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An accountant typically maintains financial records and handles other responsibilities in accounting and finance. A corporate accountant also performs these tasks, but on a more specialized and focused level. They usually concentrate on business accounting and are experts at ensuring financial records comply with various regulations, laws, and policies.
Corporate accountants may also oversee the work completed by the divisional and regional accounting groups within the company. All of this work is compiled into the overall financial reports.
What Do Corporate Accountants Do?
In addition to ensuring the company is keeping in compliance with regulations, corporate accountants prepare budgets for each department. They allocate funds for each department, including supplies, hiring, investments, and other needs. In addition, corporate accountants conduct audits to make sure the budget is being followed. Because executives typically set organizational goals based on the budgets, corporate accountants also need to make sure these goals are being met while staying under budget.
Other duties for corporate accountants may include employee expense report processing; completing monthly cash flow analysis; preparing variance analysis to budget and forecast; and maintaining overall responsibility for accounts payable, receivable, and payroll. They are also responsible for consolidating statements, the corporate wide audit and reviewing monthly subsidiary ledgers.
Corporate accountants must be highly organized and have an analytical mind. They should display strong communication skills when writing reports or when communicating with staff and other departments.
How Much Do Corporate Accountants Get Paid?
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, accountants earn a median annual salary of $70,500. While additional experience may not have a large effect on pay, certain skills may be more valuable. These skills may include payroll administration or SAP financial accounting and controlling.
Jobs in accounting are projected to grow 10% through 2026. This percentage is dependent on the economy; as the economy grows, so will the need for employment in this and related fields.
How Do I Become a Corporate Accountant?
To become a qualified corporate accountant, individuals first need to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting. Some companies may also require the Uniform Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credential or Certified Management Accountant (CMA) credential.
Some of the required courses may include corporate finance, business analytics and auditing. The goal of these types of programs is for students to learn how to manage an entire accounting division that may include multiple offices and locations.
Work Toward Becoming a Corporate Accountant
Through a bachelor’s degree in accounting, you will not only acquire a foundational knowledge of accounting topics, but you will also explore how corporations operate and the regulations that are applied to various businesses. You can prepare to be a successful corporate accountant with the online Bachelor of Science in Accounting program from Concordia University, St. Paul. We offer a generous transfer policy and multiple start dates, as well as the ability to complete your coursework when it’s most convenient.
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“Advergames” are games specifically created to promote a particular product or service, allowing companies to seamlessly integrate ads into digital gaming. Because digital games in general offer appeal to a large audience, marketers have begun to recognize their potential. Though the practice is not new, it has gained traction in recent years because consumers spend so much time online.
Whether for shopping, news or entertainment, most of us browse the web for hours each day. “Advergames are a marketing dream, due to the perfect storm of mobile, social and digital,” Great Marketing Works founder Dan Sodergren told The Next Web. Advergames have one advantage: they engage consumers. While banner ads give companies an opportunity to target online users, they don’t necessarily engage their audience. All of this means that now is the time for marketing teams to consider how advergames might fit in with their brand messaging and marketing strategies.
Using games as a marketing tactic allows businesses to associate themselves with “something that people are doing for stress relief and fun,” giving consumers a positive interaction with their brands, Target Marketing points out. Educational games are another opportunity for brands to inform consumers about topics like health, finances, and other need-to-know topics. Engagement is key, with marketers aiming for numbers like these: “A game Blockdot designed for M&M’s provided a more than 90 percent clickthrough rate on challenges, and a Microsoft/Prilosec OTC game … generat[ed] more than 4.5 million game plays with an average user session of 46 minutes,” according to Target Marketing.
Benefits and Best Practices of Advergames
Social media has only made these games more effective. Marketers can integrate with sites like Facebook, which offers the added potential of going viral. Ultimately, today’s mobile, interconnected world gives marketers the chance to create comprehensive advergame experiences. One of the ways they appeal to digital audiences with high expectations is through adding features like multiplayer, community-based platforms. This has the benefit of keeping players interested for longer periods of time: “It’s something that lasts over several months, and people spend hours involved with the brand,” one expert told Target Marketing.
Some of the other benefits marketers have found using advergames include:
- Intrusiveness to the user is low or nonexistent while engaging with the advergame
- Brand recognition is higher than with traditional digital advertising
- Games can be targeted at audiences of all ages and demographics
Though advergames deploy a wide variety of game types and elements, there are best practices marketers should keep in mind when considering incorporating them into their strategy. For example, be smart about how ads are featured. You have the option of showing ads before the game is played or integrating them into the game during play, so determine which method is more effective for your target audience.
Another way to use advergames effectively is to balance advertising with game play. It is important for the game to be a good standalone product, but be sure that it has an effective marketing component. Finally, better your chances of going viral by allowing users to share the game on third-party sites rather than housing it solely on your own.
Best Advergame Examples: Past and Present
Since the early 1990s, brands have used advergames to raise brand awareness and engage with consumers. In fact, one of the biggest success stories comes from that time period. In 1992, Gremlin Graphics produced Zool: Ninja of the Nth Dimension. A platform game that uses fast-moving graphics and game play, Zool contains embedded mini-games in arcade, scrolling and Easter egg styles. It features decidedly unsubtle branding for Chupa Chups, a popular lollipop candy. Zool was highly successful and one of the best-performing platform games of all time, causing the company that produced it to release a sequel the following year.
Another example is Sneak King, developed by Blitz Arcade and released by Burger King in 2006. Sneak King came with the purchase of value meals as part of a five-week promotional campaign and was designed for Xbox and Xbox 360 game consoles. This project had great financial success, with millions of units sold. Sneak King and its companion games were among the top 10 bestselling games of 2006.
A more recent advergame that experienced great notoriety is The Scarecrow. In 2015, Mexican restaurant Chipotle released this short film and arcade-style mobile game. In it, players explore four worlds and 20 levels, with the incentive of receiving a buy-one-get-one offer from Chipotle. Some members of the media even recognized The Scarecrow as one of the most successful marketing campaigns ever.
As these examples prove, advergames can be a highly effective — and addictive — business tactic. If savvy marketers are able to leverage the benefits using some of the best practices covered here, these engaging games can be a lucrative component of marketing strategies for industries spanning from health care to food service and more. It seems that advergames are here to stay, so finding ways to incorporate them successfully is a smart way to engage audiences and raise brand awareness.
Gain the Skills to Create Campaigns Like Advergames
Discover how to develop strategic tactics such as advergames with the online Bachelor of Science in Marketing program from Concordia University, St. Paul. Through a flexible online format, you will have the ability to study when it’s most convenient as you learn from faculty who have years of experience in marketing. Our online marketing program explores relevant principles and concepts that will help you succeed in the dynamic field.
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Corrections counselors are often the first people to give advice and guidance to criminals. Also called correctional treatment specialists, they help criminals become productive members of society by addressing actions that the offender can take to avoid breaking the law again.
What Does a Corrections Counselor Do?
Corrections counselors work with criminals to cultivate strategic rehabilitation, training, and education plans that help them earn a GED or enroll in college classes. This critical planning helps offenders acquire the knowledge and skills they need to get jobs and reenter society. Corrections counselors may also work with social service agencies to provide mental health or substance abuse treatment.
Specific job duties for corrections counselors include:
- Imposing rules and keeping order within jails or prisons
- Overseeing behaviors of inmates
- Inspecting facilities, including cells, to ensure they meet sanitary standards
- Searching inmates for contraband
- Compiling reports on inmate conduct
Almost all corrections counselors work for state and local governments in prisons and jails. Daily work conditions change frequently, and counselors should be prepared to work both indoors and outdoors. Some jails and prisons are temperature controlled and clean; others lend to more unpleasant working conditions in that they are old, overcrowded, hot, and noisy.
Being physically fit is important for corrections counselors, as some are required to stand on their feet for long periods of time. It’s typical for a corrections counselor to work an eight-hour day, five days per week, but they will be expected to work in rotating shifts due to jails and prisons needing round-the-clock attention.
How Much Do Corrections Counselors Get Paid?
The salaries of corrections counselors from state to state will vary. Factors like experience and size of the department for which a person works also come in to play. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the median annual wage for correctional treatment specialists is $53,020 as of May 2018.
Employment for this career is expected to grow 6% through 2026, which is about as fast as the average for all occupations. With mandatory sentencing guidelines undergoing changes in most states, the number of prisoners being released from correctional facilities into counseling programs is on the rise.
After a period of service as a corrections counselor, successful counselors can look to advance to other careers. This includes being promoted to a correctional sergeant or into supervisory or administrative positions, such as warden.
How Do I Become a Corrections Counselor?
A bachelor’s degree is required to become a corrections counselor. Coursework in psychology and social work will make a candidate more attractive in the eyes of a potential employer. Having experience as a substance-abuse counselor or social worker can also increase a person’s chances of being hired.
Newly hired corrections counselors must complete training at the facility where they’re employed, followed by a certification exam. Candidates must also submit to drug testing and complete a background check.
Earn the Right Credentials
To open the doors to become a corrections officer, you can earn a degree in criminal justice. Concordia University, St. Paul offers an online B.A. in Criminal Justice and an online M.A. in Criminal Justice Leadership. Both programs explore historical and contemporary issues that have affected the criminal justice system, ethics, and more. Designed for the busy adult student, our online programs feature a flexible format that allows you to study when it’s most convenient as you learn from faculty who are experts in the field.
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Good communication skills are crucial when it comes to success in the business world. When members of a company are able to work together effectively, chances are it stems from being able to communicate well. How employees within a company interact determines whether projects will run smoothly or be fraught with challenges.
This is where leadership comes in, and good leaders must also be excellent communicators. Because they interact with every team and a large number of employees, how a leader communicates sets the tone for the rest of the organization. When you use the communication strategies for great leadership discussed later in this article, business processes can run more smoothly.
Qualities of Good Business Communication
So what makes for good communication? In the business world, it is all about getting your point across. It means that the original message is received by the audience without any misinterpretations in its meaning. Of course, this definition can apply just as easily to any form of communication.
Clarity is the most important aspect of successful communication. Being able to communicate in a clear manner helps a company’s success immensely. A leader who can do this is highly sought after in today’s dynamic business world and will have more opportunities for promotions and increased responsibilities.
Today, we can communicate with coworkers and leadership in more ways than ever before. In fact, what once may have taken a 30-minute phone conversation to relay can now be said instantly in a series of text messages. The ubiquity of modern communication has made it even more important to convey thoughts and ideas effectively.
We have all experienced a miscommunication due to shades of meaning or tone that were lost due to digital communication. Good communication is simple and easy to understand, two traits that can be difficult to achieve. However, it is possible to hone and develop better communication skills through further study.
Communication Strategies for Great Leadership
Though there are many communication strategies for great leadership, all of them work toward a common goal: transparency. According to Forbes, statistics show that companies with happy, loyal staff share transparency as a common corporate principle. The ease of sharing knowledge and data ranks high with employees for job satisfaction; in fact, it’s “crucial to building trust in the workplace.”
Employees at all levels perform better when companies have a distinct vision and a culture of straightforward communication. Leaders can achieve this in a variety of ways, from providing clear expectations for work quality to being open about pay grade. Just as it is important for businesses to be transparent with their customers about product quality and services rendered, employees seek the same kind of transparency from their employers. Fostering clear, accessible communication is one way that business leaders can create a culture of success.
Another way to develop excellent communication skills is through active listening. This type of listening requires you to “make a conscious effort to hear not only the words that another person is saying but, more importantly, try to understand the complete message being sent,” Mind Tools says.
To practice active listening, the first step is to pay close attention to the person with whom you are speaking. Try not to get distracted by your own thoughts or what is going on around you. Signal to the other person that you are listening, processing and understanding the points they are trying to convey by nodding the head or using phrases such as “I understand” throughout the conversation. Using these signals serves the dual purpose of letting the other person know you are paying attention while reminding yourself to stay tuned in. Other active listening tactics include asking occasional questions or commenting on particularly good points.
Cultivating emotional intelligence is another helpful communication strategy. This concept is rooted in our ability to “understand, interpret, and respond to the emotions of others,” according to Verywell Mind. This communication technique is so important that some experts suggest it may be more important than IQ.
Emotional intelligence (EI) refers to “the ability to perceive, control, and evaluate emotions.” Introduced by Peter Salovey and John D. Mayer in 1990, EI is defined as “the subset of social intelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information to guide one’s thinking and actions.”
Salovey and Mayer identified four different facets of emotional intelligence: the perception of emotion (understanding nonverbal signals such as body language), the ability to reason using emotions (using emotions to prioritize what we pay attention to and interact with), the ability to understand emotion (interpreting the causes of shown emotion), and the ability to manage emotion (responding appropriately to the emotions of others).
Finally, asking good questions is a key part of effective communication. When you ask the right questions in a particular situation, you open up possibilities for better understanding and information exchange. Mind Tools points out that you can gather better information, learn more, build stronger relationships, manage people more effectively, and help others learn. Some common questioning techniques include open questions, closed questions, funnel questions, and probing questions.
Closed questions require a single word or very short answer, often “yes” or “no.” These questions are good for testing your understanding or making a decision. Open questions, on the other hand, elicit longer answers. They usually begin with words like what, why, and how. This type of question invites the respondent to participate by adding information, opinions, or feelings to the conversation. Funnel questions start with the general and move toward more specific answers. Usually, funnel questions start with closed questions and progress to open questions and are ideal for finding out more detail. Lastly, probing questions are another way to find out more information. They are most often used to clarify, and include words like exactly, actually, and so.
Become a Better Communicator
Communication is essential. Verbal, written, or visual, communication keeps the business world going. Serial entrepreneur and innovator Richard Branson puts it like this: “Communication is the most important skill any leader can possess.” But while this skill is critical, it also can be elusive. For many, communication seems like a gift. In reality, it is a skill that can be learned through education, practice, and using these communication strategies for great leadership.
If you are looking to master communication and become a better leader, consider Concordia University, St. Paul’s online business degrees. This program is designed to help you create solutions to communication challenges using strategic thinking and logical analysis. It is ideal for those who have professional experience or career interests in corporate communication, public relations, or other management functions. And with a flexible online format, you can complete your studies when it’s most convenient.
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The job of a credit analyst is to review financial statements and credit data to determine the likelihood that a loan will be paid back in full. The financial data may include sufficient cash flow, comparing ratios to industry standards, comparison against other borrowers, and the borrower’s financial history. Credit analysts must have the ability to decide if the potential borrower will be able to meet their financial obligations.
What Does a Credit Analyst Do?
While the main responsibility of credit analysts is to determine the degree of risk involved in lending money or extending credit to borrowers, they are also accountable for a few other tasks. Within the borrower analyzation process, these professionals must understand how to use financial ratios and computer programs. After analyzation, reports need to be prepared that outline the degree of risk for customers.
A comparability process must also be used to measure the liquidity, credit history, and profitability of one borrower against another to learn about patterns in certain industries and geographic locations.
Credit analysts also need to communicate with credit associations, business representatives, and loan committees to exchange credit information and complete loan applications.
How Much Do Credit Analysts Make?
The median annual salary reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is $71,520. Those in the 90th percentile earn $137,610. Salaries are highest in the following industries: securities and commodity contracts intermediation and brokerage, automobile dealerships, and monetary authorities-central bank.
How Do I Become a Credit Analyst?
The majority of professionals in this field have earned at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting or business. Certification to become a designated Credit Business Associate is also available from the National Association of Credit Management. While this certification is not mandatory, it may be helpful during a job search. The certification exam is available to those who have completed three college-level courses in financial statements, business credit, and financial accounting.
Through the online B.A. in Accounting and online B.A. in Business programs from Concordia University, St. Paul, you can acquire the knowledge you need to excel as a credit analyst. Explore core business topics while learning from faculty who bring their real-world business experience into the online classroom. And with the programs’ flexible online format, you can study when it’s most convenient.
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Scripted horror reigns on TV. From “American Horror Story” to “The Walking Dead,” vampires, zombies, and ghosts are now more prevalent on American screens. And people are tuning in: With 17.3 million viewers, the season five premiere of “The Walking Dead” was the highest-rated show in cable television history.
It is not just TV, as a slate of horror movies are released throughout the year. Given the low production costs of horror and suspense entertainment, it is no mystery why studios produce so much horror-based content. But it’s harder to explain why people are so captivated by this genre. What is the psychology of fear, and why are people drawn to thrill-seeking entertainment?
Why Horror?
The enjoyment that some people get from fear is likely not from fear itself. Instead, thrills stem from “the physical and emotional release that follows scary situations,” according to Seeker, a division of Discovery. For some horror fans, the desire to feel fear is a manifestation of an adrenaline-seeking personality. Fear is a “negative emotion that comes about when people are under siege or threat,” professor Glenn Sparks told Seeker. Yet people enjoy other aspects of the experience.
Psychologist Glenn D. Walters identified three primary factors that feed the attraction to horror entertainment. The first is tension, which producers and directors create by including elements of mystery, suspense, gore, terror, and shock. The next factor is relevance. Horror films draw from this factor by establishing elements that viewers will identify with. This often means universal relevance, which plays on the psychology of fear of death and the unknown, or cultural relevance of social issues. Walters says that viewers also experience personal relevance, as they identify with the protagonist or condemn the antagonist.
The last factor Walters identifies is unrealism. Although horror entertainment has become more graphic in recent years, viewers realize that what they are watching is fake. Movies and TV shows use certain camera angles, soundtracks, and even humor to send cues that remind viewers that what they are watching is intended to entertain. When horror films and TV shows use these factors in the right ways, they can play on the psychology of fear in ways that appeal to viewers.
Biological Reactions to Fear
For viewers to enjoy watching horror movies, they must also be aware that they are in a safe environment. Horror entertainment can trigger the fight-or-flight response, which comes with a boost in adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine. The brain can then process surroundings and conclude that the experience is not a genuine threat.
This knowledge of personal safety is one reason horror fans habitually watch scary movies. As sociologist Margee Kerr told The Atlantic, it is partially due to a phenomenon known as excitation transfer. After an accelerated heart rate, heavy breathing, and other physical reactions to fear wear off, viewers experience intense relief. Positive feelings intensify and, in short, “fear floods our brains with feel-good chemicals,” according to The Huffington Post.
For some viewers, physical reactions like this are enjoyable. About 10 percent of the population deeply enjoys the adrenaline rush associated with the horror genre, as Glenn Sparks, a professor at Purdue University, told Psych Central. But other people find horror movies and TV shows upsetting. Sparks says these viewers “have a harder time screening out unwanted stimuli in their environment.” As a result, they can have negative psychological reactions to horror.
In the brain, fear causes a chain reaction that begins with stressful stimuli and ends with the fight-or-flight response discussed above. This response is mostly autonomic, meaning that people do not consciously know it is happening. Because the brain is highly complex and transfers information continuously, many cognitive processes are involved in the psychology of fear. However, Smithsonian identifies some of the key players:
- The thalamus determines where incoming sensory data should be sent in the body.
- The sensory cortex interprets this sensory data.
- The hippocampus can store and retrieve memories and process stimuli to give context.
- The amygdala determines possible threats and “decodes emotions” while storing fear memories.
- The hypothalamus activates the fight-or-flight response.
These biological components work together to identify fear and respond to it. But there are also psychological elements that drive people to seek out horror entertainment.
Elements That Influence the Psychology of Fear
Psychologists and scientists have long been interested in why people pursue and enjoy fear. There have been many studies and suggested hypotheses for why people respond the way they do to horror. For example, Cynthia A. Hoffner and Kenneth J. Levine published a meta-analysis of 35 journal articles in media psychology concerning “the relationship between viewer enjoyment and frightening movies,” according to Pacific Standard. They found prevailing theories that explain why movies like Paranormal Activity perform well in box offices around the globe, including:
- Excitation transfer: This theory states that people who experience an emotional response to horror also experience more enjoyment when threats are resolved.
- Individual empathy: People who are less empathetic enjoy horror films more, according to Professor Ron Tamborini. He suggests that “viewers with high levels of empathy should dislike horror films because they react negatively to the suffering of others.”
- Sensation-seeking: People who watch horror movies may want to stimulate sensory reactions. Studies indicate these viewers may be more aggressive than other people.
Understanding the Psychology of Fear
The biological processes behind the psychology of fear are complex and varied. However, the cultural interest in horror entertainment seems to have a foundation in who human beings are as a species, as well as individual interests and traits.
If you are interested in relevant topics in psychology like the ones covered here, consider CSP Global’s online Bachelor of Arts in Psychology program. This program equips students with the knowledge and tools necessary to excel in the field of psychology. Take part in a flexible, accelerated learning experience with courses that you can complete in seven weeks.
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The rise in obesity has reached record levels in recent years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reporting that more than one-third of American adults (39.8 percent, or 93.3 million people) were obese in 2016. In fact, obesity rates doubled in America among both adults and children between 1980 and 2000 alone. The national State of Obesity reports that this rate has remained consistent through 2018, with seven states’ populations exceeding 35% obese persons, and 29 more states topping 30%.
And the resulting complications are costly. The estimated annual medical cost of complications related to obesity in the United States was $147 billion in 2008, rising to “a staggering $190.2 billion or nearly 21% of annual medical spending in the United States” in 2010, as reported by the National League of Cities. Science Daily confirmed that the medical costs of obese individuals rose from 6.13 percent in 2001 to 7.91 percent in 2015, an increase of 29 percent. These high rates are not limited to adults: The CDC also reported data from 2015–2016 showing that nearly 1 in 5 school age children and young people (6 to 19 years) in the United States has obesity (in some states, the 2017 childhood obesity numbers reached 22 percent).
This dramatic rise in obesity in America may be surprising, because as a culture, our awareness and understanding of the effects of diet and exercise on both weight and overall health is at an all-time high. A quick Amazon.com search for the term “weight loss” results in over 50,000 books, over 40,000 supplements and food items, and over 6,000 sports products. The problem many consumers face is using all of the information and products to fuel long-term weight loss.
Nature vs. Nurture: Potential Causes of Obesity
For decades, as obesity numbers continue to rise, scientists from various disciplines have worked to understand the factors contributing to climbing BMIs and tipping the scales. Geneticist James Neel proposed the “thrifty gene hypothesis” in 1962, in an attempt to partially explain the increased global rates of Type 2 Diabetes. His theory proposes that humans, in a sense, evolved to be obese. This hypothesis has become the basis for much of the genetic research into obesity. An article posted by popular fitness blogger Steve Magness explained this hypothesis: “Through natural selection we evolved to be efficient at food storage and utilization … However, during the last century the transition to an overabundance of food and limited physical activity has created a situation where our previously advantageous thrifty genes now make us susceptible to diabetes and obesity.” Neel’s thrifty gene hypothesis draws from the feast-famine cycle and its relation to exercise, Magness said. “We likely did not evolve just to survive feast or famine, but also to be able to have enough fitness to survive procurement of food,” he explained. Thus, the main issue is the current environment of humans, in which low activity levels plus high-calorie diets result in increased fat storage, diabetes, and related complications. As Magness put it, “It is the mismatch between our genetic programming and our environment which has given rise to the obesity epidemic.”
Changing Our Future
National Initiatives to Combat Obesity
As the occurrence of obesity becomes more frequent in Americans of all age groups, the federal government has taken steps toward prevention and weight reduction by establishing a variety of national initiatives to combat both childhood and adult obesity.
Childhood-Based Initiatives
The various childhood programs established through federal funding have a common goal: for children to grow up healthier, which results in both lower occurrences of adult obesity and less obesity in Americans overall. In line with the principles of exercise science, Let’s Move! is one such initiative. It was founded by First Lady Michelle Obama and is dedicated to “solving the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation, so that children born today will grow up healthier and able to pursue their dreams.” Let’s Move! features comprehensive strategies to establish healthy habits early in the lives of America’s children. The program works to provide parents with the information they need to establish a healthy environment for their children and support them in their journey to better health, through both exercise and nutrition.
Two of the specific strategies used by Let’s Move! are related to improved nutrition and food quality. The first aims to provide healthier food options in schools so that students have access to better choices while they learn. The second works to ensure that “every family has access to healthy, affordable food.” And of course, as the name suggests, Let’s Move! also promotes increased physical activity among children.
Public Awareness Initiatives
Michelle Obama and Tom Vilsack, the USDA secretary, also introduced a new federal food initiative in June of 2011. MyPlate helps consumers make healthier food choices by helping them understand how to build a plate with the right proportions of different food groups at mealtimes. The MyPlate icon “emphasizes the fruit, vegetable, grains, protein foods and dairy groups … the building blocks of a healthy diet.”
Another initiative at the national level is the Prevention and Public Health Fund. The Affordable Care Act established this federal fund to “provide expanded and sustained national investment in prevention and public health, to improve health outcomes and to enhance care quality.” The fund invests in a wide variety of evidence-based programs, including:
- Community and clinical prevention initiatives
- Research surveillance and tracking
- Public health infrastructure
- Public health workforce and training
In 2015, the Prevention and Public Health Fund allocated a considerable portion of its budget to targeting obesity. A budget of $73 million was dedicated to diabetes prevention at the state and local level, supporting the National Diabetes Prevention Program. It also dedicated $35 million to “nutrition, physical activity and obesity base activities,” including intervention development, evaluation, policy change, social marketing and more. In 2017, the program distributed $931,000,000 to various agencies, with a considerable amount going to prevention and care for obesity-related conditions.
Moving Matters
The Role of Exercise in Controlling Obesity
Although nutrition plays a central role in the prevention of obesity and the establishment of healthy lifestyles, it is important to recognize another key to overall health: exercise. It is widely known that regular exercise helps reduce body fat and protect against chronic diseases associated with obesity. According to the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), the following are some of the specific ways that regular exercise reduces risk of obesity and assists in weight loss:
- Exercise is proven to both prevent and manage high blood pressure.
- It raises high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, or “good” cholesterol while lowering low-density lipoprotein (LDL) — “bad” cholesterol.
- Regular physical activity also decreases the amount of dangerous plaques in the artery walls, allowing for proper blood flow.
The ACSM also suggests an ideal exercise program. The first component is low-intensity aerobic activity occurring four or five days a week for a duration of 30 to 60 minutes. In addition to this aerobic activity, weight and resistance training is also recommended. Weight training builds muscle mass while raising the muscle-to-fat ratio, which increases the amount of calories that an individual burns when they are at rest.
Exercise Science May Be the Obesity Solution
Though generally healthy individuals can usually begin an exercise program on their own, obese individuals often need close supervision and carefully planned approaches. This is where exercise science and kinesiology professionals play a vital role. The ideal exercise prescription for obese patients was outlined in the third edition of Clinical Exercise Physiology. The overall goal when working with obese individuals is to focus on expending the greatest amount of calories possible in a set period of time.
Especially in obese patients, exercise mode selection is key for reducing the risk of injury, though preexisting musculoskeletal problems can exist in healthy individuals as well. It is the responsibility of exercise science professionals to “assess any painful conditions and make recommendations to avoid this type of pain.” Because they are trained in exercise prescription and understand the functions of the human body, as well as common exercise-induced injuries, exercise science professionals can adjust exercise modes and intensity to fit the unique needs of each patient.
Both exercise scientists and kinesiologists know the importance of maintaining a healthy body weight and can identify strategies to help their patients meet weight loss goals. As trained professionals, their exercise-based approach to combating obesity is backed by scientific evidence. As Tucker pointed out, “Numerous studies have found that exercise is beneficial for weight loss, and crucially, weight maintenance, as well as health of physically active people. A vast body of research exists to show how exercise improves weight maintenance, working hand in hand with diet and other lifestyle choices to help people get to, and then stay at an optimal body weight.”
Improving the Lives of Unhealthy Americans
Individuals in the exercise science field have the unique opportunity to combat obesity directly through their one-on-one work with obese individuals. For many, a personal experience with the adverse effects of obesity on health led to their pursuit of the career. Jerome Edwards, a 2014 recipient of the Bobbi Lambrecht Scholarship at Concordia University, St. Paul, uses his exercise science degree to improve the health of his clients. His parents’ struggles with weight and cardiovascular illness initiated Edwards’ passion for wellness: “About 10 years ago, my father had a heart attack. My mom had already been diagnosed as a type two diabetic. I knew what was in store if I did not change … I decided to become a trainer.” As of 2014, Edwards planned “to become a master’s-level athlete in CrossFit and with USA Weightlifting, and to show other late-blooming athletes that it is never too late to chase your dreams and thrive.” As a fitness professional, Edwards had already seen for himself the effects of exercise on health: “My pivotal moment was when an elderly female client said, ‘I want to be able to get out of my chair without holding on to something for help.’ We trained for a year before she left to have knee replacement surgery. Months later she returned and performed a proper squat without assistance,” he said.
According to the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE America), “Kinesiology is a non-teaching major that has emerged in response to concerns about the lack of physical activity, obesity, and increase risks of developing diseases. The kinesiology field provides the opportunity to study the scientific basis of sport performance.” A diverse array of career options are available with a focus in exercise science or kinesiology.
What Is Exercise Science?
Because exercise science is still a relatively new field, it is helpful to establish definitions to fully grasp the important role that trained exercise science professionals play in combating obesity. According to the National Library of Medicine, exercise science is the scientific study of human movement performed to maintain or improve physical fitness. Exercise science seeks “applied solutions to health problems related to physical inactivity and aims to understand and promote individual and public health and wellbeing through evidence-based physical activity interventions.” It includes several subfields:
- Biomechanics
- Exercise physiology/kinesiology
- Exercise psychology
- Cardiac rehabilitation
- Athletic training
- Fitness for special population groups
Exercise science addresses biological responses to physical activity in the body. As fitness experts Tucker and Edwards pointed out, exercise science professionals are responsible for conditioning individuals to higher levels of overall fitness, which results in reduced body fat and overall body weight. These specialists are on the frontlines of the battle against obesity in America, which explains why they are in such high demand. In 2019, The Bureau of Labor Statistics projected a 13 percent growth rate (faster than average) for the exercise science field through the year 2026, and, “Demand may rise as hospitals emphasize exercise and preventive care to help patients recover from cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases and improve their overall health.”
The Science of Weight Loss
If you feel like your body is overweight and want to shed a few pounds, you are not alone.
A 2018 poll from Gallup found that 54 percent of Americans would like to lose weight. But losing weight is not easy, especially as we get older. It takes motivation, lifestyle changes, and sometimes even a trip to the doctor for us to see results. There are three main aspects to weight loss: nutrition, sleep, and exercise. When you combine attention to all three, you are more likely to see results. The science of weight loss proves that those three aspects play a major role in how our body stores fat and how we can remove it. Better eating habits, getting a good night’s sleep, and regular exercise have shown positive results across the board in both scientific studies and personal anecdotes from across the country.
Nutrition
Maintaining a proper diet can have a major impact on your overall health and can help you lose weight. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has found that the typical American diet exceeds the recommended intake levels of calories from solid fats and added sugars, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat. Further, about 90 percent of Americans eat more sodium than is recommended as part of a healthy diet, and reducing sodium intake would save up to $20 billion a year in total nationwide medical costs.
The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute recommends a healthy eating plan that “emphasizes vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat dairy products.” In terms of proteins, it recommends lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs and nuts, while limiting trans fats, sodium and added sugars. Portion control is also an important part of a healthy diet, making sure that you do not overeat. The institute also recommends that for those looking to lose 1–1.5 lbs. per week, daily caloric intake should be reduced by 500–750 calories. Drinking water before and during meals can also help with weight loss, as well as maintaining a proper diet. A study from the U.S. National Library of Medicine found that drinking about 17 ounces of water helped boost metabolism by 24–30 percent over a 60 to 90–minute period, and that drinking that same amount of water a half hour before eating helped dieters eat fewer calories and lose 44 percent more weight.
There are also many different kinds of diets that you can try to help lose weight. These include:
- Keto: The ketogenic diet is low in carbohydrates, moderate in protein, and high in fat. It is based on the premise that the human body was designed to run more efficiently burning fat instead of sugar, which is in carbs.
- Paleo: This diet is high in proteins (meat, fish, nuts) and vegetables (leafy greens, seasonal veggies) and seeds. Anything processed, such as pasta, cereal, or candy is out. The premise of the paleo diet is to eat as the cavepeople did.
- South Beach: This diet claims that it has the answer for you to have your own South Beach body. It is high in proteins and healthy fats, while low in types of carbohydrates, though you do not have to completely cut them out of your diet.
- Vegan: This is a diet based on plant-based foods and beverages, eliminating all animal-based products, including eggs and dairy products. It’s not necessarily low carb, as you can still eat processed grains like bread and pasta, but it cuts out the animal-based proteins.
- Dukan: The Dukan Diet is high in protein, low fat, and low carb. It’s designed around a permanent lifestyle change that helps you reach your “true weight” and keep it there.
Exercise
In addition to dieting, adding regular exercise to your daily routine can help you lose weight. There are many different ways you can exercise, depending on your body type, how much you want to lose, and whether you want to gain muscle as well. Multiple studies have shown positive results from exercise. Through the release of hormones like endorphins, exercise has been shown to reduce stress, increase productivity at work, and reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, among other diseases.
In terms of weight loss, one of the most effective forms of exercise to help burn body fat is cardiovascular, or cardio, which includes running, walking, cycling, swimming, and any activity that gets your heart moving above the regular resting heart rate. Strength training, aerobics, and weightlifting can all lead to weight loss. A Healthline study on 141 obese people found that participants who burned 400 calories with cardio exercise five times a week lost 4.3 percent of their body weight, and participants who burned 600 calories, five days a week lost 5.7 percent of their body weight.
Thankfully, you do not have to do this alone. Both online and at gyms across the nation, there are weight loss programs you can join that will help motivate you to reach your goal.
Sleep
More than a third of American adults are not getting enough sleep every night, according to a survey from 2016 conducted by the Centers for Disease Control. Adults 26–64 need seven to nine hours of sleep per night, but when we do not get enough sleep, we increase the risk for bad health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, and stroke, the CDC said. Our infographic on the science of sleep helps explain how a lack of sleep leads to mood and behavioral issues the next day, as well as how to remedy the situation. By sleeping well, you are letting your brain recharge, rest, and get ready for optimal performance the next day.
Getting a good night’s sleep can also help with weight loss. Insufficient sleep impacts hunger and fullness hormones, two of which are called ghrelin and leptin. Ghrelin tells the brain that the body craves food and it is time to eat. When we have not received enough sleep, our bodies produce more ghrelin. Similarly, the leptin hormone tells the brain when we have had enough. However, when we are sleep deprived, leptin levels lower, prohibiting a strong signal to get to the brain. Getting a full night of sleep helps keep our hormones in order.
Ways to Improve Your Metabolism
When combined, eating a proper diet with exercise and enough sleep can help you improve your metabolism, which will help you burn more calories. According to NASA bed-rest studies, “within a couple days of non-activity, the metabolism becomes inflexible.” By exercising daily, you can help jumpstart your metabolism and even improve it overtime. If your metabolism is slow, it will take time, but it is possible to improve it. Building muscle can also help your body burn a few more calories throughout the day, but aerobic exercises will push the metabolism even more.
Exercise Science Education and Careers
Like Tucker and Edwards, many individuals with a passion for health and fitness choose to pursue a career in exercise science. A comprehensive education in exercise science allows students to become part of the obesity solution. Degree programs in an online format also give students increased flexibility, especially in the case of adult learners.
At Concordia University, St. Paul, students can choose from online exercise science degrees at both the undergraduate and graduate level. This comprehensive background of study prepares students for a wide variety of health-related, exercise-focused careers. These programs expose students to key topic areas in exercise science such as:
- Aging
- Athletic training
- Biomechanics
- Chiropractic
- Exercise physiology
- Human growth
- Sports management
To learn more about exercise science options, download a free exercise science career guide from Concordia University, St. Paul. This resource explores in-demand careers in the field, including salary information and employment outlooks. Download the guide today to get started.
Learn More About Exercise Science
If you want to learn more about the science of weight loss, then enroll today in Concordia St. Paul’s online exercise science degree. This degree program will teach you a greater understanding of kinesiology, exercise physiology, movement science, fitness, and wellness. You will be taught by knowledgeable faculty in courses designed with your success in mind, and you can take advantage of our asynchronous, fully-online format, allowing you to balance your education with your already busy life.
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There is evidence that the technology shortage is undermining business performance. In a 2016 survey from IT outsourcer Harvey Nash and auditing firm KPMG, 65 percent of chief information officers (CIOs) and other business leaders said that recruitment issues were harming IT modernization efforts. “That is pretty staggering,” Bob Miano, president and CEO of Harvey Nash USA, told The Wall Street Journal. “CIOs may have great ideas but if you can’t get the IT talent, that’s a growing problem.” Updating the statistics, the National Center for Women & Informational Technology reported that in 2018, 26 percent of professional computing occupations in the U.S. were held by women, and that 20 percent of Fortune 500 CIO positions were held by women. On average, only five percent of those positions were held by minority populations.
Recruiting more women into the technology industry is an obvious solution. Technology is the only STEM discipline where the participation of women has declined in the past 20 years, tech leader Judith Spitz said at an innovation conference. The need for technology professionals is not the only reason, nor is it the most important argument, for achieving better gender diversity in technology. A lack of women in technology can lead to a decrease in performance and profits, creating a missed opportunity for those businesses.
The Impact of Having More Women in Technology
Literature examining the impact of women in the workplace — specifically women collaborating on teams and in leadership roles — demonstrates the need for and impact of having more women in technology. Greater gender diversity in technology can impact businesses’ bottom lines, as research from Morgan Stanley indicated.
Calls for more female participation in the economy have grown louder, often based on political or cultural arguments founded on fairness. Yet, a persuasive argument for diversity and equality can also be anchored to the bottom line. Ensuring that more women are working and leading in the workplace is simply good business, especially for investors who not only care about the ethics, but also want returns.
Female Employees’ Influence
In sectors where employee engagement and satisfaction are reflected by the quality of the product or service, gender diversity is especially important, according to Morgan Stanley. That statement applies to technology as well as financial, retail, leisure, and business services. Take one example examining companies’ return on equity (ROE) over the past six years: For companies with more gender diversity, they had, on average, 0.7 percent better ROE than regional sector peers. The number increased to 1.1 percent better ROE than businesses with low representation of women in the workplace. Higher gender diversity teams not only enjoyed better returns, but lower volatility. Also, in the past five years, those companies moderately outperformed companies with low diversity or sector peers.
Other findings support Morgan Stanley’s research. One report from management consulting firm McKinsey found that for companies in the top quartile for gender diversity, they were 15 percent more likely to have higher financial returns than national industry medians. A field experiment published in Management Science found that teams with an equal gender mix had better sales and profits than male-dominated teams. Research in the American Sociological Review concluded that gender diversity was associated with increased sales revenue, more customers, and greater relative profits.
Why does gender diversity in technology and other sectors lead to better performance? Researchers use the term “general collective intelligence” to refer to groups’ ability to perform well across a wide variety of tasks, and the concept is similar to general intelligence metrics for individuals, according to Topics in Cognitive Science; Studies published in Topics in Cognitive Science found that teams’ collective intelligence increased with the number of women in the group. One explanation is that the presence of women enhanced collective social sensitivity, leading to higher collective intelligence.
The takeaway is that having gender diversity can boost profits and increase productivity. Adding more women in technology can directly influence achieving business goals.
Female Leaders’ Influence
Based on research conducted by strengths-based leadership firm Zenger Folkman, women are often better leaders than men. The results were based on a sample of more than 7,000 leaders at high performing companies.
Women in technology were especially well-represented. Ratings for the leadership effectiveness of women versus men were the most pronounced in information technology, where women had a percentile score of 52.1 compared to 42.0 for men. In addition to information technology, the largest gaps came in other male-dominated functions like engineering, research and development, legal, product development, and sales. Females were rated more positively in 12 of the top 16 job functions surveyed.
Other findings revealed that female leaders were ranked better than male leaders. That held true for leadership effectiveness by position and top competencies. Note that on survey items for competencies, females scored significantly more positive on 36 of 49 items, compared to two items for men. The remaining survey items were neutral.
A report from financial services company Credit Suisse verified the trends in Zenger Folkman’s research. Covering more than 3,000 companies across 40 countries and all major sectors, Credit Suisse found that organizations with more women on the board of directors had better returns on equity, higher payouts of dividends, and better stock performance. For instance, companies that had more than 15 percent of women in top management roles earned an annual ROE of 14.7 percent. Compare that with the 9.7 percent ROE for companies where women represent less than 10 percent of top management roles.
After detailing data points in the report, Credit Suisse commented that “ … whatever the more qualitative judgements as to the benefits of greater diversity may be, there appears to be a material quantitative consideration for investors.” The message is clear: female leaders can be more effective leaders, which has a direct impact on employee development and performance, as well as company profits. Among other industries, technology companies should take note and focus on hiring more women in leadership positions.
Implementing Gender Diversity in Technology
How can businesses attract more women in technology roles and leadership positions? That is a challenging task, according to Gianna Scorsone, chief operations officer at staffing agency Mondo, but there are a few ways to enhance gender diversity in technology.
- Focus on unconscious biases: Hiring and management practices can involve unfairness and biases that occur unconsciously. Left unchecked, they can create defensiveness for employees about the way things are. Companies should check job postings for gendered wording, and anything else that might send the wrong message.
- Include women in the hiring process: Having women interview and hire people can remove bias in the process. Another benefit is that strong female representation can lead to female employees wanting to join that type of organization.
- Expand work-life policies: Inflexible work arrangements disproportionately impacts women, with the most common example of childcare. The technology industry is becoming more comfortable with non-traditional work arrangements, and that can provide a relatively easy way to help attract increase the number of women in technology.
To recruit more women into technology-driven jobs, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Jennifer Deutsch suggests showcasing a female-friendly environment, offering flexible hours and higher salaries, and following through with opportunities for promotion: “Organizations need to honestly ask themselves how many women hold leadership positions within the company or will have the opportunity to do so in the future? If the answer to this is very few, then you risk losing the already limited number of talented women in your organization to a more inclusive competitor.”
Convenient educational options can also help women get the education needed for several lucrative, in-demand careers. If you are interested in a technology career, an online degree in computer science or earning your information systems degree online can prepare you for roles like database administrator, software developer, web developer, IT manager, information security analyst, and more. These programs from Concordia University, St. Paul feature small class sizes with a personal learning environment geared toward your success. Learn from knowledgeable faculty who have industry experience.
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Accounting professionals have a lot of career options open to them, making it a versatile, practical discipline within the business world. In general, accountants provide all types of organizations with analysis of performance and a record of activities. They give companies the information they need to make informed and ethical decisions.
There are two main certifications within the accounting profession: certified public accountant (CPA) and certified management accountant (CMA). Several differences exist between these two types of certifications, and depending on your career goals and interests, one may appeal to you over the other. We’ve put together a guide to understanding CPA vs. CMA to help you decide which track is right for you.
CPA vs. CMA Job Descriptions
Certified public accountants work in many different types of industries and offer income tax information for both public and private clients. Many also perform business record-keeping tasks, auditing, and consultant work. In addition, CPAs prepare and analyze financial reports to ensure that companies comply with all federal and state laws. They may oversee budgets and perform financial management tasks. CPAs in a consulting role recommend fiscally advantageous methods that businesses can use to save money and be more efficient.
Certified management accountants, on the other hand, work specifically with a company to advise it on financial matters that affect it as a whole. This is in contrast to CPAs, who work at a more basic level to perform specific accounting tasks. Though CPAs can work for the public, CMAs solely work for private organizations. They serve as in-house consultants in all financial affairs. These professionals also perform control functions and inform decision-makers about the financial situation of the organization. CMAs are sometimes part of executive teams that participate in strategic planning.
Requirements and Certification
To become a CPA, you’ll need to earn a bachelor’s degree in accounting. You will also need to pass the four-part CPA exam, which is administered by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
The educational requirements for CMAs are broader. Although you must still hold a bachelor’s degree, you can choose to study disciplines outside of accounting, such as economics or finance. In terms of certification, you will need a GRE or GMAT score in or above the 50th percentile and two years of management accounting experience. This experience must be gained before applying for certification.
Salary and Career Outlook
According to PayScale, the average salary for a CPA is approximately $65,000 per year. CMAs, on the other hand, have an average annual salary of about $50,000.
The employment outlook for accountants of all types is strong. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that the number of jobs for the profession will increase 10% through 2026.
It Starts With Education
Both CPAs and CMAs require a bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field. The online bachelor’s in accounting program from Concordia University, St. Paul can help you get the credentials you need and prepare for certification. Through the program, you’ll explore a strategic approach to problem solving, as well as industry trends, rules, and regulations. As you learn from faculty who have real-world experience in the accounting field, you will have the flexibility to study when it’s most convenient. In addition, our online program allows you to transfer in up to 90 credits.
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America’s mainstream culture evolves to reflect the predominant values of the day, including social systems such as the family. Instead of being one unit, the family institution has been in a constant state of evolution, according to California Cryobank. Today, there really is no consistent definition of the American family. With single-parent households, varying family structures, and fewer children, the modern family defies categorization. But these most recent changes have brought with them a nostalgia-based myth: that divorce, domestic violence, and single parenthood are recent phenomena. When the history of the American family was surveyed in-depth by Insider, it became apparent that this is not the case. Constant change and adaptation are the only themes that remain consistent for families throughout America’s history. In fact, recent changes in family life are only the latest in a series of transformations in family roles, functions, and dynamics that have occurred over time.
A Brief History of the Pre-20th Century Family
When America was founded, a family was defined as a husband, wife, biological children and extended family (unfortunately, slaves were not considered part of any family). This meant that most people who could legally marry did, and then stayed married until death. According to Insider, in the 19th and early 20th centuries people often married to gain property rights or to move social class. All of that changed in the 1800s, with the ideas of love and romance becoming the main reason to wed. Divorce was rare; History Collection reports that, “the process of getting a divorce was very expensive, and a judge would never allow it, unless it was the last resort .. If two people were unhappy in a marriage, they sometimes decided to quietly separate in a mature, responsible way, but they were legally still married, and could never remarry someone else, unless their first husband or wife died.” Because this structure was so dominant, it played a crucial role in the creation and replication of cultural roles for men and women. The role of wives was to assist their husbands within the home, both keeping house and raising children.
Wives had no legal identity under a condition called coverture; ThoughtCo explains that “legally, upon marriage, the husband and wife were treated as one entity. In essence, the wife’s separate legal existence disappeared as far as property rights and certain other rights were concerned.” Husbands, in contrast, were managers and providers in the family. They controlled finances and had ultimate authority in the eyes of both society and the law. This meant that “a husband could not grant to his wife anything such as property, and could not make legal agreements with her after marriage because it would be like gifting something to one’s self or making a contract with one’s self.”
It was generally against the law to live together or have children outside of marriage. However, by the 19th century, coverture was less of an issue and these rigid legal boundaries were relaxed, with common-law marriage widely recognized as an acceptable union.
Government and the Family
The 19th century brought about a number of important changes to the family, according to Shirley A. Hill’s Families: A Social Class Perspective. In the first half of the century, married women began to have property rights through the Married Women’s Property Acts, which began to be enacted in 1839. By the early 20th century, most states permitted married women to “own property, sue and be sued, enter into contracts and control the disposition of property upon her death.” However, during this time a woman’s role in the family was still defined by her husband.
Another important development was government regulation of some aspects of childhood, such as child labor and schooling. To improve the well-being of children, “reformers pressed for compulsory school attendance laws, child labor restrictions, playgrounds … and widow’s pensions to permit poor children to remain with their mothers.” Despite these legal changes, the family became an even more important source of happiness and satisfaction. The “companionate family was envisioned as a more isolated, and more important unit — the primary focus of emotional life.” New ideas about marriage emerged, based on choice, companionship, and romantic love. This in turn caused a surge in the divorce rate, which tripled between 1860 and 1910.
Depression and War
The stability of families was tested by the Great Depression, as unemployment and lower wages forced Americans to delay marriage and having children. The divorce rate fell during this time because it was expensive and few could afford it. However, by 1940 almost 2 million married couples lived apart. Some families adjusted to the economic downturn by “returning to a cooperative family economy. Many children took part-time jobs and many wives supplemented the family income.”
When the Depression ended and World War II began, families coped with new issues: a shortage of housing, lack of schools and prolonged separation. Women ran households and raised children alone, and some went to work in war industries. The results of the war-stricken state of society were that “thousands of young people became latchkey children and rates of juvenile delinquency, unwed pregnancy, and truancy all rose.”
Family Structures in the Postwar World
In reaction to the tumult both at home and abroad during the 1940s, the 1950s marked a swift shift to a new type of domesticity. Insider reports that “the idea of the nuclear, All-American Family was created in the 1950s, and put an emphasis on the family unit and marriage.” This time period saw younger marriages, more kids, and fewer divorces. The average age for women to marry was 20, divorce rates stabilized, and the birth rate doubled. However, the perfect images of family life that appeared on television do not tell the whole story: “Only 60 percent of children spent their childhood in a male-breadwinner, female-homemaker household.”
This “democratization of family ideals” reflected a singular society and economy, one that was driven by a reaction against depression and war and compounded by rising incomes and lower prices. The economic boom that followed World War II led to significant economic growth, particularly in manufacturing and consumer goods; around 13 million new homes were built in the 1950s. Families moved to the suburbs because they could afford to, and the family became a “haven in a heartless world,” as well as “an alternative world of satisfaction and intimacy” for adults and children that had experienced the ravages of wartime. In fact, this is where the concept of close-knit families as we know it originates. Domestic containment as a way of life was reinforced by American youth, who wanted to have long-lasting and stronger relationships than their parents had. Soldiers and servicemen who returned from war were looking to get married and raise children.
The Idyllic ’50s
The standard structure of the family in postwar America consisted of a breadwinner male, his wife who did household chores and looked after the children, and the children themselves. Families ate meals and went on outings together, and lived in sociable neighborhoods. Parents paid close attention to disciplining their children and live-in relationships were unheard of — in fact, girls stayed in their parents’ home until marriage and did not commonly attend college. Children became emotional rather than economic assets for the first time, close with their parents and the center of the family. Because of this, parents studied child development and worked to socialize their children so that they would become successful adults. Childhood became a distinct period of life. However, young girls were supposed to be housewives instead of educated professionals.
All in all, family structure in the ’50s was based around one central necessity: a secure life. The economic and global instability of the early 20th century gave rise to the need for closely defined family units. This led to an ideology that lauded economic advancement and social order, the results of which were younger marriages that lasted longer, more children, fewer divorces, and more nuclear families.
The Modern Family Unit
The nuclear family of the ’50s epitomized the economically stable family unit. The idea of the middle-class, patriarchal, child-centered families were short-lived. This is why the modern family, in most cases, bears little resemblance to this “ideal” unit. Many of the changes that were part of this transition are a direct result of the expanding role of women in society, both in terms of the workplace and education. The rise of the post-industrial economy, based in information and services, led to more married women entering the workplace. As early as 1960, around a third of middle class women were working either part-time or full-time jobs. Since the ’60s, families have also become smaller, less stable, and more diverse. More adults, whether young or elderly, live outside of the family as well. Today, the male-breadwinner, female-housewife family represents only a small percentage of American households. A considerable majority of Americans (62 percent) view the idea of marriage as “one in which husband and wife both work and share child care and household duties.” Two-earner families are much more common as well. In 2008, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that women made up almost 50 percent of the paid labor force, putting them on equal footing with men when it comes to working outside the home. In addition, single-parent families headed by mothers, families formed through remarriage, and empty-nest families have all become part of the norm.
Along with these shifts have come declining marriage and birth rates and a rising divorce rate. The American birth rate is half of what it was in 1960, and hit its lowest point ever in 2012. In addition, the number of cohabiting couples increased from less than half a million in 1960 to 4.9 million in the 2000 census. According to the 2005 American Community Survey, more than 50 percent of households in America were headed by an unmarried person during that year. And by 2007, almost 40 percent of children were born to unmarried, adult mothers. One reason for these developments is that marriage has been repositioned as a “cornerstone to capstone, from a foundational act of early adulthood to a crowning event of later adulthood.” It is viewed as an event that should happen after finishing college and establishing a career.
Further Change in the Marital Family
A number of historical factors contributed to shifts in how Americans perceive and participate in family structure. According to the American Bar Association, in 1965, the Supreme Court extended constitutional protections for “various forms of reproductive freedom” through its ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut. There were also medical advances in contraception, including the invention of the birth control pill in 1960. As a result, the way children were brought into families became more varied than ever before. Divorce changed during the ’60s as well. In 1969, California became the first state to adopt no-fault divorce, permitting parties to end their marriage simply upon showing irreconcilable differences. Within 16 years, every other state had followed suit.
Included in these trends is the expansion of rights granted to same-sex couples. With the decline of barriers to lesbian and gay unions and the increase in legal protections, more LGBTQ populations are living openly. Gay marriage was legalized in 2015; However, for some legal purposes these relationships are still not treated like marriages. Still, in general, families are more racially, ethnically, religiously, and stylistically diverse. However, all of this change does not mean that the family is a dying institution. About 90 percent of Americans still marry and have children, and those who divorce usually remarry.
The Role of Human Services
Many who are interested in family development and culture choose to pursue a career in human services. With an emphasis on current issues and skills for living successfully in today’s society, this applied science is constantly evolving, much like the family units that are its area of study. It is a discipline including contributions from related academic areas such as law, sociology, psychology, anthropology, healthcare, and more. Because of this, professionals in the field practice in a variety of contexts, including:
- Education
- Research
- Community outreach
- Human services
- Nutrition
The field of human services plays an important role in navigating the implications of today’s global society. Though the families of today have little in common with those in previous decades and centuries, social sciences professionals have a clear perspective on how to approach the complexities of a constantly evolving institution. And these skills will only become more valuable as families continue to evolve.
Human Service Degrees at CSP Global
CSP Global offers online human service degree programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. The comprehensive education students receive through these programs allows them to become practitioners in this dynamic and interdisciplinary field.