Question

Meet Fatima. Fatima is a 30-year-old single mother of 2 young children. She works 50-hour weeks to support and care for her family and has little time to relax on her own. Fatima does not smoke, in truth, she cannot afford to. All of her money goes to her children. Fatima eats along with her kids every day, but often cannot afford fresh fruits and vegetables for their dinner, often the family eats processed foods (boxed macaroni and cheese, frozen pizza, etc.). Fatima has long suffered from fatigue and the occasional chest pain but cannot afford to go to the doctor.   One day, she fainted and was diagnosed with hypertension at the hospital.

Using this example, examine the psychological constructs at the various stages of health. Be sure to refer to your reading material, and note the accompanying theoretical frameworks to support your analysis, as needed.

Answer 1

Fatima is a single mother ,single parenting syndrome, and hence has to play the parental role of the father to the children.This puts more pressure on her as she is required to support her children financially and emotionally.The fact that she has little time to relax gives her no space to recoup mentally and physically to relive the stress.She has not incorporated healthy food habits in her diet for herself and the children.The processed food that she is eating does not provide the necessary nutrtion and will provide poor dietary habits for children,as in later stages of growth they will resort to unhealthy food habits.fatima's fatigue and occassional chest pain can be due to several reasons like not getting enough rest,constant stress on providing for her family,poor diet,not going for regular health check ups.Hyper tension is due to her stress , lack of enough sleep, and processed foods which contain excess amount of salt .Her long working hours should be compensated with enough mental and physical rest with a nutritious meal.