"Responsible Laziness?": A Grounded Theory Approach to Understanding Health Decision-Making Among Young Adult College Students
Date
2024-05
Authors
White, Shelly A.
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Abstract
Young adults, including college students, are a high-risk group for many infectious diseases including COVID-19. This is due, in part, to social behaviors and norms regarding personal health practices and beliefs about invulnerability to infection within this group. Young adults also have the lowest rates of vaccination among adults, including for COVID-19 vaccines. Using grounded theory, this research seeks to understand how college students make decisions about their health generally, and COVID-19 boosters specifically, by using qualitative interview data to develop a model that describes young adult college student health decision-making processes. Further, this research considers the relationships between information, decision-making, and health behaviors among college students, and uses this model to demonstrate that common theoretical paradigms of public health research fail to apply to actual decision-making processes.
Description
Keywords
medical anthropology, decision making, health, public health, cultural anthropology, young adult, college student
Citation
White, S. A. (2024). "Responsible laziness?": A grounded theory approach to understanding health decision-making among young adult college students (Unpublished thesis). Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas.