Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Research Journal #1

What was the process by which you narrowed down potential topics to two appropriate ones? And how were these decisions made on the basis of either class discussion, or our required, course textbook (Aveyard 2014), or both?

 During my time at UNR I’ve taken many CHS (community health science) and CAS (substance abuse) courses. Overtime I’ve learned how important all aspects of health are and how detrimental situations we face can damage our health i.e. substance use, too much stress, depression, etc. However, we as humans are most influenced in our young years from infancy into our late teenage years, and we learn lifestyles and behaviors from our parents and caretakers. It was relatively easy to come up with a few ideas that I was interested in-being a CHS major has directly influenced how I take care of myself and makes me analyze the type of unhealthy childhood I had. Narrowing down an exact research question is typically more difficult because it needs to be something concise, of relative importance to the class, and thinking about the question should automatically generate little trains of thought and interest.

What research question did you choose, and how are I can be sure you're making a reasoned, academic judgement on the basis of chapters 1-3 (Aveyard 2014)?

My research question is, "How does socioeconomic status affect the nutritional health of children in these cultures across the lifespan?" According to my research topic, Aveyard says I’m making a reasonable academic question based on the evidence that it is not complex, it’s straightforward, my level of interested and motivation related to my research question is high, and the question is clear and unambiguous. I have decided to reevaluate my question and change it to something along the lines of “How does poverty affect the nutritional health of children during development?” I’m still in the process of rewording it but I will keep these ideas/factors in my question.

What article (or articles) are you basing this question on, and what type of article is it (research, theory, policy, practice) (citation[s] in APA, please)?

 Erwin, Paul Campbell. (2008). Poverty in America: How Public Health Practice can make a difference. American Journal of Public Health, 98(9). 1570-1572.doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.127787 This is practice literature method. This is where I left off last time:




Bradley, RH., Corwyn, RF. (2002). Socioeconomic Status and Child Development. Published Annual Review of Psychology. 53(1).doi: 10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135233 This is a research literature method. This is where I will leave off this time:




How can I be sure that the key vocabulary of the question corresponds not only to literature in the field, but also to chapter 1-3 (Aveyard 2014)?

 I know Aveyard can help guide me through the literature process, but I need to be able to use the information effectively throughout my research and in the beginning stages of writing my paper. By using the “language” of the experts I was able to use keywords to find great articles online. This reassures me that I’m on the right path to becoming a profession myself, and gives me confidence that I’ll be able to successfully hone in on these skills in my own research one day.

Based on what your question is, what kind of literature are you going to need? Again, please explicitly reference the text (Aveyard 2014). What is your hierarchy of evidence? In order from most important to include/research to least importantly relevant:

 1) Research 2) Practice 3) Cross-sectional 4) Participatory Action

 How exactly did you research question arise out of "practice"?

 I never imagined myself working with children or in social care or anything among the “family” sector of public health. However, the further I get into my life, my schooling, my research question there is a need for professionals in the field. It’s so important to take care of your children and provide them with the necessary care they need to become healthy adults. I would be lucky to work with the public and teach them all different aspects of health if I can learn it so can anyone.

How do you define your key terms, and how do these definitions link to key journals in the field?

Nutritional health
Community health
Child development AND poverty
“Child nutrition” AND “poverty”
“Nutritional health” AND “child development”
 “childhood nutritional development”
“practice” AND “nutrition”

 Did anything unexpected happen? From you initial search, does it appear as though your research question will work? Or does the vocabulary and/or type of research sought need to be changed?

Nothing very unexpected happen during the initial research, but I am having finding trouble finding articles that correlate with the exact topics I’m trying to pull together into one research question: SES (socioeconomic status), nutritional health, and children. To continue to further the literature process and keep a solid question I’m thinking about rewording my question and perhaps eliminating one of the subtopics such as just referring to SES- maybe changing it to poverty. I seem to be finding a lot of different articles about the separate topics either childhood/poverty/nutrition or simply childhood/nutrition. Any final thoughts? More evidence is certainly required, and while I continue to research hopefully I’ll be able to create a solid, grounded question that won’t lead me to numerous articles about the different topics. I think I may have a slight problem narrowing my research question because there are so many different things I would like to touch on and talk about, and there are many ways I could reword my question to take a different approach. Here is my audio containing some final thoughts as well:

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