II. Demographic Paragraph on your topic, statement of the problem, delineation of a human diversity issue. (To be submitted in the 8th week)
By now, you should be able to articulate a clear topic title of your management project. Create an introduction to your topic by defining a problem/issue that is encompassed by your two readings. Using the Tentative Annotated bibliography and topic statement from week 3, expand your discussion of the connections of your topic to the required components for the project: Systems Theory Model, human diversity, some aspect of family or consumer resource management. After you have developed the connections, delineate the problem/issue by highlighting statistics and facts that make this an important problem or issue for which the class should be concerned/interested. You should go outside the two articles that you have read to find this information. An example might be citing such things as “1 of every 2 marriages ends in divorce” to focus attention on how frequently the marital system breaks down to introduce why you are focusing on how to make a marriage last. Note: this assignment is to total approximately 400 words. (Make sure to identify a source for your statistics/facts that is other than the two articles read.)

Title: Parental Behaviors Effecting Children
Introduction: From the time that a child is born to their adulthood, they are being influenced by their parents, from participation in physical activity to stress responses. Children respond to their parent’s influences because they model their behavior based on their parent’s behaviors. Children’s response to stress is often not noticed until much later, while children’s likelihood to participate in physical activity seems to have a correlation with the parental education. The goal is to have a child that has a positive stress response, which promotes a healthy social-cognitive development, and to promote physical activity during childhood.

This shows that there is an open and morphogenic system when talking about parental behaviors and their effect on children.
Example:
Title: Planning Retirement for Individuals and Families
Introduction: From the first anticipated day on our first job to our last weary week, working Americans have a common goal: retirement. Financial planning for future retirement in America frequently is not considered until late in the work cycle, sometimes not until a few years before retirement. This is largely due to the reliance that Americans have had upon government-funded Social Security income, perhaps supplemented with a company-paid pension plan. In the future, it is anticipated that both of these resources may be less available or even non-existent due to an increasing demographic demand on government Social Security funds and a decreasing trend in company-paid pension plans. Alternatives to retirement funding must be sought in order to manage available money for optimal savings in later years. Some of these alternatives include the managed use of stocks, bonds, mutual funds, tax-deferred IRA’s and company sponsored 401(k) plans. Depending on the needs of the family or individual, planning retirement with such funds can maximize the amount of money that is available at retirement age. From a family system perspective, retirement planning involves the input of monetary resources and carefully managed implementation of market funds. The ultimate goal of managing retirement funds is the reward of being able to retire comfortably at an age in which the individual can continue to reap the benefits of their life-long work while using feedback incorporated into the system for continued growth of money to meet the demands of retirement.

Statistics/Facts that make this an important problem: Year Population over 65 (millions) Percent
1990 31.5 20.4%
2000 34.8 20.8
2010 39.3 21.8
2020 52.1 29.0
2030 65.6 38.0
2040 68.1 39.3
2050 68.5 39.9 Donlan, M. (2001). What the age demographics tell us of tomorrow. American Demographics. 8(8), 235-236.

With seniors becoming an increasing percent of the overall population, Social Security is further threatened. This reinforces the likelihood that Social Security will not be available at the same level to future generations. It is crucial for the current generations in the workforce to begin the planning process for their own retirements as early as possible. Likewise, those who are just entering the workforce should begin their careers strategizing for their retirement so that the goal of a comfortable future is not left to chance. the goal of a comfortable future is not left to chance.