Annotated Bibliography

In order to learn about epidemiological studies, data analysis, and the use of secondary data, we will be using the Youth Risk Behavioral Survey (YRBS). This is a school-based survey on youth in high school (grades 9-12), which began in 1991 and is collected every other year in odd numbered years. The survey focuses on six areas of health and provides selected questions for each area. The areas include:

Behaviors that contribute to unintentional injuries and violence

Sexual behaviors that contribute to unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV infection

Alcohol and other drug use

Tobacco use

Unhealthy dietary behaviors

Inadequate physical activity

Review this 2011 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey so that you may become familiar with the questions on the survey. These are the exact questions that the students answered, and reviewing these questions may help you to narrow your topic of interest for your Final Paper. Refer to the Final Paper instructions in Week Six of your course or in the “Components of Course Evaluation” section of this guide, and identify a topic area that you would like to explore for your Final Paper. The class will be using “cigarette smoking and marijuana use” as the topic for data analysis using statistical software in this course, so please do not select this topic for your Final Paper. 

Once you have identified your topic, conduct research on your own to locate current resources. This will allow you to determine what research has already been done on your topic and to identify any potential research gaps. Utilize the Ashford University Library and other web-based resources to find at least five scholarly sources that support your Final Paper topic. 

The purpose of research is to state and support a hypothesis or answer an important research question. Therefore, a crucial part of research is developing a hypothesis and/or research question(s) that are debatable, interesting, and current. Writing an annotated bibliography will help you gain a useful perspective on what is being written about and studied in your area of interest. By reading and responding to a variety of sources on a topic, you will begin to see what people are arguing about and what the various issues are. You will then be able to develop your own point of view and subsequent thesis statement for your Final Paper.

For this week’s assignment you will submit an annotated bibliography that includes five scholarly articles on your topic of interest. Your Annotated Bibliography should be no more than five pages and must be formatted according to APA format. For information on writing an annotated bibliography and to see explanations and sample bibliographies, view the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) website’s Annotated Bibliographies page.