applied data analysis

In my chi squared analysis of moderation, i found that when there is no active lifestyle, minor depression (1360)was significantly higher than the major depression (445). moderation occurs when the relationship between two variables depends on a third variable. In this case, my three varialbles were sex, active lifestyle and depressive symptoms. I could also see that when biosex= . (men) the rates of depression were lower than when biosex=2 (women)

STATA input:

CHI SQUARED ANALYSIS

ANOVA Assignment. 

  QAC 201

Research Plan: Passion Driven Statistics

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The Association between Gender, Physical Activity and Depressive Mental Attitude Among Female Adolescents in  7th Through 12th grade.

Kimora Brock, Wesleyan University 

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Introduction

Existing studies prove that when it comes to people who struggle with depression, women are much more likely to accrue the disorder than men. Teenage depression in particular, is a very serious clinical illness that affects approximately 20% of adolescents before they reach adulthood. This is why over half of the advertisements seen on television, magazines, and the internet that are geared towards depression feature a woman as the patient. There is not much research on the ways to prevent this debilitating illness, but the vast majority of research to date has focused on promoting mental health by facilitation of physical activity and resilience is of great importance during adolescence. Girls are reportedly less physically active and have more depressive symptoms compared to boys. Higher physical activity was associated with lower depressive symptoms for girls. On the other side of the gender spectrum, boys research suggested that the higher the physical activity, the higher impact on boys’ depression. (Moljord, I. E. O., Moksnes, U. K., Espnes, G. A., Hjemdal, O., & Eriksen, L. (2014)

Studies have concluded already that higher levels of physical activity among children and young adolescents, and lower levels of leisure-time screen use among young adolescents, are associated with lower depressive symptoms, but more studies are needed to understand the causal relationships between these variables. ( Kremer P, Elshaug C, Leslie E, Toumbourou JW, Patton GC, Williams J.) Although recently there has been an increase in the number of studies researching the affects of physical activity on mental attitude, many key questions are left out. My research aims to answer the unresolved questions the prior research previously neglected. In the research I aim to detail the statistical correlation between general health of the student population and the number of daily activities of the population. If how adolescents spend their leisure time actually effects their mental stability, determines if there is a statistical difference between male and female depression, if stress could result in depression, and how hobbies and enjoyable activities can reduce this stress in adolescents. (Benjamin D. Sylvestera, , Diane E. Mackb, , , Michael A. Busseric, , Philip M. Wilsonb, , Mark R. Beauchampa,) 

Some other question I hope to answer include:

Are the depressive symptoms already there?

When does the onset of depressive mental attitude begin? (Rebar, A. L., Vandelanotte, C., van Uffelen, J., Short, C., & Duncan, M. J.)

Is there a specific cause? (White, K)

Is there a difference in data for people who have mild (little d) depression or major (big d) depression?

Is it solely physical exercise that accounts for the relief of depressive symptoms, or is it merely the participation in an enjoyable activity that alleviates depressive symptoms? (Megan Teychenne, Kylie Ball, Jo Salmon)

Or a combination of both?

Methodology

The sample utilized in the Addhealth data set included a total of 132 schools. An administrator from each school was asked to complete a questionnaire.  “A sample of 80 high schools and 52 middle schools from the US was selected with unequal probability of selection. Incorporating systematic sampling methods and implicit stratification into the Add Health study design ensured this sample is representative of US schools with respect to region of country, urbanicity, school size, school type, and ethnicity.”

Harris, K.M., C.T. Halpern, E. Whitsel, J. Hussey, J. Tabor, P. Entzel, and J.R. Udry. 2009. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health: Research Design [WWW document]. URL: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design.

The exact method can be found in the Add Health Code Book.

Measures

Most of the Add Health data within this project was categorical and collected from a multiple choice survey that had ranges for answers.

Predicted Results and Implications 

Left untreated, depression leads to drug abuse, relationship issues, and violence towards themselves or others. (McPhie and Rawana)

My hypothesis is that there will be a correlation between female physical activity and the dissipation of depressive symptoms. The difference between male and female symptoms, will be very distinct and statistically significant. Whether or not there is a correlation between physical activity and depressive mental attitude will ultimately determine that increased physical activity during the adolescent years of 7th through 12th grade results in a decrease of depressive symptoms for females.

References

Frazier, T., Hogue, C., Angold, A., & Worthman, C. M. (2011). Pathways to teenage female depression: the role testosterone plays in the interaction of birth weight and ecological stress on adolescent depression outcomes in girls. American Journal of Human Biology, 23(2), 258-258.

Maureen O'Dougherty, Mary O. Hearst, Moin Syed, Mindy S. Kurzer, Kathryn H. Schmitz, Life events, perceived stress and depressive symptoms in a physical activity intervention with young adult women, Mental Health and Physical Activity, Volume 5, Issue 2, December 2012, Pages 148-154, ISSN 1755-2966, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2012.05.001.

Meghan L. McPhie, Jennine S. Rawana, Unravelling the relation between physical activity, self-esteem and depressive symptoms among early and late adolescents: A mediation analysis, Mental Health and Physical Activity, Volume 5, Issue 1, June 2012, Pages 43-49, ISSN 1755-2966, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2012.03.003.

Kremer, P., Elshaug, C., Leslie, E., Toumbourou, J. W., Patton, G. C., & Williams, J. (2014). Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 17(2), 183-187. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2013.03.012

Moljord, I. E. O., Moksnes, U. K., Espnes, G. A., Hjemdal, O., & Eriksen, L. (2014). Physical activity, resilience, and depressive symptoms in adolescence. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 7(2), 79-85. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2014.04.001

Rebar, A. L., Vandelanotte, C., van Uffelen, J., Short, C., & Duncan, M. J. (2014). Associations of overall sitting time and sitting time in different contexts with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 7(2), 105-110. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2014.02.004

Steptoe, A. S., & Butler, N. (1996). Sports participation and emotional wellbeing in adolescents. The Lancet, 347(9018), 1789-1792. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(96)91616-5

White, K. (1999). Depression in teenage girls is likely to stem from stress. Journal of Women’s Health & Gender-Based Medicine, 8(6), 727-727. 

Harris, K.M., C.T. Halpern, E. Whitsel, J. Hussey, J. Tabor, P. Entzel, and J.R. Udry. 2009. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health: Research Design [WWW document]. URL: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/design.

My first graph shows the relationship between active lifestyle and depressive symptoms in females. In order to make this graph, I recoded the variables in Addhealth that were standard to the symptoms of depression including:

-h1gh18 (previously relabeled as "insonmiafrequency") 

-loss of appetite 

-moodiness

-sadness

and many others within the codebook, as "depressive symptoms".

I furthered the specification by discerning whether they had "big D" depression (labeled as 1) or "little d" depression (labeled as 2)  based on their responses. The graph clearly shows that there is a visual correlation between physical activity and depressive symptoms. 

For the univariate graphing assignment I used the "Insomniafrequency" and "genhealth" variables that I managed already to make the histograms necessary for the assignment. I further managed my data by taking out all of the male responses and set them to "." since my research question focuses on depression in adolescent females and male responses are not needed. If BIO_SEX<2 THEN BIO_SEX=. 

As you can see from my updated frequency tables, for my data management assignment I decided to recode my missing variables and change my variable names to more recognizable names. 

For my frequency tables, I used three different variables to determine if there was a relationship between them. h1gh1, h1gh18, and h1da8.

H1GH1 is general health. As you can see in the table most of sample said "2" indicating that their health was "very good" the second most selected answer was "1" meaning excellent. "3" represented that the student felt as if he/she was in good health.

H1GH18 is insomnia. Most of the sample indicated that they never had trouble falling or staying asleep and the numbers decreased continuously for the other answers such as "just a few times" "once a week" almost everyday" all the way down to the last selection of "every day"

H1DA8 how many hours of television watched. 136 people watched 0 hours of television and most of the range from 1-99 hrs took most of the sample. while 996 of them refused to answer and 998 of them did not know. 

Kimora Brock

  My research project details the statistical correlation between general health of the student population and the number of daily activities of the population. The articles I’ve selected have greatly influenced and helped me narrow my research topic. In my project I will explore if:

- there is a difference between male and female depression

-physical activity actually reduces depressive symptoms

- how stress possibly causes depression, and how hobbies and enjoyable activities can reduce this stress in adolescents.

- how adolescents spend their leisure time could actually effect their mental stability.

Frazier, T., Hogue, C., Angold, A., & Worthman, C. M. (2011). Pathways to teenage female depression: the role testosterone plays in the interaction of birth weight and ecological stress on adolescent depression outcomes in girls. American Journal of Human Biology, 23(2), 258-258.

  Kremer, P., Elshaug, C., Leslie, E., Toumbourou, J. W., Patton, G. C., & Williams, J. (2014). Physical activity, leisure-time screen use and depression among children and young adolescents. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 17(2), 183-187. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2013.03.012

  Moljord, I. E. O., Moksnes, U. K., Espnes, G. A., Hjemdal, O., & Eriksen, L. (2014). Physical activity, resilience, and depressive symptoms in adolescence. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 7(2), 79-85. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2014.04.001

  Rebar, A. L., Vandelanotte, C., van Uffelen, J., Short, C., & Duncan, M. J. (2014). Associations of overall sitting time and sitting time in different contexts with depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Mental Health and Physical Activity, 7(2), 105-110. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.mhpa.2014.02.004

  Steptoe, A. S., & Butler, N. (1996). Sports participation and emotional wellbeing in adolescents. The Lancet, 347(9018), 1789-1792. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(96)91616-5

For this class, I will be using both Sections 2 and 3 of the AddHealth Code book to answer my research question of whether or not there is any statistical correlation between general health of the student population and the number of daily activities of the population as well. As I get more involved in the research, I will be able to discern whether or not the type, duration, or level of activity has any effect on the general health as well. 

My permanent blog URL will be: appliedatanalysis.tumblr.com !