Question

Objective: Review the excel list of over a thousand of variables from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health-2015. Identify variables and hypothesis you want to examine for the research project.

Step 1-: Review the list of variables

Step 2-: Identify the independent Variable and it’s level of measurement.

Independent Variable: Indicate the Variable Name and Variable Label

Level of measurement

Step 3: Identify the dependent Variable and it’s level of measurement.

Dependent Variable: Indicate the Variable Name and Variable Label

Level of measurement

Step 4: Map out your proposed hypothesis.

Independent Variable

Effect

Dependent Variable

Step 5: Describe the hypothesis. What do you expect? Why do you want to study it?

Answer 1

After going through the tables on demographic details provided by the NationalHealth Survey 2015, it appears that there is a considerable population of college going youth in the age group of 18 to 25 years of age who become diagnosed with substance use disorders. A question that emerges from this demographic statistics is whether enrolment in college is an environmental factor which is related to substance abuse.

My hypothetical research is guided by the purpose of finding an epidemiological relationship between college life and the incidence of substance abuse. In order to develop the study further, a description is provided below of the variables involved and the research hypothesis:

Independent variable- in the study, the enrolment in colleges across the different states of the East Coast will be operationally defined as the independent variable. The variable represents the ratio scale of measurement.

Dependent variable: the incidence of actual reported cases of substance abuse involving alcohol and other substances such as heroine, cocaine, nicotine etc, is the dependent variable and it will be gathered from the medical and community nursing homes. Since the mean value of the prevalence rate would be computed, this variable will be measured on the ratio scale.

The study is based on the following hypothesis:

Null hypothesis: the incidence of college enrolment is not related to the prevalence of substance use disorders in young adult sexual in the age group of 18-25 years.

Ho: u =/ O (‘=/‘ means not equal)

Alternative hypothesis: enrolment in college influences the prevalence rate of substance abuse in the young adults of 18-25 years of age.

Ha: u=/ O (‘=/‘ signifies not equal )

Given the National Health statistics, it is expected that the findings would point towards a significant relationship between the initiation into college life and the individual’s proneness to substance abuse. Thus, an expected outcome for the study is that it will show a significant difference at 0.05 level of confidence. It is believed that the findings of the study will throw new light on the community and youth programmes of mental health and drug addiction by presenting the college going population as a target group for the future prevention campaigns.