DATA ANALYSIS FOR CHILD ABUSE

PSY 520 Research Methods in Psychology II

April 20, 2014

Methodology of Child-Abuse

Purpose statement

Child Abuse is a significant social dilemma that continues to affect a sizable portion of the population. Common forms of abuse include physical violence, emotional neglect and sexual intercourse with a child (Bullock and Spratt, 2009). Under all circumstances, abuse frequently entails highly problematic consequences for the victims and society by and large (Saunders and Goddard, 2010). A wealth of empirical evidence strongly suggests that abused children are significantly more likely to display highly problematic behavioral tendencies than their peers who have not been subjected to such treatment. Children who have been abused are more likely to underperform academically, to struggle to form adequate relationships and more likely to become delinquent (Leventhal, Martin and Gaither, 2012). All of these notions constitute popular hypothesis regarding the connection between abuse and behavioral outcomes. The presently proposed study will offer a method of evaluating some of the hypotheses in question.

Participants

In order to evaluate the aforementioned hypotheses about child abuse, it will be necessary to make direct contact with individuals who have been abused. However, child abuse is known to carry a significant social stigma and because of that, many of the victims of abuse may be unwilling to reveal all of the essential information about their experience in detail. In order for researchers to gain a deeper understanding of the essential facts of this phenomenon, it is desirable for them to make contact with the largest number of individuals possible. This course of action is to be motivated by the premise that because most participants would be willing to disclose only limited information. Thus, the strategy of maximization of information would necessarily hold that the researcher should interact with the highest possible number of people.

Materials and procedures

The stigma attached to Child Abuse will invariably lead many victims to refrain from entering interviews with the researchers. To mitigate these factors, the researchers would be very well-advised to rely on the survey method which is quite appropriate in scenarios where a potent stigma is attached to the issue in question. Clearly, child abuse is one of such scenarios and that constitutes a compelling reason for researchers to rely on this method. Another prominent advantage of the survey method is that it allows researchers to extract information from a considerably large number of participants in a limited amount of time.

However, this approach has a number of evident and significant weaknesses. The main weakness of this research methodology is that researchers who implement it are likely to struggle to verify that their data is accurate. For example, survey participants may operate with biases that prevent them from accurately answering the required questions. Because the researchers are often unable to interact with the participants in a direct face to face setting or in a manner that would allow for in-depth observations to take place, their opportunities to verify the reported results will be very limited. In order to avoid the problematic implications of this methodology, it is highly desirable for researchers to interact with the guardians or supervisors of children who participate in this study. For obvious reasons, the alleged abusers will likely decline the invitation to be interviewed. However, foster parents, religious leaders and legal guardians of formerly abused children could be persuaded to answer survey questions. Additionally, it would be desirable for researchers to conduct observations of some of the behaviors of abused children to determine if they are prone to displaying behavioral outcomes commonly associated with abuse.

Variables

The key dependent variable consists of the participants in the study who have been impacted by child abuse. By contrast, the independent variable is child abuse itself as it has the potential to inflict severe harm upon children.

Data analysis

In 2005, the Child Protective Services investigated over three million allegations of child abuse or neglect (American Humane Association, 2010). This clearly suggests that child abuse is a pervasive phenomenon in the United States and if swift measures are not taken to diminish its incidence, it will likely exacerbate with disastrous social consequences. This notion is underscored in light of the fact that 1,460 children have died due to child abuse or neglect that same year (American Humane Association, 2010). Such facts clearly show that the severity of child abuse simply cannot be underestimated because fatalities are known to commonly ensue as a result of this practice. On a daily basis, over 2,400 children are known to undergo abuse and timely interventions are rarely staged place (American Humane Association, 2010). This is clear evidence of the failure of the Child Protective Services to prevent abuse from taking place.

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