Coming back from a long weekend...

September 21, 2009

Vanessa told me how the health presentation went at the Seventh Day Adventist church in LA. I was planning to go with my Ta'ahines o Moana, but there were a few technical difficulties.

I showed Vanessa my flow chart and she was surprised at how much arrows and colors I had on the paper. It was very complex and difficult to read. (haha) That's because I had a lot of things connected to how teenagers may behave. I narrowed it down though and explained how everything influenced one another.

The biggest influences in my conceptual framework was family and friends. That's the people that surround Tongan teenagers the most and has a big impact in their lives.

I also showed her the surveys I got from 'Ono and explained what I learned from it. I also asked her questions on what I may be able to do and what I can change on my part. It had me questioning a lot about what I can do.

After everything, I was able to update my blog...

Weekend reviewing...

September 20, 2009

I went to the PI Festival in Orange County the day before. Now it was Sunday and I had to go over some things on what I was doing.

I first went over the handouts 'Ono gave me at the festival. I looked over his survey and studied how he asked the questions and what he wanted to know from asking them. It was short! Only 30 questions and VERY straight forward. Can mines be this simple? (haha) It was good work though and very professional. There was a consent form that went with every survey. The consent form stated the purpose of the study, participants rights, procedures, risks, benefits, cost, and confidentiality of the survey. It is kind of like a contract.

What I found interesting was the handout on experiments that have been conducted before. I gained knowledge on why there is a IRB committee and what their purpose is.

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment or Public Health Service syphilis study was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the U.S. Public Health Service. Investigators had 399 African-American sharecroppers with syphilis for research of justifying treatment programs for blacks. This 40 year study led to changes is U.S. law and regulation on the protection of participants because researchers failed to treat patients after the validation of penicillin which was an effective cure for the disease.

Seeing where I'm at...

September 18, 2009

Vanessa wanted to figure out where I was with my hours. I had A LOT to make up and on top of my work at TCSC, I had to work atleast 2.5 hours on the research at home. It was overwhelming but I figured that I can put in a lot of hours during the weekend so I wouldn't have to during weekdays.

I eventually got into my survey work. I categorized all my survey questions as well as the San Mateo survey questions. I had it in columns where questions fell under the topic it was related to. I had columns just for teen pregnancy, substance abuse, or mental health. This was useful so I can organize my questions and have one topic in one section. I also encountered questions that fell into more than 1 column. That meant that these questions were connected in some way.

After doing all that, I got on here! Finally updated my blog! =)

Continuing my own questions...

September 17, 2009

I continued working on my own survey questions. When I lost my train of thought, I went back to organizing the questions I would like from the San Mateo youth survey. (haha)

Diana later came into the office for a meeting. She broke it down saying that I would not be able to do any interacting with people because I'm still a minor. Age really does matter. (haha) There were a lot of complex issues to getting my work done, but the main point was that I wouldn't be able to complete my project on local youth health issues.

She still said she was able to come to the office and work with me on data entry on surveys she has conducted. I was a little disappointed because I am capable of doing things any other person in this internship can do, but the rules are the rules.

Diana still gave me the green light to keep doing what I was doing. So she introduced me into getting my conceptual framework started. She looked over my hypothesis and questions and I received her feedback on it, which helped me a lot. She gave me an idea of what she would put on a conceptual framework based on my research.

I went home and asked my cousin Fifita to help me with my conceptual framework. Two heads are better than one! I had her help me with what events or aspects in life would influence a Tongan teenager to smoking, drinking, and/or getting pregnant. We couldn't forget about mental health issues too. It was crazy! She had her own opinions and I had my different perspectives. We came to agree on a lot of things though because we backed up our claims with reasons.

FiNALLY! I completed my conceptual framework. It's sort of like a hypothesis. It's what I believe leads up to youth behaviors. That's why it's conceptual...

Hypothesizing and working forward...

September 16, 2009

Now I had to come up with my own survey questions. Diana and Vanessa wanted me to come up with questions I would like to ask about teen pregnancy, mental health, and substance abuse.

The catch of trying to come up with my own questions is that I have to put myself into the position of the participant.

I had to think about things like:

• How comfortable would they feel being asked this question?
• How would they interpret my question?

The list goes on, but those are the main points I focused on when I was bringing up questions.

Of course I had the San Mateo and Tonga survey to copyright questions from, but I was inputting my own questions to compare and contrast our surveys.

In the middle of doing this task, I got lost because I didn't know what I was trying to prove. What point was I trying to get to by asking these questions? That's why I came up with a hypothesis.

• I believe that the Tongan youth are influenced to drink and/or smoke by the people around them.
• I believe that the Tongan youth become pregnant because their parents do not really emphasize that issue with them. They are also somewhat influenced by the people around them.
• I believe that Tongan youth are mentally unhealthy because things that matter most to them in life are not going right. I also believe that they are not involved with much activities that can relieve their stress level.

Alright, bare with me. I came up with this off of my own knowledge. =). In many cases, I know it can be different. That's why I came up with a conceptual flow map. It's sort of like a flow chart where I point out the outcomes and connect it to everything that leads up to that. In this case, the outcomes are unhealthy behaviors. I connected everything that leads up to it.

Well my hypothesis helped me a lot with my questions. My hypothesis helped because I wanted to ask questions that might lead to my beliefs. If not, then my hypothesis was wrong.

I found mental health the hardest to ask questions on, but Vanessa helped me a lot with that. I mainly used San Mateo's youth survey as a guideline for my mental health questions.

I knew already that IRB wouldn't let me do anything with surveys because I'm still a minor. =(. But it didn't stop me from still trying to get somewhere with my survey. I still wanted to work on it and see what I can do. So far, so good.

Meeting with Diana...

September 28, 2009

I had the chance to meet with Diana again. We were supposed to meet up with the GCN interns, but they couldn't make it. =(

So Diana ended up going over some more research designs that might help my survey. She wants me to learn a lot of the basics to research. That's good because I can get into more of the complex things if I get into really putting in a research project. (hmmm?)

Diana told me a lot about a cohort design research method. This design takes up a lot of time and money. That's because you choose a group of people you would follow for a period of time. In between, conductors will have to take measurements on their group to see how they develop overtime. This design requires enough staff to keep track of participants and their whereabouts. That's out of my league (haha) because I don't have the staff, money, and time to do it.

There was more discussion on surveys Diana has conducted in the past and I learned more about the different outcomes you can get from participants. The thing that you mainly have to depend on in surveys are the answers people give you. For example, you're depending on your participant to tell the truth on the survey because if they lie, what's the point of getting that data? The Hawthorne Effect also falls into this category where participants tell you what you want to know because they know that they're being studied. That's BAD! (haha) That's why researchers come into trying to study HOW to best conduct a survey. I didn't even know the way you asked a questions really mattered, I thought it mattered as long as you asked and the participant understood the point.

Well that's what Diana basically went over with me today. I got a good outline of different researching designs and how to conduct the best one fit more my research. =)

2nd Annual PI Festival [Orange County]

My Ta'ahines O Moana

September 19, 2009

Well I went to this Polynesian festival in Orange County. I was originally going because my girls, Ta'ahines O Moana, were going.

Alisi suggested that us girls should help sell raffle tickets that supported the PI Scholarship Fund. We got right to work and my group (Fita & Melanie) had a competition with the other girls (Uini, Suli & Manuma'a). Of course my group won! (haha) In all, we sold more than 100 raffle tickets and it felt good we did something for a good cause.

Afterwards, I got the chance to speak to 'Ono Vaifale, one of the other interns. I was surprised he was already conducting his survey! I was only halfway with mines! (haha) He was at the festival working on his internship by getting people to take his survey on health insurance. I was happy to talk to him so I can get his perspective on ideas of this research internship. It was also good learning about what he was doing and how he did it, like the survey and how he set it up. He also offered help on mines and gave me handouts that might be helpful. Thanks 'Ono! I also found out that he wasn't alone on the project. He had Lena as a partner so they can work as a team throughout this internship. That surprised me because I didn't have a partner. Anyways, I'm thankful for who I have as partners! Vanessa had my back! Brian and Diana too! (haha) They walked me through this internship and made things a lot more easier!

Well that was it for Saturday! I was happy to have the opportunity to support the PI Scholarship Fund and get feedback from 'Ono.