SOCW 6301

Required Readings

Yegidis, B. L., Weinbach, R. W., & Myers, L. L. (2018). Research methods for social workers (8th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.
Review Chapter 4, “Conducting the Literature Review and Developing Research Hypothesis” (pp. 71-99)

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Foundation year. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].
Social Work Research: Couples Counseling
Social Work Research: Couples Counseling Social Work Research: Using Multiple Assessments

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., Brocksen S. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: Case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].
The Logan Family

Required Media

Laureate Education Producer). (2013). Logan family (Episode 1) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 1 minutes.
Accessible player --Downloads--Download Video w/CCDownload AudioDownload Transcript

Discussion: Research Questions and Literature Reviews

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.