Prevention Measures to Lessen Amount of Teenage Pregnancy - Research Paper Example

Critical analysis of research plan Introduction The research problem taken into account in this research plan is the increasing amount of teenage pregnancy. Although prevention programs are being carried out in different parts of the country, the rate at which teenagers are getting pregnant is increasing. So here we are presented with a research proposal in which the researcher wants to study the effectiveness of current prevention programs. The research is being conducted so that more programs are launched in this domain. Problem Statement The research uses qualitative approach by incorporating questionnaires and interviews. The teenagers will be interviewed to get their insight on the problem. It is accurately aligned with the problem statement. The problem described here is the early pregnancy of teenagers, and the need to regularly reinforce the prevention programs. The research will be conducted to figure out how extensively are prevention programs being carried out, what types of prevention programs are being carried out and how successful have they been in imparting knowledge. Through interviews and surveys the researcher will get to meet and interact with the teenagers face to face. This will help the researcher get a better idea on his subject, as he will also be observing the facial expressions. The interviews will allow the researcher to ask the teenagers about their views on these programs. The interviewer will also be able to gather more information through open ended questions. He will be thus in a better position to pass stronger judgments about the candidate. Through surveys the researcher will get an insight into the centers where the teenagers are being trained and given information about the hazards of early pregnancy. Qualitative methods also allow the researcher the flexibility to probe initial participant responses – that is, to ask why or how. The researcher by listening carefully to what participants say, can engage with them according to their individual personalities and styles, and can use “probes” to encourage them to give more detailed answers. (Faimly Health Internatonal) Research Question The problem statement specifies what sort of information is expected from these interviews and surveys. That is, what knowledge the participants have about early pregnancy and prevention methods. So the research questions will be written in such a manner that the required information is extracted from the participants. The target audience is also briefed in the purpose statement which will help in structuring the questions. It very clearly states the required number of teenagers and their groups. They will be interviewed to gather the required information. This helps to structure the questions according to the interviewees’ mentality. (Lesikar, 1998) The research question essentially answers the five Ws of the research problem. “What” that is for what purpose the research is being conducted. In this case it is to improve the teenage pregnancy programs. “Where”, that is where the research is being carried out. In this case it is carried out in United States. “Who” - who the participants of the research are, people who will be surveyed or interviewed. “When”, the when part is not necessary for this research problem as this research is not bounded by any time space. “Why” answers what was the problem due to which the research is being carried out. The problem as identified in the problem statement was increasing teenage pregnancy. Though it is not necessary that all the five Ws must be answered, answering them makes for a good research question. This research question on the other hand is not only incomplete in adequately addressing the problem but also incoherent. The problem statement and purpose statement indentifies their target audience as the United States where as in the research question, only girls from rural Louisiana are taken into account . Educating teenagers includes both girls and boys unlike only girls as written in the research question. Research methodology The problem statement and purpose statement clearly specify that the research methodology that will be used will be qualitative research. They both specify that surveys and interviews will be done in order to gather the required information. The problem statement states that “the study will involve yearly interviews and surveys to explore the efforts of prevention programs and approaches to generate new knowledge”. The purpose statement further elaborates on what group of people will be sampled for the interviews. Through surveys and questionnaires researchers can ask more flexible questions – that is, they allow greater spontaneity and adaptation of the interaction between the researcher and the study participant. For example, qualitative methods ask mostly “open-ended” questions that are not necessarily worded in exactly the same way for each participant. With open-ended questions, participants are free to respond in their own words, and these responses tend to be more complex than simply “yes” or “no.”Participants have the opportunity to respond in greater detail than is typically the case with quantitative methods. The researchers then can respond immediately to what participants say by tailoring subsequent questions for the answer the participant has provided. (Denzin NK, 2000) This degree of flexibility provided by qualitative methods reflects on the understanding of the problem that is being probed. Apart from the research question, all the parts of the research plan are in cohesion with each other. The problem statement and the purpose statement deliver the same message. In the problem statement the writer first gives the figures and describes the problem of early pregnancy and then logically approaches the problem which needs to be addressed. That is a need to increase efforts to decrease teenage pregnancy. He then proposes what he needs to be done to address the problem and for that what sort of research needs to be done. First a research needs to be done to study the effects of these programs. This will help improve new programs and eliminate any setbacks in the previous ones. The age group and the cultural background are also consistent in both, the problem statement and the purpose statement. The age range from 12-19 years of age is also consistent in this study. Conclusion This research plan is well written as far as the problem statement and the purpose statement are concerned but the researcher has not developed the research question very well. Poor research question can lead to a wrong research as the question is referred to again and again through out the research in order to get direction. Bibliography Denzin NK, L. Y. (2000). Handbook of Qualitative Research. London: Sage Publications. Faimly Health Internatonal. Qualitative research methods: A data collectors field guide. Lesikar, P. (1998). Report Writing for Business. Mc Graw Hill. Read More