The research proposal i found online was one on childhood obesity that an undergraduate student did from Cal Poly. She was proposing that she wanted to do a pilot project that involved children in a kindergarten class wanted to teach them about eating healthy and growing healthy foods. Her project was called kindergrow which was a project were she would have a garden of healthy foods and she was going to work with a kindergarten class by teaching them and helping them learn how to grow and make better choices in the foods that they were eating. there was not an actual timeline that she gave but her funding she got was 40$ which would help her start the garden in which is a primary key in her project. When she is going over her project she brings in the numbers of obese children in California and looks and the foods they are consuming and this is her main reason why she is doing this project is to promote and instill a better diet and eating habits in the children’s lives at a early age rather than later.

In this article “Decrease in suicide rates after a change of policy reducing access to firearms in adolescents: A naturalistic epidemiological study”.By: Gad Lubin, Nomi Werbeloff, Demian Halperin, Mordechai Shmushkevitch, Mark Weiser. They talk about how Suicide is the third most common cause of death among children and young adolescents from the ages 10 to 24 years of age in the United states. They said the percentage of suicides caused by firearms in Europe was 38% while in the United States it’s a drastic jump from 60-70%. This article talks about how young men that have the availability to firearms are more likely to commit suicide and has been shown in the suicide rates. This study looked at the Israeli Defense Force (IDF), which is an army, based population that is mandatory for ages, 18-21 adolescents to enlist in. They found that 90% of the suicides in the IDF were committed by using of firearms, In 2003-2005 there were reported 28 suicides and 26.3 of them were with firearms. The suicides were usually when the soldiers when home on the weekends for leave and took their weapons. The IDF started to realize this and made a change in 2006 by making the soldiers leave their guns when they went on leave. Their results of this study were that by making a policy change in the guns that they were able to decrease the rate of suicide with the use of firearms by 40%. They did not find an increase in suicide by other means; they think that the use of firearms was an impulsive attempt whereas if they had to time to plan it out they wouldn’t do i.

After reading this article I think it was really cool and very interesting that they were able to look at this whole leaving the guns on base a way of stopping the suicide by a great amount. I sit and think about suicide and how people can be so selfish sometimes and like the saying is suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem. If you think about it the use of firearms is a rash and impulsive way of committing suicide and if there were no access to firearms there would be less deaths in the world as a whole. Suicide is a sad thing to think about and the fact that they came up with a tiny way to stop it and reduce the rates is a wonderful thing.

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In the article “Pathways to embodiment of HIV risk: Black men who have sex with transgender partners, Boston, Massachusetts. By: Sari Reisner, Matthew Mimiaga, Sean E. Bland, Maura A. Driscoll, Kevin Cranston, and Kenneth H. Mayer. In this article they talk about the risk of contracting HIV and how black men that have sex with transgender partners. In previous studies done about this it was said that Men who have sex with transgender persons may be at elevated risk for HIV infection due to a host of individual, community and structural level factors. In a recent meta-analysis in 29 different studies of male and female transgender populations found rates of HIV between 12% and 28% with even higher rates observed in Black transgender women (31%-56%). In their study they took 197 black men in the months between January and July in 2008 who reported having sex with a man and who reported residing in Massachusetts were recruited by a modified respondent driven sampling (RDS) method, and completed a quantitative assessment with a trained interviewer and were offered voluntary HIV counseling and testing. In order for them to be apart of the study they had to be black, and identified as a male and were 18 years of age they also had to live in Massachusetts and have reported of having oral or anal intercourse with a man in the preceding 12 month. They were given compensation for participating in the study and could earn up to $100 depending on how many things they participated in. There were many results in this study: Overall 8% of men reported having a transgender sex partner in the past 12-month. In Socioeconomics found that a significant higher portion of men who reported sex with a transgender partner reported being recently unstably housed and having public health insurance. In Sex Identity it show no man reported having sex with a transgender partner in the past 12 months self identified as gay, they reported as bisexual. In Sexual Risk Behavior more than half (56%) of man with a transgender partner had unprotected sex in last encounter. In Substance Use during sex the MSM said transgender partners use more cocaine when having sex. In HIV Prevention Services said that men with transgender partners are less likely to report being exposed to an HIV.

Reading this article I didn’t know what to expect really I just thought it was going to talk about transgender people and how they act in society. I really didn’t expect it to really talk about how black people have more of a chance of receiving HIV than an white person. I sort of took affiance to this article by using race as another way of separating society. I wan you to read this article and tell me why you think they only used black people and am it fair that they put this connotation on them and how they are likely to contract HIV.

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In the article “Marijuana use and depression”, by: Brian E. Green and Christian Ritter they wanted to look and see if the use of marijuana has anything to do with depression and mental health. In previous studies they looked at three different things on how to measure marijuana and depression. The first thing was the age in which people used marijuana and several studies have showed the early marijuana users achieve less in high school than non-users. Another studied showed that early marijuana use maybe associated with coping problems in adult hood, and also showed that marijuana users are less likely to be married than non-users. In this study that they did and conducted they measured the use of marijuana in three ways: one measure was age and marijuana initiation, second was the use of marijuana use in the past 30 days, and lastly they measured the reason for marijuana use. They broke the results down into models; the first model looked at the main effect of early marijuana use on depression, the second and third assess the indirect effect of early marijuana use on depression through educational attainment, employment status and marital status, the fourth model assess current marijuana use and its relationship on depression, lastly the fifth and sixth model looks at how other illicit and licit drugs with marijuana effect depression. Model 1 shoes that the early marijuana users are slightly more likely depressed than never users. In model 2 looks at educational attainment and shows that marijuana has no relationship between the two, in Model 3 it adds employment status and marital status it shows that married and employed are less stressed than unmarried and unemployed. In Model 4 shows that marijuana use is not significantly associated with depression. In the 5^th model they found that the number of drugs besides marijuana is positively associated with depression. In the 6^th model looked at all the drugs combined and shows that there is a significant association on depression also in the last model it shows that there is a significant association between using marijuana to cope and depression.

After reading this article it made me think about how marijuana can be good and bad for you and how people can take advantage of it and use it thinking that it is good for them when really in some cases it is actually hurting them in the long run. I know that before even reading this article that the more marijuana you smoke and use that it is actually replacing the dopamine in your brain which is the chemical balance in you that makes you happy and controls your emotions, so I can also see how marijuana can make you depressed and what not. I have one question to ask based on this article what if you use marijuana at the bare minimum and aren’t an avid user will it still affect your depression and cause problems as if someone were to smoke marijuana all the time?

In the article “Body piercing, tattooing, self-esteem, and body investment in adolescent girls”, by: Lynne Carroll and Roxanne Anderson, the talked about girls with tattoos and piercings and how a lot of them get them to change themselves or even help their self esteem. In the article they talk about another author called “Sweetman” he explains the reason some girls get tattoos on and piercings on their body, he said that tattoos and piercing’s emanate from inner self sense of self and try to change themselves in order to be likes, he also said says that they permit ones to record ones history on their body. The article also talks about explanations for body modifications, it says one gives people ownership and control over their body and life and culture and the other reason is it helps identify and affiliate with a group. In the overall study that was conducted for this article they took 79 adolescent girls from the ages 15-18 with parent consent, they took the girls that were part of the at risk programs at their high schools. They tool 35 European American, 30 African American, 4 Multiracial, 2 Asian American, 1 Native American, and 1 self-classified as “other” and 6 did not report their ethnicity. They focused on the topics of self-esteem, Body image, Depression, and anger. 34 of the participants reported that they had tattoos and piercing on parts of their bodies other than their ear lobes. They reported for piercings that 29 people had them 9 had their tongues, 9 had their navels, 6 pierced their nose, 3 pierced above their eyebrows and 2 said on other parts of their bodies. For tattoos 16 people reported having them 5 people said on their legs, 4 said stomach, 3 said arms, 2 said breasts, 1 said shoulder and 1 said hand. The participants were also asked the reasons why they got their tattoos and piercings 13 said they wanted it, 6 said it was the style, 4 said it was cute, 1 said it was fun. The overall findings in the test they did between tattoos and piercings were there was a negative association found between the number of piercings and tattoos and the feeling sub-scale, basically means the greater the number of body modifications the more negative feelings toward the body.

After reading this article I know it was talking about female adolescence but thinking from a guys perspective I feel like tattoos do make people or guys feel a little better about them selves and give them that little bit of swagger look. I know for me personally I got tattoos to help identify myself and to help sort of tell a story of my life through art work and tattoos, not all people think about things like this and about how tattoos can help you self esteem or just help you feel good about yourself. I really wonder if some people with tattoos look back at their experience and life and not so much regret getting them but actually feel worse about them selves. I would love to hear people’s opinions and thoughts on if they think tattoos and piercings could affect people’s self-esteem.

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In the Article Inmate tattoos and in-prison and post-prison Violent behavior By William D. Bales, Thomas Blomberg, and Kevin Waters It talked about and went over prisoners with tattoos and prisoners with out tattoos and how their violent behavior either in prison or after prison increased or decreased.  They talked about a juvenile prison in Australia and the findings were that inmates released from custody with tattoos were significantly more likely to be reconvicted for a new violent offense, But on the other had there were no differences found between tattooed and non tatooed inmates in relation to conviction of any new crime or reconviction for non violent new offenses. It also talked about how African American males were more likely to recidivate in criminal activity than caucasian males. The findings for the overall study were that males, yonger and black inmates have higher rated of recidivism while there is no Hispanic effect. Also that inmates that were incarcerated for a violent, drug or other offenses have lower recidivism rates than those on a term of incarceration for property crime. Also proven that inmates with a higher education level are significantly less likely to recidivate. Other findings were that the more the tattoos the prisoner has increases the likelihood of inmates commiting one or more violent behavior infractions during their imprisonment and are more likely to recidivate in their crimes three years after being released from prison.

After reading this Article it made me think about how people look at tattoos and how tattoos are seen as a way of categorizing populations and how they have such a negative conotation with them. When reading this it made me think about how yes when people go to prison most of them come out with more tattoos that they have went in with and how based off their number of tattoos how they are judged by saying that they are more likely to end up back in the system after being released i think that its sort of unfair to the population of inmates and ex-convicts that have multiple tattoos that are very successful after being incarcerated. I am really interested on what other people think about this topic and their points of view. Do you think that tattoos are a way to gauge peoples behavior and life choices?

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In the article “Tattoos, piercings, and sexual activities” by Nicolas Guéguen they talk about peoples with tattoos and piercings and how they are the cause of young males and females sexual activity. They found that males with tattoos and piercings are at a higher risk of engaging in sexual activity at an early age, they also said males with tattoos and piercings are more likely to be involved in drinking alcohol and engaging in illicit drugs as well as having a violent behavior. They compared the young males with tattoos to young males without tattoos and piercings and they found that males with no tattoos and piercings are less likely to engaged in sexual activity and drugs and illicit drugs. They compared girls with tattoos and piercings and to girls without piercings. They found out that 83% of women with piercings are more likely to engage in sexual activity compared to 63% of women without piercings will not engage in sexual activity. But they did find out that males and females with tattoos are respondents to having violent behavior and do drugs and partake in sexual activity at a young age.

This article was very interesting because I never looked at tattoos and piercings to be that big of a deal and how they can affect sexual activity. I also think this article only speaks for a certain population of people because I have piercings and tattoos and I don’t do drugs and I didn’t start being sexually active at an early age. I can also see how tattoos and piercings can come off to people as a rebellious act and that’s why people think that all people with tattoos and piercings do drugs and have sex and drink all the time. I think everyone should read this article I am sort of torn between on believing tattoos and piercings can have an effect on sexual activity and the other half of me thinks this is total nonsense. Please read this and tell me what you think and how it makes you feel.

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In the article “The effects of family structure on African American adolescents marijuana use.” by Jelani Mandara, Sheba Y. Rogers, and Richard E. Zinbarg talks about African American Adolescents and how their family structure plays a huge part in their marijuana and drug use. They talked about how the current marijuana use among high school students estimated out to 49% of African American young men had used marijuana at least once in their lifetime and 30% used marijuana in the previous 30 days. They touched on the topic of young African American males were more likely to use marijuana if their is only a single parent in their household, generally speaking about the biological father not in the picture anymore. They also talked about the self control of the young men and the use of marijuana and how they might not have to self control to not use drugs based on their household structure as well as the neighborhoods they grow up in.  They talk about how young African American men from poverty neighborhoods are more likely to use marijuana than males in nice neighborhoods. The article talked about young African American women and their use of marijuana and their findings were totally different from the males. They found that African American females are less likely to use marijuana in a single household and have more self control than males. But they did say that the African American females from a poverty neighborhood are likely to try marijuana because they are around it in their neighborhoods. The overall article concluded that their is a huge risk factor in males and the use of marijuana when the biological father is not in the household and in a single parent household, and family structure was not related to the use of marijuana for females.

This article i thought was very interesting because i can somewhat relate to it not from the use of marijuana but from aspect of growing up in a single parent household. I know growing up in a single parent household with no father is really hard on a African American man because you feel betrayed and now you have to be the man of the house. When growing up with out a father or in a single parent household people often turn to the wrong things like marijuana or even just look to rebel because they do not have that role model to tell them what to do or even to guide them into becoming a young man. This article is a really good one and it has opened up my eyes to thoughts that i never thought about as a child and never looked at a females perspective and just as a race as a whole. I encourage everyone to read this article and think what they can come up with why African American males are more likely to turn to drugs and marijuana than females.

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In this article by: Drummond, Murray J.N he talks about he male athlete and how they differ from female athletes. He talked about how he was running a stair race in the tallest building in Melbourne it was running up 74 flight of stairs and the winner got to move on to the next round and won $1,000 dollars. There were 149 other men in the race and there was also a separate women’s race, he talked about how he questioned is ability as a well as his sanity. He talk about the numbers of people that signed up for the race for the men they had to turn down over 100 people and for the females race they had 100 females not even show up for the race, he touched upon that subject about the difference in male and female mentalities and demeanor in sports. The article went into talking about masculinity in males and sports and how men choose and use sports to activate the term of masculinity. Masculinity is sports are a big thing when competing against other males and showing other males that they are better than the other. He also touched upon the topic of being beaten by a woman and interviewed a male athlete and he said that he was never beaten by a female and how it his goal to not just out work the men but also the women because he said if you loose to a women that it will question a mans masculinity. It also touched upon the topic of what women are still seen as by society and how they should still be doing women household chores like cleaning up the house and cooking and doing laundry, Another male in the article said he was a SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) and how when he looks at his girlfriend regardless of who she is that he will always be there for her but will never clean the toilet or even iron a shirt for as long as he lived.  I feel like that how society sees some women still as only being allowed to do household chores and that’s it. The article also talked about how Masculinity has also been determined by the sports and separation of male and female sports how male sports shape you to be masculine and tough and teach you how to be an adult and women sports do not do that. Overall the article was about the masculine term and the stereotypes that come from men sports and the separation and huge, and difference between men and women.

After reading this article made me actually think long and hard about what sports do to people and the stereotypes come out of them. For me I feel like yes certain sports do challenge males masculinity and toughness but also if you look at some women sports they do the same thing so I do not think it is right for anyone to separate women and mends sports. If you look at some women sports and things they do, you can say that some of them might be better at a man doing the same thing. So the separation aspect of sports and women is stupid and needs to stop, as well as labeling women as housewives and limiting them to only doing household chores because I know some men that are house dads and the women are out there doing the hard stuff. The term masculinity can go for both genders just depends on what context and what situation.

“The Future of Football.” By William Beaver

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This article discussed the over view of football and were it has came from and were it has started. In the article it talked about the rise of youth sports and how back in the day they did not have youth sports for football 9th grade junior varsity was the youngest that they had organized football for. For instance in the 1960’s they had 3,000 teams playing pop warner youth football and today we have over 250,000 players playing youth football. This ties into the head injuries that the article also discussed. They touched upon the idea of men getting their bell rang and getting a concussion and how some men report their injuries but there are those few that do not and use the term shake it off. They discussed why some people do not report their injuries is because they do not want to loose the credability of being masculine or are trying to prove their worth or their toughness to the team. They interviewed people currently in the NFL about their head injuries and they also looked at former deceased players brains to figure out if the head injuries in football take a toll one their brains after playing. They came out with the conclussion of players having C.T.E which is a diseased that causes depression, memory loss, dementia, and lack of impulse control. They have found this disease in multiple retired boxers and in numerous football players. They talked about the future of football and how the only way its gonna keep striving is if young men keep playing the game and if parents let them play the game.

This article has really opened up my eyes to actually watching my own health while playing the game of football. I have been one of those player that has got my bell rung and not said anything about it due to the always be tough and do not show fear. I did not know there was an actual disease for this type of thing but now that i know i will be more cautious. I know the NFL and College have placed rules on not being able to use head to head contact and no hitting above the shoulders. I think that those rules are very vital  player health concerns now and no matter what if you take a hit to the head you should always tell because its only going to hurt you in the long run.