Assignment #2:  Using Research to Understand a Population (Qualitative)

Goal: 

Students will identify and use existing qualitative research to further their understanding of a population of interest to the social work profession. 

Instructions:

To complete the assignment, you will find two empirical peer-reviewed journal articles that report on qualitative research. Use the identified articles to answer the following questions:

1.   What is the population of interest? Why is this population of interest to you? (1 

paragraph)

2.   How did you identify the articles? Specifically, what keywords did you use, how did you define your search question, and what databases did you use? Share your search history 

(1 paragraph)

3.   Summarize what you found by creating an annotated bibliography that provides a 

paragraph summary of each article. Be sure that you include a description of the 

quantitative methodologies used including 1) study design, 2) sampling strategy, 3) 

qualitative data collection techniques (200 words or less per article)

4.   Discuss any discrepancies in the conclusions presented in the articles. Are the researchers’ conclusions consistent with the findings and reasonable in light of the reported limitations? (1-2 paragraphs)

5.   What did you learn about the population of interest? (1-2 paragraphs)

6.   Discuss the implications for guiding social work decisions. (1-2 paragraphs)

The completed assignment must adhere to APA formatting guidelines. 

Using Research to Understand a Problem (Quantitative)

I am interested in the domestic violence in considering of Asian culture, the reason this problem interest me is of my personal experience of my family, I want to explore more perspectives on this problem.

At the very beginning of my research process, I selected databases including Gender Studies Database, Women’s Studies International, Family & Society Studies Worldwide, Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) and Social Sciences Abstracts (H.W. Wilson). And then I used the keyword in the first blank, domestic violence or domestic abuse or intimate partner violence and in the second blank I used Asian culture. After that I limited the range to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, when I tried to narrow it down by methodology, it came out that I can’t find the selection of methodology. After communicated with instructor, I changed the database to all databases, and it worked, the results narrow by quantitative study.

The first article “Gender disadvantage and reproductive health risk factors for common mental disorders in women.” The study was designed to determine the association of factors indicative of gender disadvantage and reproductive health with the risk of common mental disorders in women. It is a Cross-sectional survey from November 1, 2001, to June 15, 2003, located on India’s west coast, GOA. The study population was women aged 18 to 45 years living in the catchment area of the north Goa district. A total of 3000 women were randomly selected from the sampling frame. The eligibility criteria for recruitment were age between 18 and 50 years and residence in the area for the next 12 months, speaking one of the study languages, not experiencing cognitive impairment as well as not being pregnant. They use Revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CISR) to measure the outcome, CISR consists of 14 domains, such as anxiety, depression, irritability, obsessions, compulsions, and panic. Each domain includes mandatory and scoring questions. The sum of the scoring questions generates a total score (range, 0-57) that is a measure of nonpsychotic psychiatric morbidity. In addition to the CISR, items inquired about lifetime suicide attempts and attempts to harm oneself without the intention to die. An interview and blood and vaginal/urine specimens were collected to ascertain risk factors.

The second article “Marriage migration, patriarchal bargains, and wife abuse: A study of South Asian women.” introduces that in South Asia, despite decades of activism against abuse, it remains normative for husbands and their relatives to abuse wives, and legislation against domestic abuse is largely ineffective (Ahmed-Ghosh, 2003; Banerjee, 1999; Kapur & Crossman, 1996; Mitra, 2002). The sample for this study was purposively selected to allow for research on South Asian immigrant women with recent histories of abuse at the hands of their husbands, and a comparison group of similar women with no abuse history. The interviewers recruited study participants from the advocacy agency client pools. To provide a comparison group, they recruited participants of similar age, immigration history, religion, and education to the abused women. Quantitative measures were used to determine and cross-check the placement of women into categories to reflect existence and type of abuse. A quantitative measure similar to the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 2007) assessed women’s self-reports of multiple types of abusive incidents. Another quantitative measure, the Battering Experience Scale, indicated feelings of vulnerability that stem from lost power and control and entrapment that occur when partners use physical, sexual, or emotional force (

Coker, Pope, Smith, Sanderson, & Hussey, 2001

; 

Smith, Smith, & Earp, 1999

; 

Smith, Tessaro, & Earp, 1995

).

For the first article, the conclusions are clinical assessment of CMD in women must include exploration of violence and gender disadvantage. According to the results of the measures, the conclusions are consistent with the findings. In regard of the possibility that gynecological complaints are somatic idioms for CMDs. Because it is a cross-sectional survey, longitudinal studies are needed. However, none of the biological indicators of reproductive health were associated with CMDs and, they think that the association is more likely to be explained by the fact that the complaints are the result of CMDs. The strong association of gynecological complaints with CMDs in developed countries is well established; there is growing evidence demonstrating this relationship in developing countries, where cultural factors related to explanatory models of reproductive and mental health experiences may enhance the association between these health domains.

For the second article, according to the findings of the interviews, the conclusions are consistent with the findings. Women who ended up in abusive relationships had pressures on them to marry, and several of them had characteristics that probably limited their and their families’ selection of husbands. Being older than the perceived ideal age for marriage or being divorced placed them at a disadvantage in the marriage market. In South Asia, divorce is considered a failure of the wife to keep the marriage from breaking (Ayyub, 2000; Dasgupta, 2007), and divorced women are socially ostracized and are viewed as selfish, loose, unlucky, and a burden to their parents. Just as older age and divorce contribute to pressures to marry, they could also account for pressures to try to maintain marriages.

I learned to inform the cases mentioned in the second article on my experienced cases, it came out with high consistency.

Even from the same area, the researchers use varies language to avoid misunderstanding, difficulty in accessing information. This is associated with the awareness of cultural difference in social work area.

Reference:

Chaudhuri, S., Morash, M., & Yingling, J. (2014). Marriage Migration, Patriarchal Bargains, and Wife Abuse: A Study of South Asian Women. Violence Against Women, 20(2), 141–161.

https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801214521326

Patel V, Kirkwood BR, Pednekar S, et al. Gender Disadvantage and Reproductive Health Risk Factors for Common Mental Disorders in Women: A Community Survey in India. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006;63(4):404–413. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.63.4.404