First, please choose a wellness topic discussed over the course of the semester from one of the following: Mental health and stress, Sleep, Nutrition, Drugs, or Alcohol & Tobaco.
FYI your wellness topic could be negative (e.g., something that causes cancer or psychological distress), or positive (e.g., something that prevents cancer or increases happiness and well-being).
Next, You will need to research at
least five enabling OR thwarting factors (e.g., one for each level of
influence; individual-, interpersonal-, institutional-, community-, and policy-
law- environmental- cultural-levels). ;
only five factors are required. After researching at least one factor per level
of the SEM, decide which factor is the “most important” and should be the focus
of improvements for public health. That
decision will help you write your thesis statement that is required to pass the
research paper.
All
contributing factors you discuss should be supported by empirical research that
comes from primary research journal articles (review and meta-analysis articles
are acceptable). Newspapers, blogs, or other internet “health” sites are not
acceptable for this paper. Credible government (e.g., CDC) or public health
websites (e.g., WHO) are acceptable but should not be the dominant sources of
data. Use those types of sources as supplements to the primary journal
articles. A minimum of (7) peer-reviewed journal articles are required to
pass the research paper. All (7) journal articles must be cited
appropriately throughout the paper using APA style.
Specs of the research paper:
INTRODUCTION
– Describe the topic generally
– What are we dealing with?
– Provide current and past data on the topic
– What do we currently know in general about the topic in respect to
individual and/or public health?
– Describe why the topic is important for individual and/or public
heath, etc.
– Why should we know more?
– Explain the goals of the paper
– How do you plan to further the discussion?
Include a clear, concise, and arguable thesis statement.
– What will you argue for/against and why?
BODY
– Includes at least five sections: one section for each level of the
SEM.
– For each section (i.e., level of the SEM) include a description of at
least one contributing factor that affects the topic (e.g., smoking behavior:
level = interpersonal, factor 1 = parenting behaviors, factor 2 = peer
influences, both of those factors are interpersonal-level factors that
contribute to smoking).
– What does the academic research “tell” us about the factors in the context
of the topic?
– Explain and defend what factor you think is most important to target
and what specific action(s) you think should be taken. To use the example
above, if parenting behaviors are most important, then there are several
interventions that could affect parenting behaviors.
· What do you think, based on your research, are the most impactful
interventions and why they would be most impactful?
CONCLUSION
– Summarizes the paper without using the exact words
– What are the most important take-away messages? Why does your paper
matter?
– Suggests areas for future research
– What do we still need to learn? What limitations still exist in the
literature? What new questions arise from your research?
Final, Checklist:
_Include five peer-reviewed
academic sources. No newspaper, magazine, government sources for this
assignment. However, seven total so two can be two non peer-reviewed sources.
_APA citation for each source.
_Summary (a few sentences) of
each source. Do not copy the abstract!
_Annotation (more detail) of at
least one-third of a page for each source. Do not copy the abstract or any
other portion of the paper! Put things in your own words; it will help you
organize and comprehend what you want to write.
PAPER LAYOUT –
Introduction
Body of the paper
Conclusions
Bibliography (APA format)
