Status paradox

This article discusses several paradoxes involving medical or social status.

Types of Status Paradoxes

There are many different ways a status paradox can form, whether socially, culturally, or in some other manner entirely.

Status Paradox of Migration

This type of status paradox describes how a migration of peoples can alter the status of these peoples, either higher or lower.

An example is a migration of laboring migrants from southern countries, such as Mexico. Their ability to work is considered qualified by the standards of their home country, but is much diminished in the new country they come to. This causes their social status to drop in their new country of living, while their level of education or training held them in a higher social circle in their country of origin. This type of status inconsistency creates the paradox of the migrants being qualified for two different social classes at the same time, but they can only use each class if they are within the boundaries of where it is relevant.

Wealth and HIV Status Paradox

For higher classes with greater amount of wealth, it is naturally assumed that they will have less of a chance of acquiring infectious diseases because they have the money to stop the spread of such diseases. Meanwhile, lower classes with less amounts of wealth will not be able to afford treatments to stop the spread of diseases and might even not be knowledgeable about dangerous diseases that they might be catching, so they are at a higher likelihood of catching and spreading various diseases.

However, this is not the case in Africa with HIV. The upper class, instead, are the ones that have the highest percentage of HIV infection, specifically 15-29 year olds. This creates a type of status paradox, having a "disease of affluence", associated with differing class levels.

Gender and Status Paradox

Gender, within the realm of economics and business, has long been a dividing factor in terms of wages and management. The use of humor by women in management is one method of relieving the tension created from women being in charge over men, which is seen as a status paradox.

Lifestyle-Health Status Paradox

For people in the United States, obesity has been a growing trend. The formation of a healthy lifestyle is a viewpoint that is generally not attributed to Americans. From such increases in weight, diabetes, asthma, and migraines have grown more common. However, offsetting this somewhat, the number of people contracting cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases has been dropping for the age range of Americans that are at a higher likelihood of being obese. This status paradox does not correlate with the evidence that shows such rates should be increasing, not decreasing.

External links

• Balogh, Beatrix (2006). "The Status Paradox – The Development of Puerto Rico's Legal Status from Colony to Commonwealth and Beyond" (PDF). Elsö Század. 5 (2). Budapest, Hungary: University of Budapest [1]: 11–49. ISSN 1419-5127. Retrieved 22 March 2010. {{cite journal}}: External link in |publisher= (help)
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