Human Services Research Article Discussion - Essay Example

Human Services Research Article Discussion The essay aims to provide a discussion of an article on human services research, particularly entitled “Social Work Practice in Child Welfare from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Concepts of Change Process” written by Kui Hee Song and published in the Illinois Child Welfare in 2008. The discourse would assess the effectiveness of the presentation of the material, according to format and adherence to APA Publication Manual guidelines. Further, the statistical analysis within the article would be evaluated to address the following concerns, to wit: (1) is it appropriate for the subject? (2) Is it conducted correctly? (3) Does it support the conclusions reached? (4) What, if any, additional statistical analyses could be performed on this data to gain further knowledge? (5) Are the findings misleading or biased? And (6) does the article incorporate graphs or tables that facilitate understanding?

“Social Work Practice in Child Welfare from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Concepts of Change Process” by Kui Hee Song Presentation of the Material The article was presented in appropriate form and structure consistent with the guidelines set by the APA Publication Manual. It is clearly structured with headings and subheadings and contains eight tabular illustrations that summarize results of the author’s findings. Starting from a concise introduction that provided the theoretical background for the study, the author proceeded with a presentation of research questions, the methodology, major findings, results of the major hypothesis testing and implications for social work practice.

The references conform to APA guidelines and brief information about the author appears right after the references to provide concise but comprehensive data on work experiences, interests, major accomplishments, service contributions and contact information. Statistical Analysis (1) Is it appropriate for the subject? The author used descriptive statistics concurrent with qualitative methods to evaluate and arrive at conclusive recommendations from the information gathered. The major issue in the research was stated as: “How does child protective services (CPS) use the therapeutic dialogical conversation to resolve a child abuse problem and generate new meanings of the parent-child relationship?

” (Song, 2008, 123). As revealed by Healey (1999), a descriptive statistical method “comprises the kind of analyses we use when we want to describe the population we are studying, and when we have a population that is small enough to permit our including every case” (7). For this particular study, only two families were included as participants with variables needed for the study manifested and exemplified in terms of predetermined criteria; therefore, the statistical approach was appropriate for the study. (2) Is it conducted correctly?

The statistical analysis was conducted correctly as the researcher clearly structured the research process and methodology based on a holistic design that has the ability to solicit comprehensive information on the issues that were identified. (3) Does it support the conclusions reached? Based on the findings, the conclusions reached were clearly pronounced and supportive of the statistical method applied. Based on 12 study session with interviews using an audiotape recorder, a triangulation method that aimed to control biases, and “data analysis heuristic made up of multiple coding schemes and categories” (Song, 2008, 124) assisted in soliciting the required information to generate relevant implications for future social work researches. (4) What, if any, additional statistical analyses could be performed on this data to gain further knowledge?

The research was comprehensively structured and done using the most appropriate statistical approach for the case. To determine if the results are applicable to other studies, the using the same parameters and variables, the method could be tested using another set of samples with practically the same background for validation purposes. (5) Are the findings misleading or biased? As indicated, the author was aware of biases inherent in single research method that is why the triangulation method was used to bar any tendencies for skewness or information biases; in this regard, the findings were not misleading or biased. (6) Does the article incorporate graphs or tables that facilitate understanding?

The incorporation of eight tables facilitated understanding and the author presented clearly structured summaries of findings in the areas of quality of change in mother’s dialogic speech development, perspective taking development, narrative process modes, involvement modes; the quality of the therapist’s interactional modes, dialogical-relational modes, and the quality of the mother’s relational family meaning and parental caring behavior. References Healey, J.R. (1999). Statistics. 5th edition, Wadsworth Publishing Co. Song, K.H. (2008). “Social Work Practice in Child Welfare from a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Concepts of Change Process.

” Illinois Child Welfare, Volume 4, Number 1, pages 122 – 143.