Grace Salas

Grace Salas, 521 Words

In 1990, Lee, Farrell, and Link decided to form a study about the homeless community, but they needed to know how their participants would respond by either having a positive or negative attitude (dependent variable) based on the amount of exposure (independent variable) they have had. In all, there are nine dependent variables and fourteen independent variables. The total number of participants was 1,388 adults who were randomly telephoned by the researchers. The two races who held negative attitudes was black and Hispanic participants, but blacks happened to live their lives around the homeless more often. The results further showed participants expressing sympathy and acceptance to individuals who they know to be homeless, but those who were once homeless, do not. Participants who form a strong ugly opinion about the homeless tend to due so through conversation than any other way. The opinion aided participants expressed an insufficient amount of empathy. Participants who identify themselves as liberal in politics and the highly educated, sympathize the homeless. The results acknowledged how participants who are frequently confronted by a homeless person tend to reject them.

Kelly S. Balistreri conducted a study after 2013 to view how the 2008 recession affected individual's food insecurity. The collecting of data started in 2001 and finished in 2013 to obtain detailed and accurate results of the 2008 recession. However, no data was collected between the years of 2004, 2005, 2009, and 2010. The dependent variable was the collected responses from participants who admit their food insecurity, but their number of responses to the questions are categorized as either low or very low food insecurity. While the independent variable is of participants who have or do not have children, their race and income. The adult's response to food insecurity questions were categorized two specific ways. Any one question that was marked yes with a total of 8 out of 18 or 6 out of 10, resulted in very low nutrients. To be considered low, there needs to be 3 out of 18. There are similar results regarding food insecurity of low to very low. Surprisingly, the results explain how parents of the white race, whose income does not fit the recommended amount, have food insecurity in both categories of the dependent variable. The same result was that of white participants who are not parents. However, Balistreri's findings showed black participants who are not parents struggle to find their next meals to maintain a healthy diet.

Lee, Farrell, and Link's study and Balistreri's study is different due to what the focus was and how the studies were structured. However, the two studies are similar by both showing a form of lack either in regards to the homeless or a lack in food. Another similarity is how participants are chosen as a sample. A difference is in the results regarding race in both studies. Lee, Farrell, and Link found out that their black participants are the ones who do not feel sorry for the homeless while Balistreri found how white individuals who participated in her study, did not have enough nutrition due to the effects of the 2018 recession.



Works Cited

Balistreri, Kelly. "A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food

Insecurity." Journal of Family and Economic Issues, vol. 37, no. 3, 2016, pp. 373-382.

Lee, Barrett A., Farrell, Chad R., & Link, Bruce G. "Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The

Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness." American Sociological Review, vol. 69, no.

1, 2004, pp. 40-63.