Elizabeth Bautista Homelessness

Elizabeth Bautista

468 words

April 5, 2018

 

Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness;

 

            The Revisiting the contact hypothesis: The case of public exposure to homelessness article focuses on finding how the exposure to homeless people have an indirect influence on a person's attitude. The authors collected their data from a national telephone survey done in 1990 by Columbia University. The multistage probability was used to choose more than 200 phone numbers in the continental United States. A ten-dollar incentive was given to those adults who participated in the interview that lasted about 40 minutes. There was 1,507 interviews completed by the investigators, 65 percent where English speakers and 63 percent where non-English speakers. They focused on nine multi-item scales, and considered them as the dependent variable; the four scale assess, the three-item individual causes scale, the role competence scale, and  three attitude scales. The exposure to homeless was considered to be the independent variable. The results of the survey show that those who are exposed more to homelessness are more likely say that homelessness is caused by structural causes and are less likely to believe in individual causes. Respondents also tended to see the homeless people as competent and non-threatening. The exposure to homeless can develop positive attitudes. Those who are also exposed to the homelessness are more likely to fight for the rights of the homeless. The results also show that age, education and political views also have an influence on attitudes toward the homeless. The older generations have less sympathy for homeless people and those with education and liberalism have a higher sympathy. Another factor that influences attitudes are the minority status. Hispanics and African Americans are less likely to feel sympathy for homeless than whites. Hispanics are less likely to support homeless rights or help them out. In conclusion the exposure to homelessness doesn't give a very positive attitude toward the homeless.

 

 

Food Insecurity Is Associated with Increased Risk of Obesity in California Women

The article focuses on how the limitation and unavailability of healthy food is connected with food insecurity and obesity in California women. The data was collected from an evaluation done in 1998 and 1999 California Women's Health Survey. The sample size of the survey was 8,169 women, older than the age of 18. The random sample was interviewed by telephone and where asked four questions from the U.S Household Food Security Module in English and in Spanish depending on their preference. In 1998 only, 70 percent responded and 81 percent in 1999.  The article also wanted to see the correlation between food insecurity and obesity with income, race, education, country of birth and health status. The results showed that 13.9 percent of women were food insecure and 4.3 percent had food insecurity with hunger. Non- Hispanic White women who were food insecure without hunger where 36 percent. Women who were food insecure without hunger were more likely to be obese than those who were food secure.