Alcohol And Drug Abuse By Adolescents Is A Growing Problem - Research Proposal Example

Running Head: Research Proposal on Alcohol and Drug Abuse By Adolescents. University Name: Part Two Variables The study will incorporate both independent and dependent variables. The independent variables will include 1. School opportunities for alcohol and drug non-use by adolescents. 2. School role models for alcohol and drugs non use by adolescents 3. School, norms for alcohol and drug non use by adolescents and 4. School social support for alcohol and drug non-use by adolescents. The dependent variable on the other hand will include computed school’s drug prevalence for four measures i.e. past year bhang use, past month alcohol use, heavy drinking in the last three weeks and past year alcohol use. Prevalences will be adjusted for gender and race. Consequently the adjusted prevalences will serve as the dependent variables for the study. These measures will greatly help in producing reliable and valid population data for the study. (Cryer, 2000) Research Design To ensure that my research design is qualitative I will try to access a particular group of adolescent boys and girls interview them and receive their feedback on certain specified questions. I will make use of qualitative data, which will include documentation, conducting interviews, participant observation among others. This will help me in understanding the adolescents and also their social cultural contexts. I will apply interpretive research, which holds the assumption that access to reality can only be achieved through social construction, for example, consciousness, language and shared meanings. To achieve quantitative study I will incorporate case studies so as to have the true picture and understanding of the topic under study. I will also apply ethnography and action research, which will guarantee enough details for the replication of research thereby providing reassurance that I will be using the necessary methods to get valid results. This study will employ experimental design where subjects will be randomized into control and treatment groups. (Cryer, 2000) The randomization will have a provision for control variables particular those variables that will not be clearly included in the study. Experimental design will allow the use of any given method of data collection for instance drug research as far as alcohol and drug abuse by adolescents is concerned. Each level of dependent variables will carry different subjects. Any specified subject will be exposed to one level only where comparisons will be made between the reactions of the selected subjects. I will heavily rely on subjects’ randomization among the treatment groups so as to control for the unmeasured variables. On other instances I will use subject’s stratification to assure acquired proportions on certain key variables, for example, gender. Sampling Methods According to Blaxter (1998) a wide variety of methods exist for selecting observations from a population, some of which produce more representative samples than others. I will therefore choose the method that gives the most representative results. The number of items that should be included in a sample introduces the concept of the sampling fraction i.e. the total population included in a sample. Sometimes precise sampling fraction cannot be computed because the population is infinitely large or has never been measured. Two intuitive responses to the sample size question will be I either select a maximum number of observations that time and money will allow or use the minimum necessary to produce reliable results. The study will employ quota sampling, which falls under the non-probability sampling technique. This is a combination of accessibility and judgmental sampling and the starting point will be deciding on the total number of observations needed for the sample and to identify discrete groups within the population. (Gillham, 2005) The study will set about filling these quotas with eligible observations from the accessible members of the population. I will apply proportional quota sampling whereby I will represent the major characteristics of the population by sampling the proportional amount of each, for example, if the school population has got 65% boys and 35% girls. Since I will aim at a total sample size of 100 then I will continue sampling until I get the said percentage and then I will stop i.e. if I already have the 65 boys for my sample but not the 35 girls then I will continue to sample girls and even if justifiable boys respondents come along I will not sample them. The problem here is that I will have to decide the specific characteristics on which I will base the quota i.e. whether age, education gender e.t.c. Besides, quota sampling suffers from the disadvantages of both accessibility and judgemental systems. Part Three Data collection I will collect data by utilizing three research methods Questionnaire Interview Observation I will pilot the questionnaire carefully i.e. produce a draft version, circulate it for comment to two colleagues and then make several amendments as a result of responses received. Walker (1995) points out that there is need to pilot all data gathered instruments in order to ascertain the amount of time recipients take to complete them to ensure all questions and accompanying instructions are outlined clearly and enable items to be amended or removed where necessary. I will aim at collecting both qualitative and quantitative data and will therefore provide four to five alternatives to every question thus reducing the possibility that respondents may reply automatically to questions or persist in choosing the middle option in a non-reflective manner. (Maxwell, 1998) I will mail the questionnaire to different respondents across my area of study scope. The questionnaires will be accompanied by a letter explaining how I arrived at the targeted respondent as well as assuring him/ that confidentiality will be observed while going through the questionnaires. Example of questionnaire 1. For how many years have your been taking drugs / alcohol Read More