Only Hope comparison - Essay Example

On the other hand, Condon authored a book describing his findings from an extensive study that sought to describe how the youth of the Inuit people of the Holman island of Canada Arctic coped with the rigorous changes of adolescence amidst many social, economic, and demographic transformations. Both of these books offer an anthropological description of the Inuit youth and Chinese singletons. This paper will offer a comparison of the research questions addressed, methodologies, roles of the research , the content described in the two books and the conclusions drawn.

Fong’s as highlighted in the book ‘only hope’ research question centered on determining what type of attributes were exhibited by singletons. The research was probed by the fact that parents of singletons bestowed a lot of hope in these children. Moreover, the possibility that the parents accorded these children all their attention and offered them multiple material things would have had the potential of spoiling such children. On the other hand, Condon realized that the adolescence stage presented rigorous psychological, emotional, hormonal, and physical changes that define the transition from childhood to adulthood (Fong, 2006).

This prompted him to analyze how the adolescents of the Inuit youth in the Holman Island in the Canadian Arctic region coped with the social, economic, and demographic factors. He reasoned that understanding how all these changes shaped the maturation process of the adolescents could offer an advanced understanding of functioning processes of humans. Fong carried a study in the Dalian region, a coastal city that was undergoing transformation from an industrial center to service-oriented town.

For 27 months, in the years 1997-2002, Fong worked closely with different schools, students, and parents. Her survey was extensive and included 2273 students in different ranks of schools. She had the privilege of visiting about 107 homes in the region (Fong, 2006). She identified 31 families as her sample after having an extensive interaction through tutorial classes offered within the home setting. The role of her research was to determine whether the one child policy had any impact on the children born.

On the other hand, Condon carried out two extensive field studies of the Inuit youth on the Holman Island. Although his first study sought to address a different objective, it offered an introductory understanding of the community (Condon, 1988). He compiled his findings after seven years of an interactive field study. The role of his research was to analyze how the youth coped with the numerous changes that defined their lives. Condon selected sub-section of the Holman Island as his sample population.

Fong’s research revealed that singletons faced a surging pressure to become exemplary children as her findings highlight. The different chapters in her book reveal that parents expected singletons to demonstrate a higher sense of focus in school compared to children who had siblings. This translated into different forms of pressure exerted on the children by the parents so that they would meet the defined expectations (Fong, 2006). It becomes evident from the findings described that parents had viewed singletons in terms of the future.

The research