Research Paper Overview
As Child and Adolescent Development majors you are interested in how children develop and learn.
Furthermore, you also have a responsibility to work to ensure that children and adolescents are competent in all areas of development.
Most children have the minimally necessary attributes and environments to ensure healthy development. However, this is not the case for a substantial subset of children – children who are at-risk for poor developmental outcomes for a variety of reasons.
As professionals working with children and adolescents, you need to provide evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that are designed to decrease risk and promote resilience in children and adolescents.
You will be writing a term paper to help familiarize you with that kind of process. Additionally, you will create an evidence-based prevention or intervention program to address the risk factor you focus on in your paper.
Paper Guidelines
(45 points):
A. Begin by choosing a developmental topic that is related to risk (e.g., gang membership, high school drop-out, dating violence, etc.). You will analyze this topic from three perspectives:
1. Negative developmental outcomes associated with experiencing/engaging in the topic
2. Risk factors for engaging in/experiencing the topic for the first time
3. Protective factors that can either buffer the negative outcomes OR deter experiencing or engaging in
the topic in the first place
B. Your introduction should describe the topic, describe demographic information about the topic, and finish with a general over-view of what the paper will discuss in the following paragraphs. You will need one or two credible sources (e.g., CDC, US Department of Education, US Department of Justice, US Department of Health and Human Services, Kids Count, etc.) to provide the demographic information about the topic. That is, indicate what percent of children/adolescents experience the topic, which children/adolescents are most likely to experience the topic (e.g., gender, age, SES, ethnicity, family structure, etc.).
C. The body of your paper will be based on at least six peer-reviewed, empirical research articles. Two articles can be used to describe what we currently know about the topic from a developmental perspective (i.e., negative outcomes); at least two of the articles should discuss risk factors; and at least two of the articles should discuss protective factors. It will help to break the body of the paper into three subsections – (a) developmental review of the topic, (b) risk factors; and (c) protective factors. This means you may cite any or all of the six articles in multiple places in the paper. Be sure to describe the subjects, study goals, and specific empirical findings for each study you cite. The ChAD LibGuide is a very useful place to begin your search. The research articles must be published in the last 10 years.
D. Your analysis should categorize each unique result for negative outcomes, risk factors, and protective factors into a developmental domain (cognitive, social, emotional, or physical). At the end of all three sections you should sum-up key trends and indicate the most common domains impacted by the topic.
E. Your conclusion should include the following elements: (1) a brief over-view of the key points from the paper related to negative outcomes; (2) an over-view of the risk factors that lead to experiencing/engaging in the topic; (3) an over-view of protective factors that promote resilience for this topic; (4) an analysis of the domains and levels that are the most common for both risk and protective factors; and (5) recommendations for applying this knowledge to actually decrease risk and promote resilience in the context of your topic – this will lead you to part II of the assignment – your prevention or intervention program).
F. You will need an APA title page and full reference page for all the sources cited and discussed in your paper.
G. Some important reminders:
(1) your paper should be at least 5-pages of text (does not count the title page or the reference page);
(2) you need at least 6 peer-reviewed empirical research articles and two credible web-sites;
(3) all in-text citations and full references should be in correct APA format – no author first names, journal name, or article title in the text of the paper;
(4) use 12-point Times/Times New Roman font and 1-inch margins;
(5) avoid direct quotes – paraphrase (i.e., summarize in your own words);
(6) do not describe the methods, measures, author affiliation, or the article literature review – information from the
article should only include a 1- to 2-sentence description of the subjects and study goals and the relevant
results from the empirical study; and
(7) integrate (link) your articles rather than listing them.