Please bear in mind that this first assignment is based on the group work we have already done. We will do another group next week to get even more comfortable with the assignment. We will then go over the assignment and answer any remaining questions. That has been the plan. Let's stick to it.

Also please keep in mind that you need not stay committed to the topics you propose in this first assignment. You can have an entirely different topic for your research proposal (the second assignment). This first assignment is essentially a dry run to get comfortable with proposing a topic, framing a research question, coming up with hypotheses.

This assignment is also very short. You can do the whole thing in 1-3 pages depending on how concise and to the point you are. It should not take that long to do. One week is enough time to work on it. That is why we do not go over it until next week.

This first assignment asks you to do four things. I provide examples here for each of the four things that you have to do. Be sure to read the assignment handout before completing the assignment. Use my examples here for illustrations of what you should include.

1. List two (2) important research topics for your agency. An important topic is one that will improve the knowledge base of social work practice in your agency and contribute to more informed practice.

a. For example, if your agency is treating families that been referred to them due to reports of child abuse, you might want to look at the topic of the causes of child abuse. You might want to focus the topic on whether people who are abused physically by their parents are more likely than others to physically abuse their children when they become parents themselves.

b. For example, if your agency is providing voluntary treatment to adults who are trying to end a drug and alcohol dependency, you might want to study the topic of the causes that lead some clients to dropout and while others are more likely to continue with treatment. You might want to focus the topic on whether ethnic or racial differences between a client and his or her therapist is a primary factor in affecting dropout rates.

c. For example, if your agency is a faith-based community agency that provides spiritual as well as material support to homeless families, you might want to study the topic of causes of homelessness. You might want to focus the topic on whether individuals in homeless shelters need spiritual support as well as material support in order to get enough confidence, self-esteem and motivation to get off the streets and stabilize their living and working conditions.

d. For example, if your agency is providing outreach to intravenous drug users, you might want to study whether users on the street have a receptivity to needle-exchange programs. You might want to focus your topic on whether and which intravenous drug users are receptive to participating in needle-exchange programs and under what conditions.

e. For example, if your agency developing a program to increase the adoption of children in foster care, you might want to study what factors affect adoption of children in foster care. You might want to focus your topic further on what helps increase the likelihood of children with emotional problems will be adopted out of foster care.

2. Develop a problem statement for each the two (2) topics you have chosen. A problem statement is a justification indicating why this is an important topic for social work practice, why your agency would benefit from research on this topic, and how research would help us know more about the topic so that social work practice would improve in your agency. The examples below in each case are a good start to providing such justification. Depending on your topic, you might want to say a bit more.

a. For example, research on the causes of child abuse, and in particular research on whether abused children are more likely to grow up to be parents who have committed acts of child abuse could help lead to changes in the forms and timing of intervention and treatment, including working with abused children to address issues of the long-term effects of associated trauma.

b. For example, research on the causes of client dropout from voluntary treatment programs can help reduce dropout and improve chances of successful treatment. This could be critical in programs that are already proven in effectiveness for the clients that do manage to stay with them.

c. For example, research on the causes of homelessness, especially on the role of loss of a sense of self-worth can lead to changes in faith-based programs in particular to concentrate on improving how homeless individuals think about themselves and improving self-esteem, in addition to providing needed financial and supportive services for making the return to independent living.

d. For example, research on the receptivity of intravenous drug users to needle-exchange programs can help create the basis for designing effective exchange programs that have the trust of the potential clientele.

e. For example, research on the factors affecting adoption out of foster care can help improve the rates of adoption for foster care children and reduce the high rates at which many children currently now stay in foster care until they age out into adulthood. Such research can lead to new forms of intervention and supportive services for foster care, children, foster care families and adopting families that can help make such adoptions more likely and more likely to be successful.

3. Write a specific research question for each of your two (2) topics.

Examples:

a. Are people who are abused physically as children more likely than other children to grow to be abusers as parents?

b. Are clients who dropout more likely than clients who complete treatment to experience interpersonal tension with their therapist?

c. Are homeless individuals who return to a stabilized living condition more likely than persons who remain on the street to have benefited not just from material support but from spiritual support as well?

d. Are needle-exchange programs that allow for the exchange of needles in the neighborhoods of intravenous drug users preferable among that population than programs that require users to come to centralized locations outside the neighborhood?

e. Are children with emotional problems in foster care more likely to get adopted when adopting families are guaranteed continuous access to treatment for their adopted children?

4. For each question, specify two (2) hypotheses to be studied.

Examples:

a.

--Mothers who had been abused as children are more likely than other mothers to commit acts of child physical abuse as parents.

--Fathers who had been abused as children are not more likely than other fathers to commit acts of child physical abuse as parents.

--Mothers who had been abused as children but got treatment are less likely to commit act of abuse than mothers who were abused but did not get treatment.

b.

--Latino clients in a voluntary drug and alcohol treatment program are less likely to complete treatment when their therapist is not Latino.

--Latino clients in a voluntary drug and alcohol treatment program are more likely to complete treatment when their therapists is familiar with the client's cultural practices.

--Male Latino clients more so than female clients in a voluntary drug and alcohol treatment program are more likely to dropout when the therapist is unfamiliar with the client's cultural practices.

c.

---Over a two-year period, persons leaving a homeless shelter for a stabilized living condition were more likely to have first experienced an increase in self-esteem compared to people who remained in the shelter.

--Over a two-year period, persons in a homeless shelter run by a faith-based organization who received only material support were not more likely to leave for a stabilized living condition compared to people who received both material and spiritual support.

d.

--Needle-exchange programs that are go into the community are more likely to be supported by intravenous drug-users.

--Isolated intravenous drug users who have few to no social contacts are less likely to trust exchange programs that require them to leave their neighborhood.

e.

--Over a five-year period, children with emotional problems in foster care are more likely to be adopted when they receive consistent treatment with no interruptions than children who have not received consistent treatment.

--Over a five-year period, African-American children with emotional problems in foster care are less likely to receive consistent treatment compared to comparable white children.