Contextualizing the Problem
The study revolves on understanding the health-related behaviors of adolescents. This is based on different contexts that are fundamental to influencing the adolescents’ behavior and the correlation of the behaviors to the health outcomes of the adolescents. Participants involved in the study comprised of 90,000 students from 80 high schools and 52 middle schools. The selection of the sample was based on regional, size, type, and ethnicity distribution to ascertain diversity in the study analysis. For example, oversampling of Blacks with well-educated families, Cubans, Chinese, Puerto Ricans, and persons living with disability (PWDs) were selected as integral part of the study (The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents Health, n.d.). Furthermore, the involvement of school administrators and parents was integral to understanding of the correlation of behaviors among individuals at early adulthood stage and their health-related outcomes.
Prior to the study, key insights on related publications were acquired from Carolina Population Center’s searchable database, The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, and Harris, Mullan, Florey, Tabor, Bearman and Udry (2003) “The National Longitudinal study of adolescent health.” The data set selection was acquired in four waves: Wave I (September 1994 – December 1995), Wave II (April 1996 – August 1996), Wave III (July 2001 – April 2002), and Wave IV (April – June 2007; pre-test and January 2008 – February 2009; the main study) (The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescents Health, n.d.). The acquisition of the data from 7th – 12th grade students served as the sample to the study. Therefore, culminate in covering the key participants of the study that illustrate the general theory of behavior and impacts to health outcomes among adolescents.
Importance/Significance of Studying the Problem
Broader scope of relevance – knowledge, theory, research and policy. The broader scope of the study focuses on understanding how transmission of violence affect individuals within the family and the impact on health services across different neighborhoods. Focusing more closely on adolescents across schools in the United States, the study seeks to identify integral trigger behavior that influence health outcomes. An understanding of social and demographic impacts, education and occupation of parents, exposure to risk behavior, household structure, health status, issues with self-esteem, future expectations of the adolescents, friends and friendship, and access to various extracurricular activities serve as key characteristics influencing the behavior of young people. This is fundamental to determine the causation effect of behavior and influencing factors and the correlation they have to health outcomes. Therefore, the study is integral to understanding the spread of health-related outcomes across different individuals in different environments and the prompting behavioral outcomes.
Benefits envisaged from undertaking the research. The study provides fundamental insights on how behavior and exposure to different environments influence health-related outcomes. These involves health-related outcomes such as diet, morbidity, access and use of contraceptives, physical activity, exposure to sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy, running away, suicide, injury, and violence. All these health-related outcomes have a direct correlation to the causation behavior among the adolescents. As well, this is influenced by the exposure to different environments among which the adolescents are brought up in and the society. For instance, issues of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections are likely to higher among Blacks and Latino adolescents than they are on White adolescents. Therefore, the study is crucial to informing future research and publication of over 1,000 copies, and policy.
The Purpose of the Research
The statement of purpose revolves on understanding the health-related behaviors among adolescents, exposure to different social contexts, and the impact they create on the health of the individuals. This entails the correlation of health-related outcomes as influenced by the behavior among adolescents. The purpose of the study is focused on understanding the behavioral context and development among young people in early adult life based on the environment they exposed and correlating health outcomes. Such include, health outcomes such as suicide problems among adolescents in different social contexts, prevalence of pregnancy and sexually transmitted infection rates, morbidity, violence tendencies, running away, diet, and use of contraceptives. The health-related outcomes are greatly informed by the behavior development of adolescents in different social backgrounds.
The study is fundamental to inform policy and focus research areas in efforts to eradicate problems on adolescents’ health-related outcomes. The study is integral to provide a more precise approach on how to resolve various health-related outcomes and points of emphasis among different adolescent groups. This is based on the fact that social backgrounds create a direct correlation to health-related outcomes. Therefore, in resolving various health-related outcomes among early adults, focusing on the social background aspects is essential to diagnose and uproot the problem from the roots.
Title of the Research Problem
Analysis of health-related behaviors of adolescents, exposure to different social contexts, and how the behaviors correlate to health-related outcomes in early adulthood.
Therefore, the study primarily is focused on illuminating the causation effect of behavior, social contexts, and the resulting health-related outcomes among the target audience.
