Human Resources Management (HRM)

Research Problems
[WLOs: 2, 3] [CLO: 3]
Prior to beginning work on this assignment, read the following chapters from your textbook, and refer to the Research Proposal Project final project assignment as a reference in Week 6 for what you will be compiling for this project to gain an understanding of what research problem might be most appropriate.

Chapter 1: The Nature and Tools of Research
Pages 1-9, 19-27
Chapter 2: The Problem: The Heart of the Research Process
Chapter 3: Review of the Related Literature
Chapter 4: Planning Your Research Project
In addition, watch Creating a Research Question (Links to an external site.) and What Is research? (Links to an external site.)

Select a human/social service organization, which can be where you are currently employed, or where you would have an interest in gaining future employment. You will use this organization and research problem as the basis of your final Research Proposal Project.

Chapters 1 to 4 of the Leedy and Ormrod text will help guide you as decide what the problem is that you would like to propose to evaluate, what literature is going to be most appropriate for this proposal, and how to plan with the proposal. The chapters will guide you on how to construct and write the research proposal. It is important to select your research problem carefully. The following considerations should be addressed in the assignment:

How do you know when you have a legitimate research problem?
How would you delineate the subparts of the social problem for your research project?
How did you make your determinations and what were the details of the determination process?
How would you plan for such a research process?
How do your tentative research question(s) apply to your final project?
Your instructor will provide feedback on the research problem and the proposed research question which will serve as “approval” to proceed with the project as a comment along with your grade in the gradebook. You may find Narrowing a Topic and Developing a Research Question (Links to an external site.) from the Writing Center to be useful in this assignment.

Leedy, P. D. & Ormrod, J. E. (2019). Practical research: Planning and design (12th ed.). Pearson.

The full-text version of this ebook is available in your online classroom through the RedShelf platform.
Netting, F. E., O’Conner, M. K., & Fauri, D. P. (2008). Comparative approaches to program planning. Wiley.

The full-text version of this ebook is available in your online classroom through the RedShelf platform.

ANSWER

Research Problem: Drug Abuse among the Youth

Research Problem: Drug Abuse among the Youth

Data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Centre for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that many adolescents abuse drugs. Substance abuse affects individuals, families, and communities financially, socially, physically, and mentally (Das et al., 2016). Adolescents are vulnerable to abusing drugs due to peer pressure that comes at that age. On the other hand, the consequences are more significant due to the underdeveloped state of the adolescent mind that can hinder their decision-making ability and increase long-term effects.

Identifying a legitimate research problem

A research problem is a statement about an area of concern, a situation that needs to be improved, or a challenge that needs to be eliminated. A legitimate research question prompts more questions and leading to a deeper study for more insight and comprehension. Additionally, the research question has to be relevant to the issue at hand (Leedy & Ormrod, 2019). It should also be timely, such that it is a current issue affecting people; also, it opts to be a researchable topic. Drug addiction among the youth is a legitimate research problem since it meets the threshold of raising more questions, being a current issue, and is a researchable topic.

Delineating the subparts of the social problem

Drug addiction among the youth can be simplified into subparts raising sub-questions for the most abused drug. Additionally, identifying the most affected gender and their age. Also, one could pose the subtopic on causes of the addiction, which could be peer pressure, parental influence, academic pressure, easy availability of the drugs, or financial challenges.

Making determinations and details of the determination process

Many unhealthy behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and substance abuse often begin in adolescence. This irresponsible behavior poses a significant challenge to public health as they are responsible for the high morbidity and mortality rates among youth. Consequences such as mental health issues, suicides, poor health, and decreased life expectancy point to drug abuse (Das et al., 2016). While determining the feasibility of a study, one must first define the dependent and independent variables that may solve the research problem. Secondly is to consider how the variables could be controlled since uncontrollable variables may result in indefinite solutions. Thirdly is to determine the function relation between the variables identified, and finally, identify the most critical variables which provide the best solution from the study.

Planning for the research process

Planning for any research involves a systematic process of first identifying the problem at hand, then collecting data, followed by analyzing the collected data, presenting the results, and finally, a discussion on the same. The problem identified in this case is drug abuse among the youth, which forms a foundation for the research. Such a study requires quantitative results as numbers are critical to identifying the prevalence of the problem, then apply the logic model for purposes of precise results from the data collected, as Netting et L. (2008) suggest.

Application of the research questions to final paper

The research questions are clear and direct to the point, strategically identified as they form the basis of the research. They range from the participants’ age to gender and the reason for the drug abuse.

References

Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Arshad, A., Finkelstein, Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2016). Interventions for     Adolescent Substance Abuse: An Overview of Systematic Reviews. The Journal of      Adolescent Health: official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 59(4), 61          75.

Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2019). Practical Research Planning and Design. Pearson.

Netting, F. E., O’Conner, M. K., & Fauri, D. P. (2008). Comparative approaches to program            planning. Wiley