Findings, Results, Discussions, and Recommendations

Running head: GUIDED IMAGERY AND PROGRESSIVE MUSCLE RELAXATION

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Methodology for Problem Statement

Patrice Scope

SWK/5015

Capella University

Instructor: Adam Quinn

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Methodology for Problem Statement

The program is a social work program that focuses on teen parents and aims at educating them on how to take care of their children while looking after themselves as well. Adolescent parents are unequipped to care for children and the outcome can lead to development and behavioral issues that last to their children’s’ adolescence. Furthermore, ill preparation of the teen parents increases the cases of repeat teen pregnancies (Grinnell et al., 2016). This paper will analyze methods of research, data collection process, sample methods, and ethical issues during research. Teaching teen parents on how to care for themselves and their children increases maternal self-esteem and reduces the chances of repeat teen pregnancies.

The hypothesis is ‘does education of teen parents on how to cater for their children and care for their mental health have positive effects on maternal self-esteem and teen repeat pregnancies?’ The hypothesis will be used to develop guiding questions for the interview, which will determine the themes that will be developed. The goal is to assess the need and effectiveness of such a program in the community, and determine the lessons and activities that would be most effective for the selected group.

There are three types of evaluation methods for programs: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. The type of evaluation method employed depends on the nature of the research being conducted as it will determine the data collection form used. All methods have their unique biases and weaknesses. Quantitative methods deal mostly with numeric data whereas qualitative handles text and image data that involve themes or patterns. Mixed methods seek a convergence across qualitative and quantitative methods. The research method used is qualitative analysis since it facilitates for finding meaning of a phenomenon from the participants’ perspectives (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The sampling method used is probability sampling, specifically simple random sampling. The participants will be selected from the urban centers’ hospital database to select the sample of teen parents aged between 16 and 19 years.

Data collection will be conducted through both focus and individual interviews. The recruitment of participants will be conducted through calling individuals meeting the criteria from the sample selected, informing them of the goals of the research, and asking if they are willing to participate. Interested individuals will be asked to meet at a venue for the individual interviews. The focus group interview will be conducted via video conferencing which will provide comfort to the individuals on sharing their life experiences as opposed to face-to-face which increases vulnerability and hinders effective data collection.

Data collection will take a semi-structured form which is beneficial for asking follow-up questions thus reducing the risk of research bias and ensuring accuracy. The interviews will begin with close-ended questions and progress gradually to open-ended questions as the participant becomes more relaxed and less defensive. The conversations will be recorded by a video camera to ensure the researcher is able to replay the video in case they miss important points. The goal is to ensure the participant never loses their train of thought, hence there should be minimal interruption. Moreover, direct quotes will be used as evidence to the developed themes during the data analysis or coding process to increase validity of the findings.

Some ethical issues can arise during research and the practitioner must be aware of them to be prepared in advance. Conducting interview requires handling confidential information because participants give their personal life experiences. The researcher should use a pseudonym to protect the identity of the participants. Moreover, the participants should be provided with a copy of the findings to see their contributions, ask for clarifications, or notify the researcher as to what information should be included or omitted. Also, because the researcher is dealing with adolescents, their parents should be asked for permission to proceed before they are selected for interviews.

Conclusion

Educating teen parents on caring for their children increases parenting self-esteem and has positive effects on repeat adolescent pregnancies. The type of research chosen is qualitative research which enables the practitioners to develop themes from analyzing the participants’ responses. The data collection process involves use of both focus groups and individual interviews to increase the validity of the data collected. The participants are teenage parents and their parents are asked for permission before the interviews begin. Also, the researcher uses pseudonyms to protect the identities of the participants.

Reference

Grinnell, R. M., Gabor, P., & Unrau, Y. A. (2016). Program evaluation for social workers: Foundations of evidence-based programs (7th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). Sage.