Introduction
In order to appropriately respond to the requirements of the assignment, I have selected the research article titled ‘Individual and social determinants of multiple chronic disease behavioral risk factors among youth’ by Alamian & Paradis (2012). The research article is about the study that was carried out to investigate the longitudinal relation between a set of distal and ultimate variables and the happening of multiple behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases between the youths in a representative sample of Canadian youths. According to the authors of the article, the study was guided by the theory of ‘Triadic Influence’ and used longitudinal information to examine the influence of selected individual/social distal and ultimate variables on the rate of happening of multiple behavioral risk factors.
The theoretical framework
A theoretical framework is one of the most crucial components in any research and is commonly used almost in all fields and types of research. According to Herek (1995), a theoretical framework refers to that part of a research project or a study that generally enables the researcher to set out and describe the research questions and the process that is used to answer them in the most efficient and effective manner.
It can therefore be argued that a good theoretical framework enables the researcher to form a basis of explaining the theory of the research work he/she endeavors to carry out. It equally acts as a guideline for the entire study work. Ziedler (2007), point out that the nature and function of a theoretical framework can be seen as an effort to answer two fundamental issues, that is the problems the researcher sets out to study and answer, and the aim to determine whether the researcher’s specific approach is a sensible way out to the problem under examination.
In the research article, the authors have clearly discussed the theoretical framework upon which they conducted their research. Their theoretical framework is based on the theory of ‘Triadic Influence’. The authors have explicitly shown how the theory addresses distal determinants of behaviors as well as the characteristics of the social environment. They have shown that the theory of ‘Triadic Influence’ is all-inclusive since it enabled them to propose a framework for mapping out the relationships between determinants of different types and the occurrence of both single and multiple behaviors. They have equally linked the theory to the problem of study.
For instance, by using the theory, they have discussed in detail how individual and social factors influence health behaviors through tiers of constructs represented by several proximal, distal, and ultimate variables. Based on the theoretical framework, the authors have also argued that proximal variables are behavior-specific, distal, and ultimate variables are more general and predictive behaviors. Equally, using the theoretical framework as a guide, the authors developed a conceptual framework in which they defined the independent variables that were selected based on the factors identified as correlates of several lifestyle risk factors comprised of four blocks of variables.
That is individual ultimate, individual distal, social ultimate, and social distal variables. On the other hand, the researchers did not explicitly state the assumptions that were made from the theoretical framework but they hypothesized that both distal and ultimate variables would influence the rate of co-occurrence of chronic disease behavioral risk factors between youth.
Nature of the research questions
According to Creswell (2009), research questions are normally the concerns or the problems the researcher sets out to address in the process of conducting the actual research work. Typically, research questions are the starting point for any good and organized scholarly research work. The standards for conducting good research require that research questions must be accurately and clearly defined. As Creswell (2009) pointed out, the process of formulating research questions is the most essential part of a research project. In some circumstances, research questions may serve as a proper guide in the formation of the conceptual framework for the research project. The research questions make the theoretical assumptions in the framework understandable and they actually indicate what the researcher desires to know first.
For the article under review, the research questions are theory-based. The theory actually links the questions to the problem of the study. The researchers state that their study intended to investigate the relation between a set of distal and ultimate variables and the happening of multiple behavioral risk factors for chronic diseases between the youth. This can be evidenced by the nature of the research objectives as well as the research design. Clearly, this shows that the research questions were based on the conceptual framework (Alamian & Paradis, 2012).
Methodology linkage to the theoretical framework
The research study was guided by the theory of “Triadic Influence and uses longitudinal data to examine the influence of behavioral risk factors. According to the authors of the article, the first set of longitudinal Poisson models were constructed to assess the direct influence of individual ultimate and individual distal variables on the rate of multiple risk factor scores. They then built a second set of longitudinal Poisson models to assess the direct influence of social ultimate and social distal variables on the rate of multiple risk factor scores.
A final set of four multivariate models was then constructed to assess the independent longitudinal influence of individual distal/ ultimate and social distal/ultimate variables on the rate of multiple risk factor scores. Equally, the authors argue that previous studies on the same subject have been cross-sectional and carried out without a sound theoretical framework, due to this gap, they were motivated to carry out the theoretical framework-based research (Alamian & Paradis, 2012). This, therefore, shows that the methodology that the authors used to carry out their research was directly linked to their theoretical framework.
Conclusion
According to the findings of the research, multivariate longitudinal Poisson models indicated that social distal variables amplified the speed of happenings of multiple behavioral risk factors. Individual ultimate variables contributed slightly to the rate of co-occurrence of behavioral risk factors. These findings were consistent with the authors’ hypothesized theory that the ultimate variables strongly influence the multiple behaviors while the distal variables influence multiple behaviors but to a lesser extent compared to ultimate variables since they are closer to behaviors they are assumed to exert less generalized effects across behaviors.
On the other hand, the authors of the article did not explicitly state whether their conclusions were consistent with the existing theory. The authors equally did not discuss the development of the new theory although they stated that their study contributed new knowledge on the determinants of multiple chronic disease behavioral risk factors among youth.
References
Alamian, A., & Paradis, G. (2012). Individual and social determinants of multiple chronic disease behavioral risk factors among youth. BMC Public Health. Web.
Creswell, W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approach. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Herek, G. (1995). How to write a successful research grant application: a guide for social and behavioral scientist. New York: USA, Plenum press.
Ziedler, D. (2007). What is a Theoretical Framework? University of South Florida. Web.