PSY326The Research ProposalPSY326 Research MethodsEffect of, Lecture notes of Accounting

Download PSY326The Research ProposalPSY326 Research MethodsEffect of and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! PSY326 The Research Proposal PSY326 Research Methods Effect of Childhood Neglect on Social Competence in Adulthood Introduction The concept of neglect is comprehensive, and it may encompass dental neglect, supervisory, physical, emotional, mental, chaotic environment, and medical, to name some (Fortin, 2020). Also, neglect is more than not providing basic or essential needs such as proper nutrition, education, or even a safe environment where children can develop a nurturing relationship with the world around them. Neglect aligns with child development because it is part of Developmental Psychology, which is the systematic study of physical, cognitive, and social changes in the individual's life span. Lack of self-esteem and social skills also aligns with cognitive development. These factors combined aligned with cognitive development, child development, and social psychology (Newman, 2016). This proposal's importance is written and presented by Mariela Quinteros-Vargas to address neglect as a societal issue that needs further research in order to prevent consequences in childhood and possibly adulthood as well. Most of the studies on the effect of family environment variables on social cognitive competence were restricted to the population of adolescents and middle school children. The choice of target population was partially informed by the higher reliability of childhood neglect and household stability data collected during childhood or adolescence as compared to the retrospective data that can be collected in adulthood. The shortage of research on the effect of childhood neglect on social competence in adulthood inhibits our understanding of the social competence construct over the course of an individual’s life span. While researchers have shown the presence of a positive association between parental control and social competence and negative association between childhood abuse and neglect and social competence, in adolescent, the persistence of this relationship into adulthood has not been adequately explored (Kim-Spoon et al., 2017). Social competence is an important marker of emotional and mental wellbeing that influences the volatility of individuals' effects and the level of social support accorded to them. The construct refers to the mobilization of self-regulatory systems to perform purposeful actions and achieve personal goals within a social context while maintaining positive relationships with peers over time and across different situations (Bandura, 1991; Schulte & Barrera, 2010). The researcher hypothesizes that childhood neglect will be inversely correlated with social competence (negative correlation is when one variable increases and the other decreases, and vice versa). Childhood neglect variables are also expected to be significant predictors of social competence in adulthood. Literature Review According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services (2006), the number of cases under investigation for maltreatment suspicion was 3,503,000. However, the Child Protective Services investigation program for maltreatment concluded that 872,000 children out of the total number were under a form of abuse, and 62.4% out of 872,000 were child neglect cases (TANG, 2008). We can define child neglect as the unmet expectation for a child's needs, where those who are the primary caregivers fail to provide the essentials necessities of life, which can negatively impact their development. manipulation to explain causality (Newman, 2016). There will not be an assignment of participants to given subgroups, making my study less complex since I will not need to gather the same participants for a follow-up evaluation. The research also uses the survey design with data collected through online surveys consisting of items from validated scales as well as questions developed by the researcher, taking under consideration "specificity" by getting more into details based on perceptions because the reality may have a different meaning for different people depending on what they believed they have experienced. In one study about household chaos, parental control, adolescent neural cognitive control, and developmental changes in social competence (Jungmeen et al., 2017), 167 adolescents were part of the initial study. Once the study needed to be evaluated a year later, 17 adolescents did not return for different reasons. Therefore, collecting my data at one point in time will prevent this from occurring. Participants and Procedure The research targets the population of undergraduate students at the Ashford University. The target sample of 200 participants will be restricted to students aged 19 years and above. They will be recruited using the students' emails and group chats, asking for their participation in the survey. The researcher will indicate the expected completion time of 3 to 5 minutes in the communication chat or email. Students will also be informed of the study's voluntary participation and asked to ignore the proceeding communication with the questionnaire's link if they do not want to participate or if they were less than 19 years old. If they chose to continue, the students will be redirected to the Qualtrics site by clicking a link and will be asked to click- mark a checkbox if they consent to participate in the study. The questionnaire will be launched once they click on the consent checkbox. Qualtrics will allow accessing the information to gather results in real-time through surveying which will expedite the process and will take care of extra requirements or overhead (given the limited number of people conducting the research, 1) and also it will be more manageable if everything is launched through the site due to other out of control limitations, such as COVID. Measures Social Competence The researcher will prepare questionnaire items to measure social competence in adulthood using items derived from Burt et al., (2008) longitudinal study of the relationship between social competence and psychopathology. The researchers used five items to measure social competence in adulthood that was geared at examining the quality of the participant's close friendships. The ability to maintain meaningful relationships is only one aspect of social competence. The researcher in the current study will therefore include five additional questionnaire items to assess the individual ability to achieve personal goals when their needs conflict with those of close friends, acquaintances, and co-workers without jeopardizing interpersonal relationships. Physical and emotional neglect Neglect will be measured using the physical and emotional subscales of Bernstein et al., (2003) brief screening version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). The CTQ has been validated as a retrospective measure of traumatic experiences in childhood. The emotional neglect subscale consists of five positively worded items, whose responses are measured on a 5- point Likert scale ranging from 1, never true, to 5, very often true. All items are reverse-coded; thus, higher points reflect higher emotional neglect. The physical neglect scale comprises of 3 negatively worded and 2 positively worded items measured on a Likert scale similar to the emotional neglect scale. The positively worded items are reverse-coded before the calculation of total scores. The possible scores range from 5 to 25, with higher scores indicating higher emotional neglect. Data Analysis Data will be analyzed using correlation and regression methods. The researcher will first measure the correlation between all variables using Pearson's correlation coefficient, which is used to measure the association between two variables and the strength of the relationship between both variables. The samples are both assumed to be randomly selected from their populations, and the relationship between the variables must be linear (Tanner, 2016). The researcher will then create a linear regression model to predict social competence using physical neglect and emotional neglect while controlling for the effect of social cognitive competence. A linear relationship between two variables means that the degree in which they vary is with each other the same throughout their ranges (Tanner, 2016). Ethical Issues Students will not be coerced or incentivized to participate in the study. They will be informed of the voluntary nature of study participation. Students will also be asked to mark a checkbox