research article critique (Research Paper Sample)

Research article critique Student name University outline 1 Introduction 2 Article summary 3 Strong points of the article 4 Possible implications and importance for the society 5 Conclusion Research Article Critique Research articles create the basis for many studies. Data gathered by specialists in the field can help other researchers to access information that could not be analyzed otherwise. The scope of research articles implies that authors have to rely on each other’s findings to create a system of relevant and logically explained conclusions. Meta-analytic reviews play a significant role in this situation because they collect and analyze large amounts of data in order to provide other researchers with a solid foundation for further findings. Therefore, it is important for researchers to assess the quality of such works and determine their usefulness for society and science. For example, the article “A Meta-Analytic Review of Depression Prevention Programs for Children and Adolescents: Factors that Predict Magnitude of Intervention Effects,” written by Stice, Shaw, Bohon, Marti, and Rohde in 2009, can be used by psychologists and other medical professionals. This study explores the topic of depression in children and adolescents. This paper aims to critique the mentioned article and find its strong and weak points as well as discuss its importance for future research and society overall. Article Summary The article focuses on the topic of depression among children and adolescents. According to Stice, Shaw, Bohon, Marti, and Rohde (2009), the problem of major depression in young individuals is one of the most common psychiatric issues for that age. Thus, medical professionals have created many ways to treat this problem, relying mostly on depression prevention. The authors argue that while some studies attempted to analyze the effects of such depression prevention programs, nobody has conducted a meta-analytic study that would review and evaluate different methods of prevention as well as the contents of each method and their effectiveness. According to the text, this article aims to collect information from a wider range of studies and extent old reviews by looking at a number of additional recent trials. The authors outline a number of hypotheses that can be derived from the investigated studies. First of all, they believe that high-risk individuals respond to prevention programs better than other participants. Moreover, programs that are targeted at a specific issue rather than general prevention result in participants being more active and responsive to the treatment (Stice et al., 2009). Secondly, the article proposes that female youth display more effects of depression prevention programs than young male participants because girls are reported to have more visible symptoms than boys. The next hypothesis evaluates the connection between participant ethnicity and effects of the programs. The authors suggest that participants, who belong to an ethnic minority, can show mixed results in their response to a prevention program. However, the correlation between ethnicity and treatment outcomes are not investigated enough to make further claims. The researchers hypothesize that older youth are more susceptible to programs than younger participants due to their ability to understand complex concepts and ideas (Stice et al., 2009). Finally, the study examines the relation of participants’ age to their level of program reception. The authors investigate features of created interventions and look at programs’ content. According to the article, characteristics of prevention programs significantly affect treatment results. For example, the authors hypothesize that the content of such programs is the main influencing factor of every intervention. Thus, the authors describe a number of the most frequently used approaches, including change of cognition, encouragement to participate in pleasant activities, development of problem-solving skills, and promotion of social interactions. Furthermore, longer interventions are supposed to be more efficient than short ones (Stice et al., 2009). Finally, programs that incorporate homework as a way to encourage children to continue treatment after sessions are believed to produce good results. Upon analyzing forty-six trials of programs for depression prevention, the authors come to multiple conclusions. According to the researched studies, female participants are more motivated to participate in treatment. Thus, the effects of studies that focus on female youth show greater effects of depression prevention than the others do. The connection between age and program effectiveness also stands true, as older adolescent participants are said to encounter more problems due to their occupation and age. Furthermore, ethnic minority youth may require medical professionals to create specific programs for prevention that will be tailored to the groups’ unique cultural and psychological characteristics. According to the authors, the content of prevention programs has no significant correlation with the programs’ results. Moreover, longer treatment programs may be less effective than short interventions. Finally, programs with homework assignments are as helpful as the authors hypothesized. The authors give their suggestions for further research, advising to focus on the content of the programs and its actual effectiveness (Stice et al., 2009). Ability to control future trials in order to detect any changes in their effectiveness is also one of the authors’ concerns. Strong and weak Points of The Article This review analyzes large amounts of data and presents many findings. The main advantage of this study lies in its thoroughness. The authors investigate many aspects of the trials, focusing not only on the contents of every program but also on the features of participants, the duration of every intervention, and the qualifications of providers. The study accounts for many details of every prevention program and explores each research from different sides. Such thoroughness helps researchers to evaluate the connection between many notions that the trials have (Punch, 2013). According to Rossi, Wright, and Anderson (2013), such reviews allow the authors to detect whether the methods used by medical professionals are outdated and need to be improved. The amount of collected data can also be considered a strong point of this meta-analysis. A large number of findings help the authors to make multiple claims that can be regarded as viable. By using more data, the authors are able to detect correlations between different aspects of the programs (Mertens, 2014). Moreover, this particular study claims to be the first to analyze forty-six trials of depression prevention programs. The novelty of this study separates it from other works as well. The authors claim to investigate multiple features of the trials that have not been looked at before. Although this work is extremely detailed and elaborate, some weak points can be outlined as well. The authors use several trials that may have different structures and focus on various aspects. Thus, some results may be limited due to the in...