Qualitative Research Major.
Major Assignment 1: Developing a Research Topic for a Qualitative Study For this week, you will submit Parts 1, 2, and the Annotated Bibliography of your Major Assignment 1 to your Instructor to receive feedback. To prepare for this Assignment: • Finalize your Parts 1, 2, and the Annotated Bibliography of your Major Assignment 1. Childhood obesity epidemic in the United States has wide-ranging implications, and as more literature further validates this phenomenon, we can observe obesity’s real effects on the nation’s level of health and labor market outcomes. Economically, obesity drains valuable resources from the nation’s healthcare budget, decreases worker productivity through an increased number of missed work days, and forces employers to spend more on their health care plans for overweight employees. These factors prove that obesity forces taxpayers to forgo valuable income and consumption in order to subsidize higher medical costs and treatments for the obese. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to gain understanding of the experiences of children who suffer with obesity. The qualitative research will explore and describe how factors, which include the social, cultural, emotional, psychological, and socioeconomic make-up of the child, contribute to overweight or obesity. The research will employ a qualitative phenomenological design, which is the most appropriate approach for an exploratory study of the experiences of overweight youth. “Phenomenology enables researchers to examine every day human experience in close, detailed ways” (DeMarrais & Lapan, 2004, p. 56). The study will use a descriptive phenomenological design because of its exploratory nature, and it will be based upon recorded and transcribed interviews using semi-structured questions to capture the lived experiences of obese youth. The study will provide useful recommendations for future holistic approaches to the prevention/intervention of childhood obesity, as well as insight into the factors that have contributed to their current condition. Reference DeMarrais, K., & Lapan, S. D. (Eds.)(2004). Foundations for research: Methods of inquiry in education and the social sciences. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Department of Health (DOH). (2006). Raising the issue of weight in children and young