidemic in the United States-Gender, Age, Socioeconomic, Racial/Ethnic, and Geographic Characteristics: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis “To examine the characteristics and trends of obesity and overweight prevalence, and to predict the future situation of regarding obesity and overweight among U.S. adults and children, based on a NHANES data, we fit into a linear regression model with prevalence as the dependent variable and survey years as the independent variable for different sociodemographic groups.” · <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">St arted by searching through 800 articles narrowed the study down to about 20 articles for a quantitative meta-analysis. · Using the definition according to the WHO (World Health Organization) and comparing it to the National Heart and Lung Association and Blood Institute North America Association defined BMI (Body Mass Index) in cutpoints 25 and 30. · <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">To measure the childhood obesity rates the data was measured using ‘new’ references. Because the NAHNES data has two set of percentiles the system has an old and new reference for measuring childhood obesity. The new reference used was provided in the 2000 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Growth Charts that showed all U.S. Children 2-9 years old between 1960 and 1994. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">There is no reference for defining BMI or overweight for children under 2. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Summary of Findings:** <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">· By 2015 the majority of U.S. adults, 75%, will have reached 25 BMI or overweight or obese. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Summary of Relativit y:Atchison has a very large African American community, and while looking at these figures it makes one worry what will happen in a low income, poverty stricken African American, obese community, if these figures continues to rise. How will this change over time?
 * Authors:** Youfa Wang and May A. Beydoun
 * Year:** Accepted for publication: January 25, 2007
 * Main Question:**
 * Summary of Methodology:**

If there was strategic plans to “1) …to promote the availability of affordable healthy food and beverage, 2)to support healthy and food and beverage choices, 3) encourage breastfeeding, 4) encourage physical activity or limit sedentary activity among children and youth, 5) create safe communities that support physical activity and encourage communities to organize for change.” <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">· <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">All about the 24 strategies : 1. Increase availability of healthy food in public areas- it will also include dietary guidelines of all the food sold in that arena 2. Improve availability of affordable healthier food and beverage choices in public service- price ceilings will be implemented by Washington and the government will control all the prices. 3. Improvement of geographic availability of supermarkets in underserved areas- aka Atchison 4. Incentives to food retailers to locate in and/or healthier food and beverages in underserved areas 5. Improved availability of merchants for purchasing food from farms 6. Incentives for the production, distribution, and procurement of foods from local farms 7. Restrict availability of less healthy foods and beverages in public service venues 8. Institute smaller portion size option in public service venues 9. Limit advertisement of less healthy foods and beverages 10. Discourage consumption of sugar sweetened beverages 11. Increase support of breastfeeding 12. Require physical education in school 13. Amount in of physical activity in PE programs in schools 14. Increase opportunities for extracurricular physical activity 15. Reduce screen time in public service venues 16. Access outdoor to recreational facilities 17. Enhance infrastructure supporting bicycling 18. Enhance support for walking 19. Locating schools within easy walking distance of residential areas 20. Improve access to public to public transportation 21. Zone for mixed use development 22. Enhance personal safety in areas where persons are or could be physically active 23. Enhance traffic safety in areas where person are or be physically active 24. Participate in community coalitions or partnerships to address obesity <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">· All the 24 strategies can receive help and aid from the CDC if they cannot get all the programs started on their own ·
 * Article Title:** MMWR- Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
 * Author:** Department of Health and Human Resources and the Center for Disease Control
 * Year:** July 24, 2009
 * Main Question:**
 * Summary of Methodology:**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">**Summary of Findings:** · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Obesity rates have dramatically increased for the past 30 years. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Obesity can cause risk for many diseases and even death · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">34% of adults are now obese or overweight · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">6% of adults are now extremely obese · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The most dramatic impact has been since 1999-2004 to childhood obesity rate when they grew about 17%. Atchison on just one of these programs would probably grow exponentially in a lower obesity rate. It would be a great study to see on Atchison and the whole community.
 * Summary of Relativity:**

To examine the underlying economic causes, such as technological advances, behind the obesity epidemic, describe economic consequences of obesity, including increasing obesity-related medical expenditures; and discuss the role of government in combating the obesity epidemic. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Reviewed study of other information gathered by other researchers · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Used five main researchers Center for Disease Control, Culter et al., Nielsen & Popkin, Putnum et al., Toriano et al. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">All studies were on energy intake and the amount the increased over time. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Data was gathered from the NHANES, CSFII, NFCS, and USFSS · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The prediction was the amount of food intake has increased rapidly over time which there in turn has caused a spark in the amount of portion size which there for has caused everything else. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">We have seen the largest increase in serving size and portion size since the 1970’s. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">In 1995, 27% of meals were eaten away-from-home or fast food. · <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Television viewing has increased the most dramatically by 21% from 1965 to 1975 and the 11% from 1975 to 1995. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">· There are roughly 10 food commercial per every hour · Doctors are reporting that they are seeing 48%of obese patients per day. · The average tax payer finances $175 a year for obesity related issues to a Medicated recipient <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">**Summary of Relativity:** Atchison has more fast food restaurants than anything else in it. If there is not something done about what the children eat and how much they eat the BMI will just continue to grow.
 * Article Title:** Economic Causes and Consequences of Obesity
 * Author:** Eric A. Finkelstein, Christopher J. Ruhm, and Katherine M. Kosa
 * Year:** Nov. 1, 2004
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 * Summary of Methodology:**
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