Rogerian Argumentative Essay

Communities are very delicate. One tiny little minute detail could set the whole thing off. It could be anything from people being bad people to a death of some sort. Communities aren't all that unstable; it take a combination of things and major events like the ones listed before to change anything. Huge problems lead to unstable and unhealthy communities. Characteristics of unhealthy communities include; teen pregnancy rates in Latin communities, obesity rates and decision making skills, all of these things can be caused by violence and if efforts were focused on improving how to handle violence, like planned pregnancies, weight loss programs, and proper decision making skills, then unhealthy communities could be improved by becoming less violent.

One very likely reason for unhealthy communities is teen pregnancy rates. Teen pregnancies are characteristics of unhealthy communities because typically children cost a lot of money and teenagers do not have that type of money to spend on themselves or even another human being. So this leads to things like the kids entering the child care system and being sent to foster homes or poverty for the family that decides to keep the child. Teen pregnancy rates around the United States have improved. It varies differently for each type of community. Different ethnicity's have different levels of improvement. Latin communities have shown more susceptibility to becoming more likely to becoming pregnant at a younger age. In one study done, it was shown that Latin communities that had known gang involvement or family and friends with known gang involvement are more likely to become pregnant before they enter adulthood (Miller). This is in part due to the violence. To fix this, it would be best to have options readily available to the women of these communities. Offering services and resources to help them. By doing this, it will lead to less unplanned pregnancies which in turn will lead to less violence.

Another characteristics of an unhealthy community is obesity rates. The reason this a problem is because being overweight at young ages leads to a lot of problems later on in life. One study shows that children that grew up in violent households with physical and mental violence upon them are more likely to be overweight and stay overweight through their lives (Jun). Violence once again caused this unhealthy characteristic of communities. A way to fix this would be to have the government offer more services to help out with getting children out of bad households like that. Or offering services like sponsored after school programs that offer education on what are good foods to eat and what the kids can do to exercise. By doing this, it will make the children more educated and feel like they are important and will feel more accepted.

A third characteristics of an unhealthy community is how people, specifically kids, make decisions. The decision making process for kids is different than the decision making process for adults. Kids can be influenced by a lot of things. Particularly very influential people like big name athletes and political figures. In a study, it was shown that children were more likely to make the risk taking decision than the non-risk taking decision (Hansen). The decision they would be making would be one that is dangerous and not safe. Children are more likely to make those decisions because that want to be cool or impress their friends. The decisions also include thrill seeking decisions. Children will make those because they again want to be cool or impress their friends. These dangerous decision typically lead to violence and not very good situations. The decision to make violent situations needs to be prevented because this is how kids die and live bad lives with gang involvement and criminal records. There are ways to fix this problem though. That includes having education in schools about what is right and wrong and having resources for the kids to want to make the right choices.

The best option to fix violent unhealthy communities it to work on children's decision making skills. If this is done, the children will not make such violent decisions that could get them killed or in jail. This would lead to a all around better and more healthy community.

Works Cited

Hansen, Luke O., et al. “You Get Caught Up: Youth Decision-Making and Violence.” The Journal of Primary Prevention, vol. 35, no. 1, Feb. 2014, pp. 21-31. EBSCOhost.

Jun, Hee-Jin, et al. “Growing up in a Domestic Violence Environment: Relationship with Developmental Trajectories of Body Mass Index during Adolescence into Young Adulthood.” Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health  (1979-), no. 7, 2012, pp. 629. EBSCOhost. 

Miller, E, et al. “Exposure to Partner, Family, and Community Violence: Gang-Affiliated Latina Women and Risk of Unintended Pregnancy.” Journal of Urban Health,vol. 89, no. 1, Feb. 2012, pp. 74-86. EBSCOhost.