---
title: HW02
author: Sanjula Panday
date: June 29, 2020
subtitle: Formulating a research question
---

# Topic Area Statement:
I have always noticed how happy people have a good family life. They have good relationships with their siblings and are close with their parents. Happy people seem to have happy families.Does an individuals relationship and closenesss with their family affect their mental health and how they deal with personal problems? I am curious about the relationship in general- but can make it specific by studying the frequeny of how often they see each other and how involved they were in their chidhood. 

# Personal Codebook:


| Variable Name |    Type     |                                                              Values |
| :------------ | :---------: | ------------------------------------------------------------------: |
| H4MH22         | categorical |                                           Often, Rarely, etc. |
| H4WP24          | numeric |  1-10 |
| H4WP38          |   numeric   |                                                               1--10 |
|H4MH4            | categorical|      Good, Decent, Bad, Worse
|H4WS1            | numeric|        1-20

# Research Questions

> Questions example:  

> a) Does an individuals relationship with their parents affect their mental health? 

> b) Is there a relationship between an individuals depression rate and how much time they spend with their parents?  

> c) Does having siblings increase or decrease the chance of having depression?


# Literature review


My research question is: Does an individuals relationship and closenesss with their parents affect their mental health?

**Behere, A. P., Basnet, P., &amp; Campbell, P. (2017). Effects of Family Structure on Mental Health of Children: A Preliminary Study. Indian journal of psychological medicine.**

2. At first, I almost didn't read this article after I saw it was from the Indian Journal of Medicine because I thought they would also focus on date from India, but the article uses data from around the world and conencts to researach that was done here in the US. It focuses on the effects of family structure on the mental health of children by studying sample studies from around the world which questioned and studied children that came from various family backgrounds to study the effects it would have on their well being.
3. The information provided does not only focus on a childs relatonship with their parents, but the enviroment the family has created for the child- so the relationship the parents have with each other and the individuals other siblings as well. I think that was a factor I failed to consider- how important it is that the parents have a good relationship with each other because I feel stressed when my parents are fighting- and the datas in this study supports it as well.

**Thomas, P. A., Liu, H., &amp; Umberson, D. (2017, November). Family Relationships and Well-Being. Innovation in aging.**

2. This study discusses several types of family relationships—marital, intergenerational, and sibling ties—that have an important influence on well-being. It highlights the quality of family relationships as well as diversity of family relationships in explaining their impact on well-being across the adult life course.(Thomas)
3. Similar to the first article,rather then just focusing on child-parent relationship specifically, it takes into account the marital relationship in the family, as well siblings relationships. This article adds on to the previous one by providing and comparing statistics between different ethnicities. How families behave with each other differs among different cultures, and is an important point to keep in mind. 

**Parenting. Mental Health America.( 2019, December).**

2. Written by Mental Health America,this article provides solutions on how parents can ensure that they are supporting their childrens mental health.They discuss the consequences toxic behavior can have on children, and provide exmaples on how to act and deal with situations. 
3. This article helped me further understand the cause behind why family relationships have such a large impact on a childs mental health- they provided exmaples about how along with poor parent children communication, a large cause is occupational or marital difficulties along with openly aggressive or hostile behavior by a parent.

# Refined  Research Questions

I actually noticed from these studies that alot of factors affect parent-child relationships, like how the marriage is and how the parents job is going. Yes, we can conclude that children with better relationships with their parents have better mental health status, however a new question arises- what influences a health relationship between the two and how does socio economic status play a role in the health of the marriage and the health between parents and children.

> Question:  
> a) We can conclude that a healthy parent child relationship benefits a childs mental health- however data shows that families with better socio economic pay and occupation have healthier relationships with their partner which results in a good relationship with the child. Is is the relationship thats making them happy or the social class that they coeme from- how does socio economic status play a role in the health of the marriage and the health between parents and children?
