Research Design

Research Question and Research Approach

Restatement of Week 1 Research Question and Research Approach

The topic of study is “Middle School Children Diagnosed with Childhood Obesity.” The PICOT question for the study is: Among middle school children (P), how will a nurse-led “shopping, cooking, eating and exercise” (I), compared to inaction (C), affect school lunch choices, self-concept, and weight loss in 6 weeks of implementation (T). The most appropriate research approach for the study is quantitative because it will provide objective and quantifiable data to determine the effect of the program on the dependent variables (school lunch choices, self-concept, and weight loss). The method is also useful for a small number of participants. The researcher will collect numerical data to answer the research question and test the hypothesis.  A quantitative approach is appropriate for the study because it involves measuring quantifiable variables. It will generate results that will represent similar settings to control childhood obesity among children. The data will be useful to test the hypothesis that the program will improve obesity outcomes within the school by operating on the variables. However, the actual result will be obtained from the study.

Summary of Steps

The researcher will follow the following steps to implement the quantitative design:

1. Establish the hypothesis to be tested through data collection. The hypothesis is a statement that the researcher will prove valid or not valid at the end of the research process.
2. Determine the research design to apply for data collection and testing of a hypothesis (an experimental design in this case). The design helps the researcher to collect appropriate data according to the purpose of the study.
3. Operationalize concepts; determine the measures of the concepts that will be investigated in the study. The researcher should ensure that all concepts are well-defined and operationalized to measure and test them using the collected data.
4. Select the setting or site to implement the experimental study and collect data. The design and the topic will determine the site from which data will be collected.
5. Select the subjects or participants through sampling. The researcher should identify the sample from a target population to collect data successfully. The process involves the use of an appropriate sampling technique.
6. Implement the experimental design and collect data using appropriate tools, such as a questionnaire. The phase involves the actual collection of data from the sample of participants using the relevant quantitative tool.
7. Analyze the data quantitatively to report findings and make conclusions. Data analysis is critical to generate results or findings and use the evidence to prove whether the hypothesis is valid or not.
8. Present findings and conclusions, which are derived from the analysis.

The Specific Study Design

The study will be an experimental design with participants randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The design involves the assignment of participants in two groups, usually randomly allocated, to compare outcomes (Barker & Milivojevich, 2016). In the study, the intervention will be a nurse-led “shopping, cooking, eating, and exercise” 6-week program to establish the differences in school lunch choices, self-concept, and weight loss. The control group will include children who will not undertake the program to compare the results and determine the effectiveness. The researcher will collect data from the two groups for comparison. The difference between results from the two groups will either prove whether the intervention is effective or not. Such an approach is the most effective to test the correlation between variables and compare outcomes for the two groups. It shows the way one variable depends on another to generate relevant findings.

Sampling Method

Sampling is necessary for research to obtain a manageable sample because it is impossible to collect data from an entire population. The researcher will use a random sampling method to assign participants to an intervention and control groups. The sampling method involves obtaining a sample of participants from a sampling frame. The participants will be students in middle school. The study will have two groups, an intervention involving a nurse-led “shopping, cooking, eating, and exercise” program to test the efficacy in the prevention of childhood obesity. Another group of students will be randomly assigned to a control group (Barker & Milivojevich, 2016). The participants will not undertake any intervention in the control group. Data will be collected quantitively after implementation to test the level of learning among students regarding the steps to prevent childhood obesity. The data will be analyzed and compared for the two groups. It is expected that the intervention group will have a higher level of knowledge compared to the control group.

Quantitative Approach to Analyze

Researchers can use any of the relevant data analysis depending on the nature of the study and the type of research. Since the data collected from the two groups will be numerical, a statistical procedure will be employed in the analysis. The data will be analyzed statistically using SPSS and presented in graphs and charts to ease comparison (Albers, 2017). Overall, the researcher will write a report with relevant findings, discussions, and conclusions.