Health Problems among Teens and Young Adults

The course textbook An Introduction to Community Health refers to teens and their risky behaviors. The number of single parent households with children under the age of eighteen continues to rise. Unemployment is higher for teens and young adults, especially for minority populations. Health behavior and lifestyle choices are tested during this timeframe, with tobacco use, underage drinking, abuse of prescription illegal drugs, and risky sexual behavior. Teen violence and suicide are also a cause of concern to families and the community.

Based on your understanding of the topic, create a report in a Microsoft Word document answering the following questions:

• How do social and environmental factors affect teens and young adults making healthy or unhealthy decisions? How influential is the family environment?
• What motivates teens to form groups and how do negative behaviors increase when teens are involved in small or large gangs?
• What specific issues does the U.S. minority population face in terms of health issues, lack of healthcare, and risky behaviors?
• What specific type of community program would you develop if you were in charge of improving options for teens and young adults? What community members would you seek to speak with about your program proposal and how important is it to include influential community members who can help support legislation, space, or financial services to help a community program succeed?
• How will education reduce risk taking behaviors? What type of follow up and evaluation will you do to ensure a successful program?

ZERO PLAGIARISM PLEASE

Assume the role of a chief researcher for the state Department of Education who is examining two groups with similar educational deficiencies. One group involved in the study is a rural, ethnically-defined, aboriginal group with a high rate of health issues including diabetes, vision impairment, and heart disease. The other group is also a rural group living on family-owned farms (as opposed to corporate farms) that are in severe decline as a result of years of decreasing rainfall and drought. Both groups exhibit achievement test scores that are more than one standard deviation below the mean at all grade levels, and excessive high school drop-out rates.

Write a paper of 1,250-1,500 words in which you consider the merits of applying ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, narrative inquiry, and case study to the scenario above. Include the following in your paper:

1. A brief description of what types of information about the given scenario could be gathered from each of the qualitative methods listed above.
2. A brief statement of the potential utility and scientific merit of the information to be gathered by applying each of the qualitative methods above to the given scenario.
3. A brief statement describing which qualitative method(s) listed above would be best suited to the scenario in light of the potential gains in both utility and scientific merit expected from completing the study.