Free Qualitative Research Study On Depression In Adolescent Research Paper Example

Appraising qualitative Research

The research provides a clear statement regarding the aim of the study. According to the author the study aims to determine the experience of the young people, and especially adolescent who are diagnosed with depression. This is similar to the quantitative research study that provided a clear and concise statement regarding the aim of the study. The quantitative article that I read attempted to provide an insight on the cognitive theory of depression in adolescent and children using a quantitative and conceptual review.

Differences between qualitative and quantitative analysis

The main difference between the two articles is that the quantitative research has provided a detailed and complete description of the research topic using the explanatory approach. On the other hand, the quantitative research applied the statistical model to classify variables in order to explain what was observed. In other words, the qualitative research provides a broad hypothesis and explanatory research while the quantitative research provided a narrow hypothesis and conclusive research. For instance, the qualitative research focuses on the four overlapping themes that are associated with depression so that the researcher can determine their experience of depression. The four overlapping themes include “(1) struggling to make sense of their situation; (2) spiraling down; (3) withdrawing; and (4) contemplating self-harm or suicide. Study of, depression” (McCann et al. 2012). After, analyzing these specific themes the researcher can subsequently draw a general conclusion about the experience of the young people with depression. In addition, the researcher obtained a specific research topic from the entire population of the young people by dividing the sample in terms of two criterions. The first criteria were inclusive criteria, which involved a primary diagnosis of young people aged between 16 and 25 years of age. The second criteria were the exclusive criteria that involved the history of psychosis and the prevailing expressive suicidal plans. This implies that the researcher’s approach method on qualitative analysis seeks to acquire specific facts and statistics from sampled individuals, so that he can make a general conclusion from his findings.
On the other hand, the approach method in the quantitative approach make a general and focused on the hypothesis and then use the theory to test the significance of the data. For instance, the general null hypothesis of the quantitative research states that there is no significant correlation between depressions in children but a significant association with the adolescent (Lakdawalla et al. 2007). In order to test this hypothesis, the researcher utilizes the longitudinal studies and the quantitative review to examine the three cognitive theories of depression. The three main theories applied include the Hopelessness Theory, Beck’s Theory, and Response style among the adolescent and children. Although some theorist agree that there is no correlation between depression and children, the researcher has utilized theoretically revised cognitive theories to reject the null hypothesis. The researcher found that negative cognitive styles developed during the transition from childhood to adolescent. During this time, the children can develop capacity for formal operation thought and abstract reasoning. This indicates that the quantitative research contrast with the qualitative research in a way that the researcher approach starts with a general hypothesis to drive a specific conclusion. The conclusive quantitative research has found out the cognitive vulnerabilities to depression might prevail in younger age than what the previous research has found. To be specific, the researcher has found out that there is a significant association between depression and children, as well as the adolescent.
The other main difference between the two articles is the application of the word versus statistics to explain the findings. For instance, while the qualitative research was based on the text within the research design, the quantitative research is based on the statistical tests in the analysis. However, the qualitative research was based on the very limited statistics to explain factor such as age mean, variables and living circumstance. On the other hand, the quantitative research has extensively applied the statistical data by use of mathematical numbers the analysis of the main theories. For instance, the regression is conducted to determine certain statistical elements such as the R-Squared, P-value, and coefficient of specific models. These elements help the researcher to interpret the data collected contrary to the qualitative researcher who explains their findings through words.

Similarities between qualitative and quantitative analysis

The main similarity between these qualitative and quantitative research is that they have both applied the qualitative data. In order for the researcher to develop in-depth understanding of the data collected, they use the qualitative date to determine the pattern that can help them develop an insight on the research questions. In other words, the researchers in both cases had to utilize the qualitative data to help them determine which values to use and which values to disregard. For instance, the researcher in the qualitative approach has utilized the qualitative data to determine the mean age of the respondent who ranged between 16 and 22 years of age. In addition, the researcher has to determine the effective sample of n=26 rather than using the entire population to conduct this research. Similarly, the researcher on the quantitative research has also used the qualitative data to determine the sample size, which was n=320 young people. The selected children population was represented by the children aged between 8 years and 12 years of age. Another use of the qualitative data was on the means, correlations, and standard deviations of the measures of the study. Other qualitative measures included, standard errors, t-values, p-values, standardized and unstandardized regression coefficients, partial correlations, and R-squared and adjusted R-squared. Therefore, from this perspective, it can be seen that qualitative research can be considered as a qualitative research at some degree.
The other similarity between the two articles is that both qualitative and quantitative research utilized mixed methods of studies. In order to derive a conclusive aim of the research, the researchers in both cases have used both individual impressions and raw data. In other words, both articles contain the primary data and secondary data. In the qualitative approach, the researcher attempts to give the meaning of their research by reviewing some literatures in the academic studies. At the same time, the researcher uses observation and other methods of collecting primary data to support his hypothesis. Similarly, the quantitative research utilized both the primary and secondary sources of data. The researcher collected data from that primary methods of data collection such as Attributional Style Interview and observation of others. On the other hand, significant secondary sources such as academic studies are used to help the researcher determine the significant of his conceptual model.

Components of the qualitative process

The components of the qualitative process can be categorized into three main groups, i.e. research methods, approaches and non-statistical research. The research methods of the qualitative analysis should use specific methods that are qualitative in order to gather the required data. In the case of this qualitative article, the author has employed a mixed method in order to provide the credibility of their study. As illustrated above, the researcher attempts to give the meaning of their research by reviewing some literatures in the academic studies. At the same time, the researcher uses observation and other methods of collecting primary data to support his hypothesis. The methods applied by the researcher provides a qualitative approach to collecting data. For instance, the researcher used interviews that had a range of in-depth questions in order to enable respondents to describe their experiences on depression in their own word. As such, the primary method of data collection used provides an explanatory approach to the research methods.
The academic studies used by the researcher are also descriptive in nature. This is because the studies explain different scenarios where the young people experience mental conditions related to depression. Such studies also identify that most studies focus on adult and hence fail to contemplate that depression is also prevalent among young people especially adolescent. In this case, the studies provide a theoretical contribution to the general purpose of the study. The researcher derives information from the previous research that provides the potential values that help him to understand the mental problems associated with depression among young people.
The qualitative research employs an appropriate research design as an approach to explaining the aim of the research. This research design provides a roadmap to the research by enabling the researcher to formulate the problem that the study aims to answer. Through this approach, the researcher can conduct an in-depth analysis of young people based on the observational field research. The researcher employed this approach to analyze young people in a large Australian city and observed their mental health experience. The approach was consistent with the assumption that the fundamental aim of this research was to explore and describe the association of young people and depression.
Although the researcher provided rigorous data analyzed by using non-statistical research method. Although very limited statistical devices were integrated into the research as explained above, the overall research was descriptive in nature. For instance, the researcher used the interview and observation to develop a range of in-depth questions in order to enable respondents to describe their experiences on depression in their own word. This in-depth interview facilitated the credibility of the data collected because the researcher allowed the respondents to expound on experience about the depression. In addition, the interview enhanced maximum and ultimate practicality of the research because the respondent were allowed to provide their desired opinions. As a result, this provided reliability of the data conducted because the respondents were in no way influenced to give biased information.

Desired type of study

The type of the study that I like to read is the qualitative research study. This is because the study provides detailed and descriptive analysis that helps the audience to understand why people act in different ways. This descriptive analysis allows the researcher of the audience to understand the values or phenomena that are too complicated to be narrowed down into numbers. In addition, the qualitative research provides a reliable measure that helps to explain why the phenomena happened.

References

Lakdawalla, Z., Hankin, B. L., & Mermelstein, R. (2007). Cognitive theories of depression in children and adolescents: A conceptual and quantitative review. Clinical child and family psychology review, 10(1), 1-24.
McCann, T. V., Lubman, D. I., & Clark, E. (2012). The experience of young people with depression: A qualitative study. Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 19(4), 334-340.