I focused my article on homeless shelters to see the different things they provide for clients, but more specifically I focused on women in shelters and the services offered to them. This was an article in ProQuest titled, “Homeless Shelters in Alabama: A Study on women’s health services.” The author of this article is Veta Robinson.

Robinson, Veta. “Homeless Shelters in Alabama: A Study of Women’s Health Services.” Order No. AAI3544008, . http://ezproxy.redlands.edu/docview/1520338981?accountid=14729.

The article was focused on women because studies have shown that women and families are the highest growing groups in the homeless population. There have been no studies done though to focus specifically on services offered toward women. They wanted to see if women knew of the services that were provided for them and/or if they were utilizing them. In order to obtain this information they would use surveys/questionaries to see what the women are aware of and if they are utilizing any of the programs. Also used surveys to ask the directors/staff if they provide any specific programs toward women. To analyze this data they will use qualitative data to find patterns in the women’s responses. It was interesting to read that there wasn’t a consistent pattern in what the women were and were not aware of. They either knew about none of the services that they could be using or they were aware of them and were utilizing them or preferred not to utilize them. I thought this was interesting because this showed that only a certain amount of the homeless population knew of varying services, meaning that as the homeless population is growing they need to increase peoples knowledge of what they can do to help themselves and who is there to help them.

‘Development and validation of makeup and sexualized clothing questionnaires’

In this ‘exploratory factor analysis’, researchers took a sample from 403 college undergraduate students(women) and measured the pressure women feel to wear makeup and sexualized clothing.  There were two different studies being conducted at the same time. In Study 1, researchers created two questionnaires to assess the ‘perceived pressure to wear makeup and discomfort when not wearing makeup’, and ‘perceived pressure to wear sexualized clothing, and body image concerns with regards to sexualized clothing’.  “The exploratory factor analyses revealed Unconfident and Unease scales for the Makeup Questionnaire (MUQ) and Body Dissatisfaction and Pressure scales for the Sexualized Clothing Questionnaire (SCQ). In Study 2, the confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the factor structure for the MUQ and SCQ. The incremental validity analysis revealed that these measures can be used to predict self-objectification and shape and weight concern in women.”

The research topic of this study was: the development of validation of makeup and sexualized clothing.  The research question was: to what extent do women feel pressure to wear makeup and sexualized clothing on college campuses.  

This type of data was sample and survey data.  This data took on the form of categorical data.  Although this isn’t in exact correlation to my own personal research question, what really interested me was the data analysis method and data in itself.  This is exactly how I would want to conduct my experiment because it possesses the same moral concepts in terms of measuring feelings and patterns in people.  I think using a questionnaire is a good way to collect data, but the results can be broad and not give enough specific information. With using a scale or a few different scales, like in this research, It would be able to provide much more specific data, as well as a wider range.  I think this research showed a way to be able to get the most out of using a survey/questionnaire/scale as your main source of data. It can be as specific as you like and bring some very interesting behavior patterns to the surface.

Isaksen, Katja Jezkova, and Stuart Roper. “The Commodification of Self-Esteem: Branding and British Teenagers.” Psychology and Marketing29, no. 3 (February 7, 2012): 117-35. Accessed March 24, 2018.

The Commodification of Self‐Esteem: Branding and British Teenagers, by Katja Jezkova Isaksen and Stuart Roper. I found it through Wiley Online, using the Redlands library website.  According to the article’s abstract, the study explores the role that consumption has in British adolescents’ lives in terms of their own perception. It particularly focused on its role in forming and maintaining self-esteem. In order to answer their research question, the authors examined concepts like materialism, brand loyalty, self-esteem, and socioeconomic status. The authors found from the focus groups that as a result of peer pressure and the desire to “fit in” among their peers, consuming the right things at the right time is crucial for social acceptance, forming friendships, and thus, self-esteem as a whole. I chose this article because it touches on socioeconomic status and the way that can affect some children’s access to these commodities that help them “fit in.” According to the study, however, children from low-income families were actually more eager to want to purchase the more expensive brands. This article’s topic is about the role consumption plays in forming self-esteem in adolescents. The question is “What role does consumption play in the formation and maintaining of self-esteem in British adolescents?” The type of data needed to answer the question is reports of acts, behavior, and events. In order to collect this data, the authors used six focus groups comprising of 20 individuals. This study is qualitative, as the data is not numerical, and comes from focus groups.

This research is extremely interesting to me, and closely relates to what I want to answer with my own research question. The research is published in a respected journal, so that leads me to believe that the authors are trustworthy and the data collected was done so properly and in accordance with guidelines. The conclusions that the authors came to are logical and make sense sociologically, but I would like to build on their conclusions with my own proposed research question. The most interesting aspect of this research is that the authors concluded that while adolescents have the most awareness regarding the role of branding, advertising, and peer pressure, they are seemingly unable to resist them.

Cummings, Kelsey. 2018 “Gendered Choices: Examining the Mechanics of Mobile and Online Girl Games.” Television & New Media 19 (1): 24-41. doi: 10.1177/1527476417697269.

The author Kelsey Cummings researched the subgenre of mobile online games created for girls. The research question is whether the mechanics in three games–Barbie Fashionistas, Style Studio: Fashion Designer, and Central Park Wedding Prep–serve gendered ideologies that are harmful to girl players. The data that the author chose to gather and analyze are the games itself, as well as some reviews and game play footages available on social media. In looking at Barbie Fashionistas, Cummings criticize the game play as it revolves around the aesthetics of Barbie’s bodies; the core mechanic of dressing her is reliant on her thinness and unattainable body image. The author calls the Style Studio game mechanics as “playing against design” because it differentiates itself from the Barbie Fashionistas. It includes male models and it does not encourage girls to dream and imagine themselves as the avatar like with Barbie. However, the game still showcases thin female models and muscular and masculinized male models. Although the female models display a more attainable body image, they still reinforce the strict cisnormative gender binary. The last game Cummings looked at is Central Park Wedding Prep, which is different from the other two games because the player needs to wash, cleanse, and pluck the avatar’s face before applying makeup, select hair and eye colors, and finally dress the avatar in preparation for their paid-for wedding in Central Park. In the reviews, this game is criticized because it perpetuates the notions of the New York Fashion Scene that are present in pop culture, but not the real culture. It is marketed towards what young girls want to believe, and not the reality. This game perpetuates class-based ideology as the bride and groom dream for a Central Park Wedding, and did everything to attain it. Even having their wedding photo album done in Central Park, even though they could not have a Central Park wedding. Girl players are taught to follow a Cinderella narrative that they can project themselves onto. In conclusion, Cummings deduced that no matter the attempts at breaking away from the patriarchy, the marketing of these “Girl Games” are still terribly designed and still perpetuating particular ideologies and worldviews that are potentially harmful to young girls who play them.

My article for this week is called “Poverty and Mental Health Practice: Within and Beyond the 50-Minute Hour” by Lisa Goodman, Meghan Pugach, Avy Skolnik, and Laura Smith. It is suggested that there are several dimensions to the issue of poverty and mental health practice that need to be addressed in order to get impoverished mentally ill people the help that they need and keep them on said treatment or program. These include exclusion and isolation of poor people, limited access and use of mental health services by low-income adults, and the structure of practice and accommodation for poor people that is currently in place. The article first discusses the relationship between mental health problems and poverty. Prolonged living in stress leads to anger, fear, hopelessness, and isolation. The stressful living situation and isolation leads to feelings of powerlessness and low levels of feeling that they are in control or have a sense of autonomy. These states of being and the mindsets acquired as a result indicate high risk for developing mental illnesses. Lack of insurance, cost of treatment, service hours, transportation, and limited accommodations for low-income individuals act as barriers to accessing mental health services and treatment. If a low-income client is able to make it to a service in the first place they may be met by unwilling clinicians, which research shows causes low-income adults to give up seeking treatment. Low-income clients who make it to a therapy session may also be unwilling to fully disclose important information to their therapist out of the concern that someone from a different class than them would not be able to understand or help them. The article lists suggestions to combat these issues. The solutions include “transportation to and from therapy, home visits, childcare, and flexible scheduling, as well as case management that involves assessing clients’ external stressors and instrumental needs and developing intervention to address them” (Goodman, 2012). It is also important to train mental health professionals to overcome any discomfort they might have in regards to their low-income clients, because it can lead to the professional avoiding certain topics. The article suggests this can be combated through “increasing self-awareness of own class, awareness of assumptions about poverty, knowledge of poverty’s psycho-social impact, and knowledge of the effective interventions for addressing the negative psycho-social consequences of poverty” (Goodman, 2012). This is important to my topic because several contributing factors to the issue of mental health service access and poverty are discussed (+how this facilitates mental illness) and possible solutions are suggested, giving me more perspectives to explore when it comes to formulating my final research proposal.

Goodman, L., Pugach, M., Skolnik, A., Smith, L. (2012). Poverty and Mental Health Practice: Within and Beyond the 50-Minute Hour. Journal of Clinical Psychology. (Vol. 69, Iss. 2). doi: https://doi-org.ezproxy.redlands.edu/10.1002/jclp.21957

My research example for this week comes from the Bureau of Justice Statistics published by the U.S. Department of Justice. It is a national inmate survey taken from 2011-2012  titled “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates”. The report includes demographic data and reports of acts and behavior. This is the BJS third National Inmate Survey taken in 233 state and federal prisons, 358 jails, and 15 special confinement facilities operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Military. The survey was administered to 92,449 inmates age 18 or older, including 38,251 inmates in state and federal prisons, 52,926 in jails, 573 in ICE facilities, 539 in military facilities, and 160 in Indian country jails. The NIS is part of the National Prison Rape Statistics Program, which collects reported sexual violence from administrative records and allegations of sexual victimization directly from victims in the form of surveys of inmates in prisons and jails and of youth held in juvenile correctional facilities. Surveys consisted of an audio computer- assisted self-interview (ACASI) in which inmates used a touchscreen to interact with a computer-assisted questionnaire and followed audio instructions delivered via headphones. Some inmates completed a short paper form instead of using the ACASI. One weakness of the survey was that some inmates may not report sexual victimization experienced in the facility, despite efforts of survey staff to assure inmates that their responses would be kept confidential. The results showed that staff sexual misconduct was a prevalent issue in women’s prisons and provided insightful and useful information for my research, but failed to mention the gender of the prison staff as a variable in the investigation.

Beck, A. J., Berzofsky, M., Caspar, R., & Krebs, C. (2013). Sexual victimization in prisons and jails reported by inmates, 2011–12. Retrieved from http://www.bjs. gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri1112.pdf

The article “The Effects of Service-Learning on Middle School Students’ Social Responsibility and Academic Success” investigates the effects of service-learning on a group of diverse students, grades 6-8 (Scales et al., 2000). From their research of the existing literature, the researchers of this study find that service-learning is seen as a strategy to promote students’ social responsibility and academic success. This study the validity of these theories. The researchers try to answer 4 research questions, the overarching question being: Does service-learning have a positive impact on students’ social responsibility and academic success? The researchers gathered reports of acts, behaviors, and events from students both involved and not involved in service-learning. They collected this data by administering a survey to students, measuring “social responsibility”, “personal development opportunities”, “parent involvement”, “commitment to classwork”, “engagement with school”, “perceived scholastic competence”, “intellectual achievement responsibility”, “evaluation and mastery goals”, “academic success”, and “conduct” (Scales et al., 2000). The researchers use ANCOVAs for their data analysis method. This method compares service-learning students with non-service learning students, using a variety of dependent variables. The researchers found service-learning can have positive effects on student’s concern about the welfare of others. This concern was found to decline in students not involved in service-learning. In regards to academic success, service-learning students reported a higher commitment to their classwork then non-service learning students. Service-learning may help maintain students’ positive views toward school providing them opportunities (Scales et al., 2000). A limit in this study was: the students that participated were “far from typical” (Scales et al., 2000). The students were already participating in service learning projects at higher rates than average students (Scales et, al., 2000). This is why in my research I plan to investigate the effects service-learning has on struggling students that are newly involved in these projects and see if it has any effect on their academic success.

Scales, P.C., Blyth, D.A., Berkas, T.H., Kielsmeier, J.C. (2000). The effects of service-learning on middle school students’ social responsibility and academic success. Journal of Early Adolescence, 20(3), 332-358.

The title of this article is “Disproportionate Proximity to Environmental Health Hazards: Methods, Models, and Measurement”, it can be found in the American Public Health Association. The article was written by Jayajit Chakraborty, Juliana A. Maantay, and Jean D. Brender. Several studies discussing environmental justice or a similar topic were analyzed – the hazards examined and analytical techniques used in each study. Environmental justice is the disproportionate distribution of environmental “goods” and “bads”, with the burden of the bads and the shortage of goods falling mainly on ethnic minorities and lower income populations. The purpose of building a database filled with environmental justice research studies is to explore the different spatial techniques used to analyze the disproportionate proximity to hazards and measure environmental justice. The article reviews the use of the five most popular techniques. The one that best interested me is the “Pollution Plume Modeling”, the other techniques explored lack the ability to accurately estimate the dispersal of pollutants. Buffer zones are not as accurate because it usually depends on the analyst to set an arbitrary radius that may not be correct. Spatial coincidence analysis is another technique that isn’t as accurate, this method uses the number of hazard sources within a zip code or census tract to measure hazardous chemical exposure. This method doesn’t represent the actual size or shape of the area exposed. However, Pollution Plume Modeling uses data on chemical emissions and local meteorological conditions to analyze the dispersal of pollutants. The combined data turns out a hazard release parameter that can delineate the boundaries of a potentially exposed area. Spatially a “footprint” is created, there may be a ring buffer included; this is when ground- level concentrations are ranked. Where this technique falls short is the lack of accounting for ground and water contamination, but because my topic analyzes pesticides and their wind dispersal patterns the technique seems ideal.

Chakraborty, J., Maantay, J. A., & Brender, J. D. (2011). Disproportionate proximity to environmental health hazards: methods, models, and measurement. American Journal of Public Health, 101(S1), S27-S36

For Research Example number 5 I discovered an article on the library catalog titled “Concussions in Youth Rugby Union and Rugby League.” I researched concussions in rugby because the sport is very similar to football. Just like football, rugby is a contact sport and the objective is to get an almond shaped object from one side of the field to the other. Meanwhile, players on the opposing team are trying to prevent that from happening by tackling the player with the ball. Rugby players do not wear helmets, and for that reason the sport is surprisingly safer.
Concussions are the most common among NFL players, but according to a study conducted by Hinton Bayre et al, concussions are not the most common injury in rugby. Contusions, muscular strains, joint injuries, abrasions, and lacerations are more common injuries in rugby than concussions. Although this was surprising, it makes sense. Because players do not wear helmets defenders are more aware of their tackling form. They are not as tempted to aim high because not only will that hurt their opponent, but also it will severely hurt them. They have adapted to be spot on when it comes to their tackling form. The NFL has taken notice of this and have even talked about the idea of eliminating helmets altogether. New helmets and rule changes over the past 5 years in the NFL has not made a significant impact on reducing injuries, especially concussions. They will continue to make changes in an attempt to make the game safer, but if that does not make a difference many years down the road they might deeply consider eliminating helmets.
This article also talked about the main causes and preventions of concussions in rugby. Tackling, as expected, was identified as the most common cause for concussions. The tackled players are reportedly more at risk of getting a concussion than the player being tackled. Additionally, forwards are at a greater risk of getting a concussion because they have the ball more than defenders. There are more tackles made in rugby per game than football, so it is common for players to occasionally have poor form when making a tackle. Lastly, it was reported than less training resulted in fewer concussions.
Reports of acts and behaviors as well as expert knowledge was used for this report.
Kirkwood, Graham, Nikesh Parekh, Richard Ofori-Asenso, and Allyson M. Pollock. “Concussion in Youth Rugby Union and Rugby League: A Systematic Review.” British Journal of Sports Medicine 49, no. 8 (2015): 506-10. doi:10.1136/bjsports-2014-093774