Short Term and Long Term Effects of Divorce Research (Research Paper Sample)

Short Term and Long Term Effects of Divorce
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
For any couple opting to get a divorce, it could be worthwhile to consider the effects the divorce will bring on children. This research proposal will focus on the short-term and long-term effects of divorce on children. The research will utilize correlation and regression techniques. With respect to two or multiple variables, correlation helps to determine whether there is a relationship between the variables and how strong the relationship is CITATION Pat14 \l 1033 (Cohen, 2014). Regression, on the other hand, relies on existing statistics in determining mathematical relationships between variables that are used to relate dependent to independent variable(s) CITATION Cyn13 \l 1033 (Fraser, 2013).
Methods
The participants in this research will involve children from various learning organizations. The researcher understands the need for involving several participants in a study in order get the general response idea that could be essential for drawing conclusions. Therefore, twenty participants will take part in the study. The study will involve both sexes of the participants with their age being a maximum of 18 years. This is because the 18-year mark is considered to be the cut-off separating childhood and adulthood CITATION Ani12 \l 1033 (Vangelisti, 2012). The selection of participants will be stratified in which the participants will be divided into small groups (strata). The small groups will be both interviewed and issued with closed and open-ended questionnaires in which they would be required to give their responses.
The research will rely on interviews and questionnaires as the means of collecting data. The researcher intends using self-administered approach during allocating questionnaires. This will be facilitated by the research assistants who could aid in administering the questionnaires to the respondents within various learning institutions and strata and collect the questionnaires once the filling is completed. The variables in the study include age and effect. Age is not constant and varies time to time between one individual and the other. The effects, on the other hand, can vary depending on their degree and the period the victims continue feeling the effects. Most students start school at the age of three months while above 18 years, a person is no longer considered a child CITATION Ani12 \l 1033 (Vangelisti, 2012). To cover this enter age, the age will be taken from three to 18 years although at an interval of three years. The effects will be measured on a scale of 120 months in which effects lasting less than three months would be deemed to be short-term and above three months long-term. The age will be measured by ticking the age bracket displayed on the questionnaires while the effects determined based on the participants’ responses as captured in questionnaires and interviews.
Results
By the fact that the research relies on questionnaires in collecting data, a statistical test will be conducted to determine the reliability of data collected by the questionnaires. Concurrent reliability will be established in case the responses obtained from the interviews and the questionnaires give similar results. To put the reliability of data on the test, the questionnaires will be divided into two halves. Scores from the two halves of the questionnaire will then be related to obtain the reliability coefficient. Higher values of the coefficient values would imply the questionnaire yields data with high test reliability. The questionnaires will entail a set of effects emerging from divorce in which the participants will be required to tick if they have experienced such effects before. The open-ended section of the questionnaire will allow for capturing the respondents’ effects not mentioned in the questionnaires.
To answer the research question, the researcher will correlate the age and effects and group ages sharing common divorce effects. The graph will be drawn to determine the degree of divorce effects experienced depending on the age. The effects could be classified into two categories (short-term and long-term) and will be plotted versus the age intervals. This will help to tell at a glance the population experiencing most the divorce effect and the nature of the effects. Moreover, it could be easier to predict the effects of the higher age based on regression approach.
Determining of the effects relies on the age variable, which may not be exact. A person approximates his age depending on the nearest birthday. Thus, the variable age will be taken at the nominal age of the exact age. Moreover, some respondents may lie or not know their age if their birth was not registered. As such, the correlation of age and effect may fail to reflect the experienced effects depending on the desired age of respondents. However, the general idea is that irrespective of the exact age, the participants will both be children, and the results will help to determine the effects of divorce on children. By capturing the nature of effects and the age, the results will help to come up with a regression formula that can predict the nature of effects felt depending on the age. This will also help to predict if adults (above 18 years) are likely to experience long-term effects of divorce and the nature of effects experienced by children.
SPSS Output Summary
The research objective of this study is determining the short-term and long-term effects of divorce on children. However, the effects have been centered around education; do the effects affect final grade attained by students when it affects the students' attendance in class? The va...