Alexis Abdulian

Alexis Abdulian

558 Words

 

The article titled "A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity" by Kelly Balistreri, analyzes food insecurity across many years in the United States focusing on the race and ethnicity factor. They used the data from the Current Population Survey Food Security Supplement. They focused on patterns of food insecurity in the three time intervals 2001-2003, 2006-2008, and 2011-2013. They really wanted to narrow in on the time periods around the recession of 2008. They used the Food Insecurity Index in order to find out the degree that households were not secure in food. Their findings show that the time period around/after the 2008 recession did not have any recovery when it came to the people that were low or very low-income households that have children. Low-income households that did not have children showed the most rapid decrease in food security. They found the Black households with children and low-incomes had the highest rate of food insecurity, but it has changed very little over the time periods studied. Hispanic households that also have children and a low-income had nearly no change to food insecurity; however, the severity did increase in the people that already had food insecurity in this group. White households in the same position (with children, low-income) had a very rapid increase in food insecurity. All three races increased when it came to food insecurity in low-income households without children. The largest increase in percentage was White households, but in Black households showed the largest increase. In both cases, Black households with low-incomes had the worst food insecurity and it is an increasing problem. Whites have experienced the biggest increase in food insecurity over the years studied. The author suggests this is due to the great recession.

The second article is titled "Demographic Factors Associated with Poverty among American Indians and Alaska Natives," written by Kimberly R. Huyser, Iasao Takei, and Arthur Sakamoto. Their main purpose of the study was to provide demographic information regarding the poverty of American Indians and Alaska Natives that was more relevant to the present time. They used the American Community Survey (ACS), which is an annual survey done by the US Census Bureau, and focused on the years ranging from 2006-2010. They used the five-year estimate of the ACS because it gave them more detailed geography and better analysis of the small populations. The groups they researched into were American Indians of single-race, non-Hispanic White and Native Indian mixed race, African American and Native Indian mixed race, and Native Indians and some other race. They also used Native Indian groups that are federal and state recognized tribes. They had two dependent variables in their research. They are measures of relative poverty and absolute poverty. They found that the absolute poverty rate of American Indians was 23.3 percent. The relative poverty rate for American Indians was 39 percent. They compared this with non-Hispanic Whites whose absolute poverty rate was 9.5 percent and relative poverty rate was 18.5 percent. An interesting finding was that White children and women have a higher poverty rate than White men. The researchers said that it is important to note that the jump between absolute and relative poverty is higher in non-Hispanic Whites than in American Indians. Over all groups, children, male, and female, American Indians had more poverty than non-Hispanic whites.

 

Resources

 

Balistreri, K. (2016). A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 37(3), 373-382.

Huyser, K., Takei, I., & Sakamoto, A. (2014). Demographic Factors Associated with Poverty among American Indians and Alaska Natives. Race and Social Problems, 6(2), 120-134.

SOC 111 (MonWedFri 10AM) - Food and Homeless Quiz Response - Alexander Ray Salmeron

Alexander Ray Salmeron - 449 words

Today I analyzed two articles, "Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Cause of Public Exposure to Homelessness" by Barrett A. Lee, Chad R. Farrell, and Bruce G. Link, and "A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth, and Severity of Food Insecurity" by Kelly Stamper Balisteeri. Both of these articles deal with studies revolving around the issues of homelessness and food insecurity, respectively.

In "Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Cause of Public Exposure to Homelessness", Barrett A. Lee, Chad R. Farrell, and Bruce G. Link put their contact hypothesis to the test. Their hypothesis seeks to identify whether or not personal exposure to homelessness affects respondents' perception of the homeless. The researchers gathered data from a nationwide telephone survey provided by Columbia University. Probability sampling through telecommunications was used to congregate respondents. Each participant was gestured $10 for their contribution to the study. Approximately 1,507 telephone interviews were conducted. An exasperating 65% of respondents spoke English, and 63% did not. From the sample, 1,388 respondents represented the working class. The total sample excessively represented women and barely represented Latinos. No significant bias was identified in the interviews. Respondents' attitudes towards the homeless represented the dependent variable of the study. Nine significant multi-item scales accounted for reliability of responses and assessed various forms of respondents' attitudes. Respondents' exposure to the homeless represented the independent variable. Fourteen vital measure were observed, including respondents' sex, gender, age, and encounters with the homeless. Regression equations were utilized to formulate results. Findings show that respondents' overall exposure to homelessness was higher than predicted. Respondents' sex, age, gender, and exposure to homelessness were identified as significant contributors to their attitudes towards the homeless. Contextual facts were measured by formulated analyses. It was discovered that ethnic minorities tend to lack empathy towards the homeless. Vicarious exposure was found to have a less significant impact on respondents' views compared to physical exposure.

In "A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth, and Severity of Food Insecurity", Kelly Stamper Balisteeri tests her hypothesis regarding the various prevalences of food insecurity amongst multiple ethnic groups. Balisteeri collected her data from two sources, the Current Population Survey (CPS) and Food Security Supplement (FSS). She gathered ethnic household data from three time frames throughout the last decade (2001-03, 2006-08, and 2011-13). Households were selected at random, with over 100,000 observed. Variables measured in this study included ethnicity, food insecurity, household income, and the presence of children within each household. Emphasis was placed on identifying the depth, extent, and severity of food insecurity within each household. Data was measured through utilizing a standardized household supplement. Findings show that low-income households(without children) are most susceptible to food insecurity. Non-Hispanics and Caucasians households(without children) held minimal prevalence rates of food insecurity. However, the rates from these households significantly increased over the years. Low-income households of African-Americans and Non-Hispanics(with/without children) represented the most deprived populations which suffer the highest amounts of food insecurity.

Alina Moua

People who are considered homeless are unable to maintain a secure home. Those who become homeless are veterans, children, women, and all types of classification. People become homeless because of domestic violence, unemployment, no support system, severe illness, and the list goes on. Homeless people reside from place to place, that can be problematic to society.

In the article, Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness, the authors, Lee and Farrell's, mission was to see how contact with homeless people affects the in group's attitudes. The homeless was considered the out group population. To analyze their hypothesis, Lee and Farrell used national telephone survey data in 1990. For their independent variable, there were fourteen different types of exposure measured.

After 14 different types of exposure, it came down to four main exposure that made a difference. From their findings, people with exposure on information, observation, interaction, or membership had positive attitudes toward homeless people. If individuals increase their contact with homelessness, it increases their positive outlook about homeless people. Those who are exposed to homelessness are more willing to help and support the homeless people. To further test their hypothesis, they found out that there is a limit of exposure to homelessness. An interesting aspect is overexposure. Overexposure causes people to dislike the outsiders. If an individual is around them all the time, have a family member who is an outsider, or is considered homeless themselves, can cause a more negative approach towards the outsiders. Another last finding is race. This pattern did not work for African Americans the way it did for Whites. African Americans were found to still have a negative attitude throughout the analysis due to their overexposure neighborhoods. The attitudes of people depends on the amount of exposure to homelessness.

In 2007, the authors Bourgois and Schonberg published an article called Intimate apartheid: Ethnic dimensions of habitus among homeless heroin injectors, where they observed and tried living the life of the people they were studying. They helped and observed middle age African Americans, Latinos, and White people who used drugs such as heroin and crack.

From their finding, Bourgois and Schonberg made distinctions between African American, Whites and Latinos in the way the homeless use drugs. There are different techniques and methods for using drugs. African Americans and Whites both prefer IV heroin use. IV use makes the rush faster, yet the problem is they become scar. When using this technique, African Americans are not as careful, while Whites do not overuse IV because they still want to keep their normal features. Race differ in how people make their money for drugs. Whites often work part-time for small business or beg using signs saying "please help, Vietnam Viet" and so forth. Compare to African Americans, they offer a service such as washing windshields or burglary warehouses and car trunks. African Americans are rarely employed due to akin with slavery. The author emphasize on how people get their money and how people shoot drugs has everything to do with the history of race relations.

Homelessness is ubiquitous around the world. The amount of exposure people come in contact with homeless determines their point of view, which can either be negative or positive. Those who are homeless have a different system to obtain money for drug use.

Sara Greenlee

Homeless / Food quiz

            The required article that I chose to evaluate is entitled, "Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness" by the authors Barrett A. Lee, Chad R. Farrell, and Bruce G. Link.  This article evaluates why homeless people are seen as the outcasts of society, delving into how homeless people are usually seen as substance abusers, victims, or perpetrators of crime, and not always fully there mentally. Based off of previous work testing the contact hypothesis, the article's authors determined that to properly test the contact hypothesis, it is best to put participants face to face, to determine people's views of homeless people, say, that are asking for money on the street. For this example, many negative generalizations can run through a person's head while being face to face with a homeless person asking for spare change. To test the authors' hypothesis that exposure to homeless people will help push aside these negative generalizations of homeless people, the method used in this study was evaluating a 1990 telephone survey of 1,507 participants, 18 years of age or older. The dependent variables of this study were the telephone survey participants, and their views of the homeless. The independent variables were 14 various exposure scenarios that the interviewee may be faced when meeting a homeless person. As for the results of this study, the author's concluded that, the more exposure scenarios that participants faced when theoretically meeting homeless people, the more people that felt empathy for the theoretical homeless people, and overall, people seemed less threatened of homeless people.  The second article that I chose to examine was, "Food Insecurity Is Associated with Increased Risk of Obesity in California Women" by Elizabeth J. Adams, Laurence Grummer-Strawn, and Gilberto Chavez.

            In, "Food Insecurity Is Associated with Increased Risk of Obesity in California Women" the authors examined food insecurity of Californian women, and their increased risk of obesity. This study was also conducted as an anonymous telephone survey, from the years 1998-1999, interviewing Californian women 18 years of age or older, with 8169 participants total. The interview consisted of 200 questions. Questions included were how much participants walked as an activity, what race do they identify with, what their income and education levels were, and what each participant's BMI was. The results did show a correlation between obesity and food insecurity, with those that were obese, having a mean BMI greater than 29km/m squared. This study's primary focus wasn't on comparing races and their food insecurity rates, but the results for that, were that Whites had lower food insecurity rates, while Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics were grouped together as being more food insecure as Whites. Though this study proved that there is a relationship between obesity in Californian women, the authors say it is just a causal relationship. They provide that more research needs to be done in order to accurately access how all of the variables of obesity relate to food insecurity.

 

Megan Dudley Soc111 Food/Homeless Quiz

Megan Dudley,  528 Words

Even though the U.S. is a powerful and wealthy country, tons of individuals go without food every day. This is something that has been an increasing problem throughout the years and especially very recently.  The article, "A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth and Severity of Food Insecurity" talks about this problem and how they were able to evaluate the severity of this issue. It focuses on predominantly ethnicity and race, whether subjects have children and of course income. The food insecurity issue could be related to the recession in our economy in 2008 and the unemployment rates this caused. Food can be very expensive and without a job obviously there would not be enough for an abundance of food. However food is extremely important and is necessary for life which is why this is a crucial problem. The study looked at surveys done throughout the decade to see what the change was. They found that Black families suffered the most overall. This was consistent whether they had children or not. The study looked at low income levels particularly to be able to truly understand how severe the situation was. The food insecurity levels were much higher in individuals with low income and without children. All patterns indicated a steady increase in food insecurity throughout the decade. Ultimately even though the economy has been steady increasing since the Great Recession, food insecurity levels remain severe. Whether the households had children or not had an impact however it remain constant that low income households suffered the worst. 

The article, "Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness" is looking at overall public opinion of homelessness. It looks at people's attitudes about homeless and how it is related to how close you are to homeless. The article focusses on in-group and outgrip ideals about homeless and whether this has an impact of beliefs.  The contact hypothesis suggests that  the more exposure the in group gets to the out group the more likely attitudes turn less negative toward the there and vice versa for either groups. The article shows that as humans  we are often more prejudice against people because we are not exposed  to them or from being ignorant about the topic overall. Once you become exposed to homelessness these prejudices tend to disappear. This is true for generally any group in society. Also just because exposure is high does not mean that prejudices will go away, individuals can still remain stuck in their beliefs regardless of exposure levels. This study uses a national survey to gather the data. They first looked at individuals general attitudes about homelessness. They also looked at television the individuals watched, conversations they had with homeless, jobs, neighborhoods, etc. It was found that overall high exposure leads to more positive ideas about homelessness. This supports the authors hypothesis suggesting that people with lowest exposure have most negative attitudes of homeless and vice versa. Overall more exposure leads to  more positive attitudes.To increase exposure to homeless one could volunteer in a homeless community, they could talk with family and friends, or simply just figure out a way they can become involved and aware.Attitudes about dangerousness  also go down after exposure is increase as well as empathy or compassion going up with more exposure.

Victoriano Gutierrez

Victoriano Gutierrez

591

Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness discusses how in-groups or domicile individual's contact influences attitudes towards out-groups or homeless. Contact was divided into interactions, observations, membership, and information. Attitudes about in-groups relied on exposure. The length, atmosphere or temperament, and degree of exposure changed some out-group member's attitudes in cases and increased prior attitudes in other cases. A national phone survey of 1,507 interviews was used to test the contact hypothesis. Overall, more exposure to the out-group members meant better attitudes, and less exposure meant more negative attitudes. Justification for this finding presumes that within in-groups judgement is cast on out-groups. Judgement that it is wrong to panhandle, sleep in public, rummage through garbage, and use drugs. Members within in-groups influenced and shaped each other's cognizance which meant less contact with the out-group. Once exposed to various interaction and observation scenarios, other than panhandling and looking for cans, in-group members had less negative attitudes and even felt compassion or sympathy. Some discrepancies were found. The contact hypothesis was accurate for predominately white in-groups, but not for minority in-groups. Reasoning for this concludes white in-groups do not have enough contact with the out-group so any contact would be better than none. Their negative attitude toward out-groups comes from lack of exposure and judgement that may not be true, but they would not know because they are not exposed. Once they are exposed some of their attitudes change direction. Contrarily, minority in-groups have too much contact with the out-group. The homeless is a nuisance in these communities. These communities have constant exposure to homeless using drugs, panhandling, rummaging for cans, and sleeping in the public areas. These in-groups see a large population of out-groups all behaving similarly which lead to more negatives attitudes.   

A Decade of Change: Measuring the Extent, Depth, and Severity of Food Insecurity analyzes the correlation between Hispanic, White, and African American low-income households with or without children, and the depth, severity, and prevalence of food insecurity. The results were found by incorporating information from the Current Population Survey which administered the Food Security Supplement to over 250,000 households from 2001-2003, 2006-2008, and 2011-2013. Food insecurity was most common among households with children, but households without children saw a more rapid increase in food insecurity. African American households with and without children experienced food insecurity. Mostly white American households without children experienced food insecurity. The article noted that food insecurity relief programs such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will lose beneficiaries due to time restraints, and will lead to more families having less food.

Government assistance programs aim to help low-income and no income households and/or individuals. These programs are not adequately funded to support everyone, and applicants need certain qualifications. Households with many children receive aid if the head/s of the household have minimal income or zero income. If both parents found minimum wage jobs they could pay for necessities like PG&E, clothes, and rent but not all necessities. They could not afford to live and pay the food bill for growing children. If they stayed unemployed the benefits would continue. Some families need more help than others because household income fluctuates, and household size differs. Government assistance programs need to make stronger evaluations of households and their situations. Household income, the individual's/s' mental state/s, and the size of the household should determine the amount of government aid for families. To prevent the growing number of starving families programs cannot solely look at income because many variables effect where and how money is spent.  

Jessica Helm

Jessica Helm, 457 words

            The two articles Relationship Among Respondent Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Homeless Status on a Homeless Population's Functional Status and Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness both examine aspects of homelessness. Including public opinion about homelessness and factors surrounding the homeless themselves. Impacts of homeless on society and the homeless' people themselves.

            The article Relationship Among Respondent Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Homeless Status on a Homeless Population's Functional Status examines the correlation of ethnicity and the homeless' functional status. The study was conducted in Los Angeles county on 394 homeless, within those 394 participants more than one-third of them claimed to be on or use drugs at the time of the interview. This study used the Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale to measure functional impairment on the homeless, which they measured by the subscales: Relation to Self and Others, Depression–Anxiety, Daily Living Skills, Impulsive– Addictive Behavior, and Psychosis. The study found that White and African American did poorer than Native Americans and Latinos, on the BASIS subscales relation to self and others, depression-anxiety, and daily living skills. Another finding was that the degree of homelessness affects the depression-anxiety scale, in which people with acute homelessness showed higher signs than people who were chronically homeless.

            The contact hypothesis indicates that the amount of contact between the member's pf an in-group and an out-group can positively change the stereotypical attitudes towards the outside from the in-group which is examined in the article Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness. The amount of time spent with a certain group can lower prejudice against said group. The study determined that overall exposure to homeless people affected people's opinions/views in a positive manner. Exposure also positively affected people's willingness to get involved and support policy about homelessness. They also found that the age of the participant, impacted the amount of sympathy towards the homeless, with older age comes a decrease in sympathy for the homeless. African Americans and Hispanics were less likely to hold empathy for the homeless.

            Both articles touch on aspects of homelessness, however they deal with different areas and do not leave much for comparison. Nonetheless, the article Revisiting the Contact Hypothesis: The Case of Public Exposure to Homelessness could examine racial impacts of biased towards the homeless. When look at racism as impact or factor, you can possibly determine the personal threat level felt towards homeless in relation to race and ethnicity.  Relationship Among Respondent Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, Acculturation, and Homeless Status on a Homeless Population's Functional Status hold criticism due to the fact that the participants were under the influence at the time on the interview, which could of possibly affect the outcome of the surveys.