Assignment: Clinical Area Of Concern

Assignment: Clinical Area Of Concern

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Describe your research design for answering key evaluation questions for your program evaluation.

The research design for the program evaluation is the One Group Pretest-Posttest Design. This design allows the evaluator to measure the youth’s problems before the intervention as well as after the intervention. In this approach because data was gathered twice, success can be measured in terms of any decrease in the percentage of support group members who were depressed or improvements in the group’s average score from pre- to post test (Royse, Thyer & Padgett, 2016). In this case, we are more concerned with the individual score but we are willing to use the score of the group to evaluate the effectiveness of the entire program for the entire group selected.

Briefly provide the following information for your peers’ review:

• • Population – children and adolescents
  • Clinical area of concern– depression
  • Clinical intervention to be evaluated – wrap around services to address mental health needs

State one evaluation question (pertinent to your planned evaluation) that could be answered with a quantitative study. Then, specify the type of research design that would best answer this question, offering your rationale. Lastly, identify the dependent and independent variables that would be measured to answer this evaluation question.

Depression is a major problem during adolescence for many reasons (Stikkelbroek, Bodden, Kleinjan, Reijnders & van Baar, A. L. (2016). Empowerment Evaluation Model has the goal of assisting the program with being successful. In order to do this, it is necessary to improve the stakeholder’s ability to plan, implement and self-evaluate their program (Fettermam as cited by Chyung, Wisniewski, Inderbitzen & Campbell, 2013). One evaluation question that could be answered with a quantitative study is, ‘Have my symptoms reduced since starting the program?’ This can be answered with 1-Yes, 2-No, and 3-I Don’t Know. The independent variable would be the children and youth and the dependent variable would be the answer to the question of whether their symptoms have reduced since starting the program.

State another evaluation question (pertinent to your planned evaluation) that could be answered with a quantitative study. Then, specify the type of research design that would best answer this question, offering your rationale. Lastly, identify the dependent and independent variables that would be measured to answer this evaluation question.

Another question that could be answered with a quantitative study is, ‘What wrap around services have been effective with addressing my needs?’ The youth/family will answer the question based on their experiences. For example, they may select housing services, social services, vocational services, medical services, etc… The responses will be categorized and assigned a number. For example, 1-housing services, 2-social services, etc… Crusto et al. (2008) noted that a wraparound approach is a team based strategy that provides individualized service planning for youth and their families. This service is a very important aspect of the program because a lot of the children and adolescents require other supports to assist with reducing their current symptoms. In this case, the independent variable would be the children and adolescents and the dependent variable would be the response to the question. This question will also assist with recognizing trends in services needed to support individuals who are depressed which may also shed some light on the contributing factors when it comes to their depressive symptoms and/or behaviors.

References:

Crusto, C. A., Lowell, D. I., Paulicin, B., Reynolds, J., Feinn, R., Friedman, S. R., & Kaufman, J. S. (2008). Evaluation of a Wraparound Process for Children Exposed to Family Violence. Best Practice In Mental Health, 4(1), 1-18.

Chyung, S. Y., Wisniewski, A., Inderbitzen, B., & Campbell, D. (2013). An improvement- and

accountability-oriented program evaluation: An evaluation of the Adventure Scouts

Program. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 26(3), 87–115.

Royse, D., Thyer, B. A., & Padgett, D. K. (2016). Program evaluation: An introduction to an evidence-based approach (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning. ISBN: 9781305101968.

Stikkelbroek, Y., Bodden, D. M., Kleinjan, M., Reijnders, M., & van Baar, A. L. (2016). Adolescent Depression and Negative Life Events, the Mediating Role of Cognitive Emotion Regulation. Plos ONE, 11(8), 1-16. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0161062