When you have the topic(s) or variables operationalized or specific enough, you can use the connections you decided on to link them together. For example, if you decided to focus on pornography viewing habits among veterans with PTSD, this would contain three research topics or concepts to study–that is, PTSD, veterans, and pornography (viewing).  If you want to just look at what the research says in general (such as in a literature review), you can turn that into a question such as “What does the research say about pornography viewing habits among veterans with PTSD?”

Note that this would be a fairly narrow topic. You could broaden it by looking at just pornography viewing among people with PTSD or pornography viewing in any veterans.

If you want to look at other variables such as spiritual well-being, you would need to think about how they might link together. For example, your research statement would be “What is the relationship between the pornography viewing habits in veterans with PTSD and their spiritual well-being?” But it could also be, “What is the difference between veterans with PTSD, veterans without PTSD, and non-veterans on pornography viewing habits on spiritual well-being?” Deciding how they are linked together and their relationships makes the research sentence.

In the first case, you are looking at the relationship between pornography (viewing), veterans, and PTSD, and you are looking at the impact that the pornography (viewing) has on veterans with PTSD especially in relation to their spiritual well-being. You are also looking at the relationships between spiritual well-being, veterans, and PTSD as well.  These become the areas of focus for the literature review.

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