Assignment - Zara CaseQuest Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Assignment - Zara CaseQuest - Research Paper Example The management at the company understands that the industry is dynamic and many factors continue to drive the change including customer needs and supply. However, supply is second to customer demands. The top management holds that the company must provide what the market demands and not vice versa (Bower, 2002). Zara has various opportunities and resources that would help the group meet its goals in the process of satisfying clients. The company maintains close management of with tight running of the process of production. To achieve this, Zara maintains both manufacturing and design processes in-house. The only exception is having strategic partnerships situated next to the head offices. Across Europe, the company keeps more than eighty percent of its production in-house with Spain having the least at fifty because of being close to the headquarters. Furthermore, the company enters into agreements with local manufacturers to strategically chase the clients appearing elusive. The agreements help in timely delivery of products as well as services. The company maintains flexibility by designing and producing more than twelve thousand new products to the market every year (Casadesus-Masanell, 2006). This is in addition to the benefits emanating from proximity. Application of these strategies makes the work of chasing to achieve their targets besides satisfying consumer needs. Value chasers are intangible and tangib le in terms of benefits received by stakeholders. From the tangible perspectives Inditex that owns Zara operates a net margin of slightly more than eleven percentile both in the market capitalization and operational activities. The working capital in terms of its net is healthy running more than one hundred and thirty-three thousand Euros. The exemplary performance in the financial sector demonstrates the prowess of Zara to run business in the industry. Within four years up to the turn of the century, the

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Essay Example for Free

Ben Jerry’s Homemade Essay With four offers on the table, Ben Jerry’s had quite the decision to make. When it came down to it, they chose the most attractive offer which turned out to be with Unilever. As time passed, this was shown to ultimately be a very wise choice as the financial results would later show impressive results. These impressive results could be seen by looking at how the operating margins tripled and were able to maintain a 700M operating profit in succeeding years after the merger (starting in 2002), operations expanded into 13 new countries, and that their sales reached a notable 7. 9 million. Put this together with the fact that Unilever let Ben Jerry’s continue to operate as an independent subsidiary and continue a majority of their social agenda, this was a successful merger for Ben Jerry’s. From a Unilever’s perspective, it proved to be just as lucrative. Investors in Unilever has grown uneasy for some time with Unilever and had been pressuring them to grow. This was partly solved when Unilever finally acquired Ben Jerry’s (And around 20 other companies at that time) and was able to grow Ben Jerry’s internationally and increase its company’s value to its investors. All said and done, this was a very successful merger for both parties despite a few integration problems that will be discussed in the following analysis. First off it should be mentioned that Ben Jerry was able to continue their social contributions. They were able to stay in Vermont, continue to buy non-BGH diary goods from Vermont supplies, and continue to have their free cones day. Unilever even helped start a Ben Jerry’s foundation that would help fund businesses in low-income communities. All this was in the result of Ben Jerry’s company culture and the employee’s attitudes. One impact from this was that the employees were quite â€Å"playful.† This led to the first integration problem when Unilever implanted its own executive, Yves Couette, as CEO of Ben Jerry’s. He had the task of being able to switch from the more strict corporate culture at Unilever to Ben Jerry’s more laid back culture This led to him hiring a consultant who would teach financial issues to the employees at Ben Jerry’s in a playful matter. Another integration problem was that there were a couple duplicate processes that Ben Jerry’s and Unilever both had. These processes produced inefficiencies that took place in the production and distribution of Ben Jerry’s. Because of this, two Ben Jerry’s plants  were closed which resulted in 69 Ben Jerry employees being let go. Even though employees were let go, this was still the best route to go as a company wants to be as lean as possible. There was also a couple integration problems when it came down to corporate policy. Unilever had a policy which disallowed any partisan political actions. Ben Jerry’s didn’t formally have this in their policy. The problem occurred when some of Ben Jerry employees wanted to go to an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. on a bus emblazoned with the Ben Jerry’s name. Because it was against Unilever’s corporate policy, they were unable to go to the antiwar demonstration. When looking at the profit for Ben Jerry’s in the early 2000s, the merger has been quite successful. The impressive results can be seen from the operating margin and profit. The merger seemed to have come at a perfect time for Unilever, as their investors were looking to gain from expansion. A few integration problems arose from the merger. Inefficiencies were eliminated, which in turn caused the company to downsize. Unilever’s non-partisan policy conflicted with Ben Jerry’s socially aware company theme. Even though these problems arose, the merger between the two companies was successful.

Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip: An Analysis

Lloyd Jones’ Mister Pip: An Analysis The Role of Imagination in Lloyd Jones’  Mister Pip  and Its Analysis In Terms Of Reader-Oriented Criticism The imaginative and creative aspects of literature are essentials components of the word literature itself. Literature is the product of human being’s imagination and intellect so through literature we can live more than one life. Imagination can be expressed as a mental faculty which all people have and as an important principle in literary theory. Only imagination provides the possibility to take us to times, places and realities that we have not lived before.  Lloyd Jones’  Mister Pip  won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize Best Book Award in 2007 and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Jones shows us that literature provides an escape from real life through imagination and it also allows entrance to another world escaping from oppressive political regimes in his novel  Mister Pip. In this essay,  Mister Pip  will be analyzed in terms of the role of imagination and reader – oriented criticism. The novel  Mister Pip  by Lloyd Jones is set in the early 1990s on Bougainville Island in the Ocean, in the middle of a civil war. There is a blockade around the island, and the majority of natives and non-natives have gone. The last white man on the island, Mr Watts, has stayed behind with his native wife and he decides to teach the children. The only thing he knows, is Charles Dickens’s  Great Expectations. He reads the novel to them and the children are greatly affected by it. When the children carry on the story to their parents, and soldiers and rebels invade the village, a misunderstanding due to the novel results in the destruction of the village. In  Mister Pip, we can realize that thanks to imagination an author and reader are able to deal with, judge, and enjoy literature. Literary works give the possibility of manifold inner experiences, because imagination enables the author to create and the reader to follow literary realities on different levels. According to Albert Einstein, â€Å"Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.† In  Mister Pip, although Mr. Watts has the only textbook which is Dicken’s Great Expectations, he gives his students more than knowledge by showing the true way to reach their imagination. Besides, if we have looked at the Dictionary of Psychology, we actually understand what imagination is. It is â€Å"the reorganization of data derived from past experiences, with new relations, into present ideational experience.† In other words it’s the ability to take old datas with some new datas mixed in and make a picture in your mind. We can divide imagination into three basic types: Imitative imagination, creative imagination and literary imagination. Imitative imagination is apparently the mind’s reconstruction of the past. People use their brains to conceptualize something they have experienced and recreate it. In  Mister Pip, we can illustrate this imitative imagination that when the copy of  Great Expectations  which the only thing that the children have is stolen, the children are invited to recreate the text from the fragments they can remember. On the other hand, creative imagination involves mental imagery, which is based on past images or experiences to construct feelings or conditions that we have never experienced before. The island children discover the Great Expectations by means of Mr. Watts and for them the novel provides an imaginative escape route from their daily realities to a new friend for their adventures and confidences. Moreover, at the end of the novel, Matilda, the protagonist, comments on her life with these following sentences : People sometimes ask me â€Å"Why Dickens?† which I always take to be a gentle rebuke. I point to the one book that supplied me with another world at a time when it was desperately needed. It gave me a friend in Pip. It taught me you can slip under the skin of another just as easily as your own, even when that skin is white and belongs to a boy alive in Dickens’ England. Now if that isn’t an act of magic I don’t know what is. (Jones 199) She reveals her success in becoming a scholar and a Dickens expert and concludes her narrative by emphasizing the power of literature to offer escape and solace in the worst of times.  Great Expectations  has a long-lasting influence on her, and considering the novel as a whole, it is Dickens’ novel that prompts her to look back and write her life story. She also learns that â€Å"escape† can be achieved imaginatively, that one can furnish an alternative world in one’s own mind. Imagination also enables Matilda to learn that things could change and even a person can change into something because literature has a transformative power. Literature of significance says to us, â€Å"Change your life†. An intelligent voice appeals to our way of thinking and feeling and proposes a challenge. How does this affect the possibilities in your life? Steiner (142) remarks on the indiscretion of serious art; it invades our last privacies and exposes our unknown motives and belief. [] When we are emotionally engaged, our minds are more attentive and our opportunity for learning is heightened. Emotions code the information we are receiving and it enters more deeply into our awareness. When we are moved by what we read, we respond, either in thinking, discussions with others, or sometimes in writing our own stories. Our interpretation is a moral act. We find that our response to what is on the page is immediate, no matter how long ago the author laid down her words. With time and experience in reading, we form an intensity of sight, what we might call a literary intelligence.(Susan Barber, 2005) Based on the quotation above, we can grasp this idea that any author and reader can see the literary or possible world in reference to their personal realities by appealing to the imagination. Whether literature works best as an agent for social change or whether it is just entertainment, art is still able to delight us through contact with the author’s creativity and imagination. In addition, Lloyd Jones said in an interview that he chose to introduce it, rather than any other classic novel, because it would be â€Å"the perfect book [†¦] to position in a society that was broken down and [†¦] pulled apart by eternal strife and war. Here is [†¦] the role model, here is the possibil ity for you to think about your own life. You can reinvent yourselves† (Lloyd Jones Podcast) . In  Mister Pip, Matilda realizes that the characters of  Great Expectations  teach her to enter the soul of another, ultimately to imagine and the novel invites her to imagine another life and also Mr. Watts gives his students a friend: Pip and their imagination. At the beginning of the novel, Mr Watts promises that the children get acquainted with Mr Dickens, at the same time he opens up the classroom as a space of ambiguity, a place where he acknowledges differing opinions and the subjectivity of interpretation. He wants to show them that it is possible to change their lives because Pip did it and Mr. Watts did it, too. He intends to give the village children an alternative world to the one they live in: an imaginary world where everything is new and different, as opposed to their own world of constant fear. The children perceive  Great Expectations  with fascination and are open to the idea of the imagination. When the soldiers invade the island and are told that this new world is fictitious, they refuse to believe it because they are far away from this new world. The rebels, all of them teenagers, do not get to listen to  Great Expectations  but Mr. Watts tells them a made-up story about his life acting like Pip, a character of  Great Expectations  although it is fiction, they believe it to be a true story and are fascinated, reacting just like the village children initially reacted to  Great Expectations. All of them perceive it each in their own way. The world depicted in Mister Pip is one of Lloyd Jones’ imagination, because he has never been in Bougainville during the conflict. Moreover, Matilda’s imagination is so powerful that she believes her island will be saved and her life will change like Pip who is her childhood friend, however, when Matilda is a t the university, she reads  Great Expectations  once more but she interprets it quite differently.   Matilda temporarily reinvents herself, by starting a new life in Australia after leaving the island, but at the end of the novel she decides to return home. Her confronting the previous traumas will also be the subject matter of this article. Mr. Watts is somewhat similar to Pip, because he manages to move away from a situation he was unhappy in, and reinvent himself, just like Pip. However, his past continues to haunt him till his death. The novel affects people both positively and negatively. When the redskins have burnt down the village, Mr. Watts tries to comfort the children and himself by telling them that â€Å" we have all lost our possessions and many of us our homes, but these losses, severe though they may be, remind us of what no person can take, and that is our minds and our imaginations’’ (Jones 106). From this it is clear that fiction and the imagination work together to reinvent ourselves. In  Mister Pip,  Mr. Watts reads  Great Expectations  to his pupils in a different way and the characters in the novel understand it in a different way. A literary work can have more than one interpretation and each reader does not interpret in the same way. This is called reader-oriented criticism. According to the nineteenth-century essayist, novelist and literary critic Henry James, â€Å"this house represents the literary form-a story, a novel,a poem,or an essay-with each window being an individual reader’s distinct impression of that literary work†. Each person reads the same text but all will obtain different impression. Reader response criticism declares that the reader is just as much a producer of meaning as the text itself. Reader-response criticism began in the 1960s and 70s, particularly in America and Germany, in works byRoland Barthes, Norman Holland,Wolfgang Iser,Hans-Robert Jauss,Stanley Fish. Wolfang Iser, a German literary scholar, builds a reader oriented theory around the concepts of narrative. According to Iser’s gap theory and Rosenblatts’ transactional theory, no text can exist until either the reader or an interpretive community creates it and gaps mean the absent details and connections within a narrative that a reader must fill in or make up his or her own experiences. Iser also claims that â€Å"the reader is an active, essential player in the text’s interpretation, writing part of the text as the story is read and concretized and, indispensably, becoming its coauthor†. For Rosenblatts, â€Å"the text acts as a stimulus for eliciting various past experiences, thoughts and ideas from the reader, those found in both our everyday existence and in past reading e xperiences. Simultaneously, the text shapes the readers’ experiences by functioning as a blueprint, selecting, limiting and ordering those ideas that best conform to the text†. In this case,  Mister Pip  is an example novel which shows that a reader interprets the text in ways that reveal his or her identity and different readers produce different interpretations and even different texts. With this following quotation, we can openly comprehend that each reader should fill the gaps with his or her interpretation or imagination. Gist. This needed explaining. Mr. Watts put it this way.† If I say tree, I will think English oak, you will think palm tree. They are both trees. A palm and an oak both successfully describe what a tree is but they are different trees.† So this is what gist meant. We could fill in the gaps with our own worlds.(Jones 113) Based on the quotation above, we can realize that Mr. Watts teach to the children how to see and analyze something with their own eyes. An other important literary theorist, Norman Holland points out that the reader makes sense of the text by creating a meaningful unity out of its element. He also claims that if the facts of a text have satisfied the reader’s ego, the reader readily projects her or his fears and wishes onto it. For him, the text frees the reader to reexperience his or her self-defining fantasies and to hold their importance. For example, if we have deeply looked at the novel, we see that through its plot, characters, technical and stylistic preferences, it makes the reader reconsider roles of literature. In The Fictive and the Imaginary (1993), Iser argues that literature has lost the quality to lead and improve the reader because media and schools have imposed established beliefs and fixed thoughts so Iser suggests that fiction and imaginary provides breaking the boundaries and overcoming these fixed ideas. In this following quotation, we can see how fiction and imagination provide a psychological escape from thoughts of daily life in a novel. Mr Watts had given us kids another piece of world. I found I could go back to it as often as I liked. What’s more, I could pick up any moment in the story. No. I was hearing someone give an account of themselves and all that had happened. I was still discovering my favourite bits. Pip in the graveyard surrounded by the headstones of his dead parents and five dead brothers ranked high. We knew about death-we had seen all those babies burried up on the hillside. Me and Pip had something else in common ; I was eleven when my father left,so neither of us really knew our fathers.(25) Dickens’ novel changes the way Matilda perceives her life and her surroundings, lets her to draw parallels between Pip and herself, and provides her with another world to which she can escape. Additionally, literature has the potential to open up our minds, not only to what is but to what could be. Like Iser, Stanley Fish, a contemporary reader oriented critic, argues that meaning inheres in the reader, not the text and the text is tabula rasa and the reader determines the form and content of the text. His theory is radical and controversial. He states that In the procedures I would urge, the readers activities are at the center of attention, where they are regarded not as leading to meaning but as having meaning.† He defends this idea because he believes that there is no stable basis for meaning. There is no correct interpretation that will always be true. Meaning does not exist in the text. It exists, rather, within the reader. From this following quotation, we can co mprehend that Matilda interprets her experiences in the light of reader-response criticism. By now I understood the importance of the forge in the book. The forge was home: it embraced all those things that give a life its shape. For me, it meant the bush tracks, the mountains that stood over us, the sea that sometimes ran away from us, it was the ripe smell of blood I could not get out of my nostrils since I saw Black with its belly ripped open. It was the hot sun. It was the fruits we ate, the fish, the nuts. The noises we heard at night. It was the earthy smell of the makeshift latrines. And the tall trees, which like the sea, sometimes looked eager to get away from us. It was the jungle and its constant reminder of how small you were, and how unimportant, compared to the giant trees and their canopy’s greed for sunlight. [] It was fear, and it was loss. (Jones 46) Based on the quotation above, Jones shows us that Reader-oriented criticism opens a new window to the readers and shows that the subjective experiences and imagination affect readers’ interpretations. We can comprehend from these lines that interpretations of each work change from person to person.   In conclusion,  Mister Pip  is a novel that shows how literature and imagination can change our lives for the better or for the worse. Matilda also shows the reader that it is possible to get lost in a fiction and by means of imagination we can start a new life. In the novel, Lloyd Jones gives us the fact that there is always hope in spite of our bad memories. Through reading we can imagine ourselves into someone else’s life and empathize with them and we start feeling as them, to see the world as they see it. So this essay will be helpful to understand that considering Reader-oriented criticism, everybody has a different interpretation about literary works and also through imagination each work can be invaluable for the reader to guide him/her in the way of life.    Works Cited Barber, Susan. The Importance of Developing the Feeling Function: How  Literature Can Help.  Sfu Ca. Apr 2005. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. Bressler,Charles E..  Literary Criticism.New Jersey:Pearson,2007.Print Daly, Sathyabhama. and Stephen Torre.â€Å"Ecosublimity in Lloyd Jones’s Mister Pip†.  Townswille: James Cook UP,2011.Print. Dickens, Charles.  Great Expectations. New York: Collins Classics,2010. Print.  Jones, Lloyd.  Mister Pip.New Zealand:Penguin,2006.Print. . â€Å"Lloyd Jones Podcast.†Ã‚  Mister Pip – Random House Official Website. Web. 14  Sept. 2010. Audio. 13 Mar. 2014. Klein, Jà ¼rgen. Vera Damm and Angelika Giebeler. â€Å"An Outline of a Theory of Imagination.†Ã‚  Journal for General Philosophy of Science  14,1 (1983): 15-23.JSTOR. Web.10  November 2013. Mazzoni, Giuliana. and Amina Memon. â€Å"Imagination Can Create False Autobiographical  Memories.†Journal of Psychological Science,  14.2 (2003):186-188.  JSTOR. Web.10  November 2013. Quincey, Thomas De.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power.†Ã‚  Essays of  Yesterday and Today. L.Tinker, Harold. London: Macmillan,1934. 617-626. Print Robertson, Ian.  Opening the Mind’s Eye: How Images and Language Teach us How  to See. New York: St. Martin.2002.Print Taylor, Beverly . â€Å"Discovering New Pasts: Victorian Legacies in the Postcolonial Worlds of  Jack Maggs  and  Mister Pip. †Victorian Studies ,52,1,(2009):95-105.JSTOR.Web.11  November 2013. Tompkins, Jane P..Reader Response Criticism:From Formalism To Poststructuralism.  Baltimore:The Johns Hopkins UP, 1980.Print

Heavy Metal Poisoning :: essays research papers fc

Heavy Metal Poisoning Heavy metal poisoning is the toxic accumulation of heavy metals in the soft tissues of the body. Heavy metals are chemical elements that have a specific gravity at least five times that of water. The heavy metals most often implicated in human poisoning are lead, mercury, arsenic, and cadmium. Some heavy metals, such as zinc, copper, chromium, iron, and manganese, are required by the body in small amounts, but these same elements can be toxic in larger quantities. Heavy metals may enter the body in food, water, or air, or by absorption through the skin. Once in the body, they compete with and displace essential minerals such as zinc, copper, magnesium, and calcium, and interfere with organ system functions. People may come into contact with heavy metals in industrial work, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and agriculture. Its even possible that children can be poisoned as a result of playing in contaminated soil.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Heavy metal poisoning may be detected using blood and urine tests, hair and tissue analysis, or x rays. In childhood, blood lead levels above 80  µg/dL generally indicate lead poisoning, however, significantly lower levels (>30  µg/dL) can cause mental retardation and other cognitive and behavioral problems in affected children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers a blood lead level of 10  µg/dL or higher in children a cause for concern. In adults, symptoms of lead poisoning are usually seen when blood lead levels exceed 80  µg/dL for a number of weeks. Another important factor is that blood levels containing mercury should not exceed 3.6  µg/dL, while urine levels should not exceed 15  µg/dL. Symptoms of mercury poisoning may be seen when mercury levels exceed 20  µg/dL in blood and 60  µg/dL in urine. An interesting way to test for the amount of mercury in someones system, is to test hair a follicle, and record the levels of mercury in order to gauge the severity of chronic mercury exposure. Furthermore, arsenic is rapidly cleared from the blood. Blood arsenic levels may not be very useful in diagnosis. Arsenic in the urine (measured in a 24-hour collection following 48 hours without eating seafood) may exceed 50  µg/dL in people with arsenic poisoning. If acute arsenic poisoning is suspected, an x ray may reveal ingested arsenic in the abdomen. It is visible because the arsenic appears solid on an x-ray. Arsenic may also be detected in the hair and nails for months following exposure.

The Life of Adam: Heroes Don’t Run

Heroes Don't Run: A Novel of the Pacific War Author: Harry Mazer Brennan Gaspard October 2, 2009 5th hour, Mrs. Reeves Heroes Don't Run: A Novel of the Pacific War written by Harry Mazer. This is a fiction story with a lot of action and history. Reading this story made me feel like I was really there along the side of Adam during the Pacific war. Adam is determined to serve his country in honor of his father, a naval officer, who was killed in Pearl Harbor. Adam enlisted in the Marines hoping that serving his country would be honoring his father’s wishes.It was what his father would have expected of him. Adam felt like he had to do his part by serving in the Pacific war before it ended. What Adam didn’t know was that war was not at all like he expected. In 1944, Adam Pelko, waits for his eighteenth birthday to come so he can sign up with the Marines and serve his country. The story began in Bakersfield, California where Adam lived with his mother and little sister Bea. Adam was only seventeen years old and could not get his mind off of signing up for the Marines.He knew his mother was against him signing up, but he had to follow his dream. Adam finally got the opportunity when he got to visit his grandfather, Osker Pelko, who lived in Watertown, New York. He served in World War I and understood why his grandson wanted to sign up so bad. Adam’s grandfather signed him up even though he too did not want to lose him because he had already lost his son, Adams father to war. Adam is sent to boot camp, then to Okinawa to fight the Japanese and to do his part in the Pacific war.During the war Adam friends Ben and Rosie are killed. Adam has constant memories about his father and witnesses unforgettable experiences. Adam’s leg gets injured by a mortar shell blast that blows fragments of rock, dirt, and even bits of bone into his body. He is sent to the Aiea Naval hospital in Honolulu. Adam had to have several operations and a cast put on his l eg. While in the hospital Adam thinks about his two friends Rosie and Ben being real hero’s because they were killed in battle.In the summer of 1945, Adams was released and able to go home. As soon as he the ship docked he called his mother and grandfather to tell them he was coming home. After being released by the doctors at the San Diego Marine hospital, Adam goes home to California. Once Adam finally gets home he realizes that the whole war isn't about the guns or killing people. He was put in the situation to fight for his life and his opinion about war had changed. He remembered how scared he got and tried to avoid fighting.He did not feel like a hero. Adam also realized what he had put his mother through having her worry if he was alive or dead. He considered giving her the purple heart and saying, â€Å"It’s for you too, mom. † Adam enjoyed being home with his family and did not want to talk about the war. He did not feel like a hero, even though he had fought for his country instead of running. I really liked this story because it showed me what soldiers have to go through to keep our freedom.

Free Essays on Role Of Parents And Family In Children’s Drug Use

Over the past two decades, studies have shown that the influence of parents and family is a significant factor in children’s drug use. A large body of research findings shows that the family contributes both risk and protective factors to the lives of adolescents. It affects both vulnerability and resilience to drug abuse (NIDA Notes, May/June 1996). A series of studies confirm the role of parents and families in adolescents’ life choices, in which the objective was to identify risk and protective factors at the family, school, and individual levels as they relate to four domains of adolescent health and morbidity: emotional health, violence, substance use and sexuality (Resnick, 1997). Resnick studied over 12,000 adolescents, grades 7 through 12, and interviewed them one by one at home on varies problems mentioned above including substance use. The key finding is that being connected with their parents and families, sometimes with helps from school and peers, those tee ns are more successful in dealing with the existing or the potential substance abuse problems. He concludes that across all domains of risk, the role of parents and family in substance control is critical. Although the physical presence of a parent in the home at crucial time helps to reduce the risk of substance use, the more significant influencing factor is the parental connectedness. Other factors might include home settings and the frequent exposure to healthy environment. Homes that provide easy access to alcohol, tobacco, and other illegal substances increase the adolescents’ chances of being engaged in the activities which involved unhealthy substance using. This literature review explore several areas influencing adolescents’ substance use such as usage by parents, communication patterns of family patterns of family members, relationships to family member (attachment and connectedness), and the influences of family structure and the extended family. T... Free Essays on Role Of Parents And Family In Children’s Drug Use Free Essays on Role Of Parents And Family In Children’s Drug Use Over the past two decades, studies have shown that the influence of parents and family is a significant factor in children’s drug use. A large body of research findings shows that the family contributes both risk and protective factors to the lives of adolescents. It affects both vulnerability and resilience to drug abuse (NIDA Notes, May/June 1996). A series of studies confirm the role of parents and families in adolescents’ life choices, in which the objective was to identify risk and protective factors at the family, school, and individual levels as they relate to four domains of adolescent health and morbidity: emotional health, violence, substance use and sexuality (Resnick, 1997). Resnick studied over 12,000 adolescents, grades 7 through 12, and interviewed them one by one at home on varies problems mentioned above including substance use. The key finding is that being connected with their parents and families, sometimes with helps from school and peers, those tee ns are more successful in dealing with the existing or the potential substance abuse problems. He concludes that across all domains of risk, the role of parents and family in substance control is critical. Although the physical presence of a parent in the home at crucial time helps to reduce the risk of substance use, the more significant influencing factor is the parental connectedness. Other factors might include home settings and the frequent exposure to healthy environment. Homes that provide easy access to alcohol, tobacco, and other illegal substances increase the adolescents’ chances of being engaged in the activities which involved unhealthy substance using. This literature review explore several areas influencing adolescents’ substance use such as usage by parents, communication patterns of family patterns of family members, relationships to family member (attachment and connectedness), and the influences of family structure and the extended family. T...