Verified Document

Research Questions And Definition Of Variables Research Proposal Essay

¶ … Interval # Ordinal # Nominal # Ratio Childhood obesity has become a fundamental problem for policymakers in the United States. Obesity increases the risk of such health complications as Type II diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. As such, researchers have shifted their effort to studying the causes and risk factors for childhood obesity. This text presents a set of research questions and variables for a proposed study seeking to identify the causes of childhood obesity.

Childhood Obesity: Research Questions and Variables

Childhood obesity is becoming a serious health concern for parents and policymakers alike in the U.S. Empirical evidence indicates that the prevalence of overweight and obesity among children below has almost tripled over the last decade (Karnik & Kanekar, 2012). This increasing prevalence of obesity places our young generation at risk for cardiovascular diseases, type II diabetes, and other health complications associated with overweight (Karnik & Kanekar, 2012). For this reason, all stakeholders need to play their roles to identify the specific causes of childhood obesity, the risk factors, and the prevention/corrective measures that need to be taken to correct the situation. The research questions below are geared at identifying the risk factors and causes of obesity among school-going children.

RQ1: are there any noticeable differences in the obesity levels of male and female school-going children?

This question seeks to assess how significant gender is as a risk factor for childhood obesity. In other words, we will be interested in identifying whether girls (or boys for that matter) are more at risk for childhood obesity compared to boys (or girls). This explanation would make sex/gender the independent variable, and children's health statuses the dependent variable. Sex, in this case, would be measured...

They are simply identifiers of the different categories; as such, the two categories only differ qualitatively, but not quantitatively (Norman & Streiner, 2008). The dependent variable, obesity, on the other hand, will be defined in terms of the BMI (Body Mass Index). Healthy BMIs range between 26 and 29, and a BMI equal to or in excess of 30 is regarded as obese. BMI figures can take an infinite number of values between any two measures -- for instance, between 26 and 27, we could have 26.1, 26.2, 26.7, 26.75, and so on, which makes this a continuous variable, interval variable. We could record actual BMI values for all participating children and then compare them with their gender to determine who, between girls and boys, run higher risks of being obese. We cannot refer to this as a ratio variable because it would be impossible to report an BMI of zero (Norman & Streiner, 2008).
RQ2: What is the relationship between time spent watching TV and childhood obesity?

Experts have argued that the primary reason why more children are becoming obese is because they are spending a lot of time engaging in indoor activities such as watching television an playing video games, and consequently spending less and less time s on physical activities outside the house. This question seeks to assess how true this ideology is. We are interested in identifying how watching TV influences obesity; as such, time spent watching TV is the independent variable and childhood obesity the dependent variable. We could measure the time spent watching TV in terms of the total number of whole hours one spends watching television everyday between the time when they arrive from school and when they go to…

Sources used in this document:
References

Jekel, J. F. (2007). Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Preventive Medicine (3rd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier.

Karnik, S. & Kanekar, A. (2012). Childhood Obesity: A Global Public Health Crisis. International Journal of Preventive Medicine, 3(1), 1-7.

Norman, G. R. & Streiner, D. L. (2008). Biostatistics: The Bare Essentials. Lewiston, NY: PMPH-USA.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Recycling Research Proposal
Words: 1899 Length: 5 Document Type: Essay

Economical and Ethical Issues in Recycling Economic Issues There is a general agreement that the U.S. should be undertaking more recycling, with only 34.3% of current waste recycled. The rate is increasing, and while there have been legislative moves, it may be argued that the ethical awareness and economic factors have had a greater impact. The research proposal argues that the dualistic approach to recycling seen in the anthropocentric model can be

Physical Fitness Research Proposal for
Words: 3101 Length: 8 Document Type: Thesis

This difficulty is further intensified by the inherently complicated task of clearly explicating the purpose, process and findings which have produced the resolutions of a qualitative study. The personalized quality of this research mode places a considerable imperative in the hands of the research composer to create both the research framework and a sensible delivery of results. The undertaking of qualitative analysis often requires the researcher to adapt personal

Proposal for Social Services Entity
Words: 1756 Length: 7 Document Type: Term Paper

Social Services Entity Social work is a demanding field that warrants a closer examination as to the effectiveness of the social workers in the Child Protective Services Agency. With increased caseloads, social workers may not meet the needs of its constituents. Furthermore, decision-making and judgment may be impaired due to the associated level of stress experienced. In the field of social work, the goal is to make a difference in the

Research Design Issues in Education Dual Credit
Words: 945 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

The Challenges of Dual Credit: A Research Proposal Problem Statements Dual credit or dual enrollment programs “are designed to boost college access and degree attainment, especially for students typically underrepresented in higher education,” (United States Department of Education, 2017, p. 1). With this lofty goal set, it should seem that dual credit programs would be reducing the educational achievement gap. After all, dual credit programs by definition allow all students the opportunity

Horizontal Violence in Nursing Qualitative Research Proposal
Words: 2916 Length: 10 Document Type: Research Proposal

1.1 IntroductionHorizontal violence (HV) has been defined by many authors and despite the definitions varying, the term has been mostly described as actions, words or other behaviors which are directed at one�s peers (Becher & Visovsky 2012), (Dumont, Meisinger, Whitacre & Corbin, 2012). The specific behaviors, words and actions are meant to humiliate, and injure the recipient�s dignity. Horizontal violence is aimed at demeaning an individual and having total disrespect

Justifying Research Methods and Design Insider Threats
Words: 2243 Length: 7 Document Type: Research Paper

Justifying Research Methods and Design Insider threats are one of the primary sources of risk to an enterprise network and to intellectual property. For decades, the internet security realm has been rather narrowly focused on pre-empting insider threats by mean of sophisticated architecture and conventional login identification barriers. More recently, internet communications and technology (ICT) experts have taken an active position by using technological capacity to identify risk patterns, and

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now