The Link between Smoking, Poverty and Motherhood - Essay Example

? Critical Appraisal March Purpose The purpose of the study was to investigate smoking in the context of poverty and motherhood (Hilary, G. 1987). There has been emphasis on epidemiological studies on women smoking behaviour with little attention on smoking, poverty and motherhood. Smoking is multidimensional and has many implications on the way a mother brings up her children, creating a bond to hold the family together. Smoking while in poverty proves a luxury expense which gives poverty a new dimension. Previous researches on women and smoking have dwelled more on the extremes (beginning and ending smoking) with little regard of the implications of continuous smoking. It is the continuity which has several harmful manifestations. Literature Review In order to influence, justify and explain certain actions in research, it is always important for the researcher to conduct a literature review. This is also the case if readers are to believe the findings and other assertions formulated by the researcher. To Mason (1996), a research report without literature review lacks an integral part which is supposed to accord the researcher the opportunity to cite reliable who have researched on the same topic. To Mason further, literature review asserts confidence that the writer is not the first to contemplate on the issue, others before have. Newham (1997) argues that, any research paper without literature review is full of the author’s thoughts and opinions and is very hard to convince others otherwise. The researcher in this paper has put a considerable number of reliable citations giving the research paper the required foundation. Study Approach Both qualitative and quantitative research designs were used. Interviews and questionnaires were used to collect the information. The combination of the two approaches accords the researcher several advantages. Qualitative approaches generate verbal information and not numeric which is analyzed using the holistic analysis approach proposed for qualitative research designs. Inductive reasoning which is involved in qualitative research studies gives the researcher more freedom to probe for more information and explanations. Further, the researcher chose to continue with the qualitative approach since qualitative data collection tools are flexible and can accommodate urgent changes/refinement in cases of new research ideas. This means that the research setting is not affected in the process of the research design implementation. Data collected using the qualitative data gathering methods is very rich and has justified explanations which evoke feasible research contexts. A qualitative method leads to more realistic feel which cannot be given by numerical data analysis in addition to giving the researcher the opportunity to interact and have a feeling of the participants in their own terminologies. The findings which emanate from such techniques benefit from the fact that the data is primary and unstructured and thus the researcher can twist them to fit the context thus giving a better meaning. Quantitative approaches on the other give rise measurable data and are directed by a formulated hypothesis which is determined by the collected data set empirically. In quantitative research design, the research statements and problem are defined in specific terms and not generals statements and clearly specifies the independent variable and the dependent one. Quantitative approaches gives rise to measurable and objective hence providing an effective way of determining casual findings. Data collected using such methods is said to be reliable and valid as there are restrictions placed before actual data collection. Such information puts controls and ensures objectivity in analysis. A valid and reliable approach is used by the researcher to articulate issues. Combining the advantages of the two approaches eliminate any possibility of a biased report. Considering a small group representing other races ensures data quality which makes it possible to generalize the findings to fit the whole population. Generalizability of the findings is key if the research is to attain its aspirations. Methodology The researcher employed the use of interviews, questionnaires and dairies. Questionnaires allow for probing of the answers to ensure that general comments are clarified. Further, the researcher is able to increase the accuracy of the data by examining the outward behaviour of the respondents by modifying the lines of enquiry. Questionnaires on the other hand collect information which is standardized and thus easy to analyze. Again, the research can collect so much information from a large group of participants within a very short time. However, it would have been advisable to use focused group discussions in order to standardize the details emanating from the interviews. Focused group discussions are a qualitative approach in research in which the researcher gets more information as compared to that from a research tool (e.g. a questionnaire). The groupings can be categorized like in this case in terms of socio-economic status of the women so as to create a conducive environment for ideas to come out. In such discussions, other participants’ ideas acts like catalysts and triggers others to give more. Research Ethics There are certain norms which every researcher should adhere to if the findings are to meet the required threshold. Such norms include honesty, fairness, integrity, justice, beneficence, non-discrimination among others. A researcher is required to inform participants the objectives of the study. He/she should strive to ensure that all participants have an understanding of what is expected of them. The information about the study assists them in making informed consents about their participation. According to ethical practices, a research should never force/coerce the participants into participating. Ethics further dictates that the researchers should conduct himself/herself with dignity and ensure fairness in the spread-out of the research benefits. The element of beneficence requires that the participants are dull informed of the research benefits and risk and that the researcher should always aim at minimizing harms/risks and maximizing benefits. It is also advisable to ensure that participants are accorded the necessary respect in addition to being treated with the required dignity. The aspect of confidentiality of the information is key and should be made known to them. The participants should be sure that information/data collected from them will be used for the sole purpose of the research study and not for any other purpose. In this research work, the researcher is dealing with vulnerable groups and discrimination may arise. The researcher had to ensure that vulnerability does not cause selection bias thus affecting the research outcome. All these are important issues which should have been captured and taken into consideration in the entire research process but which have not been documented as having been put into consideration. Sampling Sampling was done using stratified sampling where the population of women was categorized into categories using their socio-economic status as the criteria to categorize. The sampling frame was informed by a household survey which was taking place at that time. This ensured that the frame was complete and had no repetitions, omissions and redundancy. In any research work, the validity and reliability of the findings is hinged on the frame used. Mostly, researchers should strive to eliminate repetitions, omissions and redundancy which in this case was not a problem as the frame was being used for another study. In order to have reliable data which is bias free, several restrictions were placed on the participants. Further, the researcher included other members from other races for control and in order to attain heterogeneity thus enabling the findings to be generalized easily. After stratifying the women, random samples from each category was selected. Random selection of participants accords all in that category an equal chance of being selected. This means that selection bias is eliminated completely. Stratification of a population ensures homogeneity of responses thus reducing the within-group errors hence raising the confidence level of the findings. In order to attain genuine stratification, other factors of stratification should have been considered. These include, age, marital status, level of education among others. This is so because pertinent issues are different according to age, status, education and vulnerability. For instance, the aged may fail to give information while the youths are around. Working history should be another factor since ideas are also different according to work environment. The researcher should have considered a sample of 10-12 participants for the focused group discussions and should have a qualified facilitator to convene the discussion in order to control the outcomes. The groups should have participants of the same, say age group, in order to capture more issues from them. Further, if the research findings are to be generalized, women from other races should have been considered as participants. A large sample would increase the confidence interval of the parameters. Snowball sampling procedure is one of the procedures used to get a large sample. The available participants would identify their friends/family members/peers who smoke and recruit them for the study. Samples determined using snowball sampling are advantageous in that, they have an assured response rate only that the responses are almost the same since referrals mean that the participants have almost the same traits. Data Collection The researcher employed the use of interviews, questionnaires, dairies and profiles. The questionnaires were self administered and were mean to standardize the data collected using the interviews. Interviews are a good data collection tool since they allow the researcher to probe of the answers to ensure that general comments are clarified. Further, the researcher increases the accuracy of the data by examining the outward behaviour of the respondents by modifying the lines of enquiry. Questionnaires on the other hand collect information which is standardized and thus easy to analyze. Again, the research can collect so much information from a large group of participants within a very short time. Focused group discussions which are qualitative approach ensures that the researcher gets more information as compared to that from a research tool (e.g. a questionnaire). The groupings can be categorized like in this case in terms of socio-economic status of the women so as to create a conducive environment for ideas to come out. In such discussions, other participants’ ideas acts like catalysts and triggers others to give more. Data Analysis Since both qualitative and quantitative design methods were used, the researcher analyzed the data holistically and by tabulations. Tables like charts are easy to understand. However, the researcher should have considered the use other tests like Chi-square test to test of relationships between smoking and other factors of investigation. The findings are represented is a comprehensible manner while the recommendations are worth the research work. Reference Hilary, G. (1987). Women Smoking and Family Health. Soc. Sci. Med. Vol. 25 No. 1, pp: 47-56 Mason, J (1996). Qualitative Researching. Sage: London Newham, D. (1997). Physiotherapy for best effect. Physiotherapy, Vol. 83 No.1 pp. 5-13. Read More