In this week's video, you meet Eboni Logan, a teenager who reveals that she is pregnant. Eboni explains to her social worker that no one at her school talks about methods of birth control, as their only focus is on abstinence. Imagine that you are a social worker in Eboni's school and you begin to notice an increase in teen pregnancy. This causes you to wonder about the effectiveness of abstinence-only education. This curiosity propels you to investigate further, but you are not sure what you should do first—develop a research question or conduct a literature review.
For this Discussion, review the literature on abstinence education. View the Sessions episode on the Eboni Logan case.
By Day 3
Post your explanation about what should come first—the development of a research question or a thorough literature review. Justify your answer by adding your thoughts about which process you believe to be more realistic and/or appropriate, and why. Finally, describe potential consequences of deciding on a research question without conducting a review of the literature. Please use the resources to support your answer.
As a social worker at Eboni’s school, the issue of increased pregnancies among the students is a very serious issue. Thus, an effective solution needs to be formulated to curb the problem. According to Eboni, in the school, the students are only taught about abstinence. That may indicate that abstinence is not an effective way to prevent pregnancy. Two solutions that may be used have been identified. They are the development of a research question or a thorough literature review reviewing the effectiveness of abstinence in the prevention of pregnancy.
As a social worker, one should choose the solution that should come first. In this case, the solution that should come first is the formulation of a research question. Although reviewing the literature may also be an effective solution, different populations are affected by different factors, thus it may not be an effective solution in the case of the school. Thus, developing a research question should come first. When developing the research question, the factors in play in the case of this school should be considered. Additionally, formulating a research question will enable the social worker to identify the reasons that despite teaching about abstinence, the rate of pregnancy among girls has increased (White, 2017). Developing the research question will ensure that the social worker identifies the best solution that can be implemented to reduce the rate of pregnancy.
Deciding to formulate a research question without a literature review may have some consequences. A literature review is essential to identify the results of previous research papers about the same issue. Thus, a literature review acts as a guide. Thus, the lack of using a literature review will not enable the social worker to identify the study in the gap that should be used to identify the cause of pregnancies despite education about abstinence and the effectiveness of education about abstinence (Smith et al.,2017).
References
Smith, T. E., Panisch, L. S., Malespin, T., & Pereira, M. G. (2017). Evaluating effectiveness of abstinence education. Journal of evidence-informed social work, 14(5), 360-367.
White, R. (2017). Building trust in real-world evidence and comparative effectiveness research: the need for transparency.