1) Another health outcome I am interested in is: mental health among minority medical students- rates of depression, anxiety.
- Behavior 1: use of well-being services offered through the school or independently - this would be one form of behavior that could serve as an intervention
- Behavior 2: engagement in a social network- religious, civic engagement.. - these behaviors could be either preventative/intervention as a means of forming social support
2) I would study behavior 2 - engagement in social networks influencing my outcome. However I would also incorporate the degree of family responsibility/stress that some minority students may have. For example, if you are the first in your family to go to college, and your family has many structural stressors- violence, food insecurity, housing insecurity, immigration , then perhaps those stressors are translated to the student and the student is "caught in the middle". Do these family responsibilities take time away from being engaged in other social networks that could influence the outcome of depression/anxiety/burnout? Or is it a catalyst for further engagement? I think it would be interesting to do a qualitative study on this to really tease out themes that may emerge.
3) I think we should definitely continue to study individual behaviors, but we should focus equal resources to understanding the broader context of these behaviors, which is what the readings further delve into.