The purpose of this practical example was to examine the relationship between conflicting demands at work and self-rated health. Here in the discussion section we are going to summarize the aim and research question. Don’t forget to take time to congratulate yourself on making it this far!
The following research questions were specified:
- Is there a relationship between conflicting demands at work and self-rated health?
- Does the relationship persist after adjusting for year, gender, age, and teacher qualification?
- To what extent is the relationship explained by stress?
- Does the relationship differ between men and women?
1) There is a statistically significant strong, positive relationship between conflicting demands at work and self-rated health. It is almost seven times higher odds (OR 6.84) to report bad self-rated health if you have conflicting demands at work to a large extent.
2) The relationship remains and even gets slightly stronger when we adjust for year, gender, age and teaching qualification (OR 6.94). The relationship is statistically significant.
3) When stress is also taken into account, the relationship becomes weaker (OR 4.82). This therefore means stress explains a relatively large proportion of the relationship. This relationship is statistically significant.
4) Sex moderates the relationship between conflicting demands at work and self-reported health, which means that the relationship looks different between men and women. There is a bigger difference seen among women (displayed by a steeper slope in the marginsplot) and there is a significant interaction effect (p=0.0303).
Also to be included
In addition to a summary of the aim and research questions, other sections and paragraphs can also be included. Below are some examples:
- A conclusion of the overall findings and contribution of the paper
- Strengths and limitations of the research
- Connections back to any theoretical underpinnings or background information in the introduction
- Future research that could be conducted
After including all of these elements, all that is left to review and edit your paper. Congratulations! It is no small feat to write a research paper from start to finish. Good luck on future research papers and projects, hopefully you have found this example helpful and can return here in the future.