Abstract
All people are different, meaning that conflicts are inevitable, even when it comes to members of the same family. Misunderstanding between spouses and between parents and children is common, and this state of affairs denotes that many individuals suffer from this issue. Family Life Education Institute addresses this situation and provides people with needed support and assistance. It is possible to suggest that family counseling is a suitable intervention to provide people with a better understanding of why conflicts occur and how they should be managed. That is why it is reasonable to conduct a specific research project to determine whether it is justified to develop and implement such an intervention. Consequently, the purpose of the given paper is to highlight a research process needed to identify whether family counseling can help address the problem under analysis.
Introduction and Background
Statement of the Problem
The given proposal focuses on a significant problem referring to family conflicts. For the purposes of this project, it is rational to present the definition of this term. Thus, a family conflict is a misunderstanding or argument between spouses or between parents and children regarding a number of affairs, including social, economic, political, behavioral, and other issues. A characteristic issue of this problem is that it typically results in worsened relationships within families because conflicts can involve insulting language and even aggressive actions. This problem statement reveals that the phenomenon under consideration deserves attention because it can lead to significant adverse consequences for numerous individuals. One should admit separately that the suggested definition does not imply to be comprehensive or overwhelming because the task only was to define the term used in a research paper.
Significance of the Problem
One can suppose that it is impossible to overestimate the significance of the selected problem. It is challenging to find official statistics showing how widespread family conflicts are because not many people want to disclose such details of their personal lives. In addition to that, it is challenging to find a reliable and credible instrument that would allow for collecting this data. Furthermore, family conflicts are not considered extremely negative on their own, meaning that their potential consequences receive all attention. On the one hand, the problem adversely impacts children, and specific outcomes include substance abuse, delinquency, and an increased opportunity to involve in family conflicts in the future (Mowen & Boman, 2018). Children and teenagers can face numerous challenges when they often participate in family conflicts. On the other hand, the issue is negative for adults, and Jones et al. (2021) comment on stress, while Sinko et al. (2021) mention that the outcomes are parental substance abuse, violence at home, and others. This information demonstrates that sufficient evidence justifies focusing on the identified problem.
Populations Served
The problem under analysis is significant for many people because it affects individuals of all genders, ages, professions, religions, and nationalities. According to official statistics, there are more than 83.8 million families in the United States (Statista, 2021). Since an average size of a family in the US is three persons, one can calculate that 251.4 million individuals represent the family population (Statista, 2021). According to this data, it is possible to state that families account for more than three-quarters of the US total population. That is why it is challenging to overestimate the significance of the project for the community. A higher portion of society can find the research paper relevant and even helpful for them because they can learn how to address family conflicts and mitigate their adverse consequences.
Proposed Solution
Since the identified problem is significant for the entire community, it is necessary to offer a practical solution. Family counseling seems a suitable approach because this strategy can result in essential benefits. According to Sari et al. (2021), this intervention “is a method designed and focused on family problems in an effort to help solve the client’s personal problems” (p. 38). In other words, a counselor believes that individual problems affect the dynamics within a family, meaning that all the members should join their efforts to overcome existing problems (Sari et al., 2021). Consequently, the proposed solution seems appropriate for the problem under analysis because all family members can suffer from conflicts, and their combined efforts are needed to improve the situation.
Research Questions
The given research proposal focuses on a tentative topic, meaning that specific research questions are needed to indicate the direction of the scientific process. The first question is: To what extent does family counseling reduce the incidence of family conflict? Thus, it is necessary to determine the effectiveness of the selected intervention in addressing the problem. The second question is: Does family counseling result in the reduced presence of negative conflict consequences as per the respondents’ self-reports? Another effort is to determine whether the intervention minimizes the effects of conflicts’ negative consequences.
Methodology
Conceptual Framework
According to the research questions above, the given proposal aims to assess the effectiveness and potential benefits of family counseling. This intervention is an independent variable in the project, meaning that it will be necessary to consider how it affects respondents. Then, the dependent variables are family conflicts and their adverse outcomes. Family conflicts are considered in the project, and it is expected that the intervention will lead to a decreased incidence of the given phenomenon. As for negative consequences, including stress, substance abuse, and others, one can also suppose that the suggested intervention should reduce the presence of these phenomena among respondents. Consequently, the conceptual framework reveals that the research project is expected to demonstrate that family counseling (independent variable) results in a decrease in family conflicts and their adverse outcomes (dependent variables).
Method
It is necessary to choose the appropriate methodology to ensure that the research questions can be answered and that the obtained outcomes are reliable and credible. It seems that the quantitative method should be used in this research study. According to Rahman (2020), quantitative methodology “emphasizes quantification in the collection and analysis of data” (p. 105). The scholar also admits that this approach is effective in answering questions starting with “To what extent.”
It is also reasonable to consider that the given method was chosen because it implies specific advantages. Firstly, data analysis is less time-consuming in quantitative methodology because it is only necessary to find specific sets of data, meaning that one does not need to analyze large texts, which can be required in qualitative methodology. Secondly, the selected approach is “based on the positivist paradigm of measuring variables” (Rahman, 2020, p. 106). However, the given methodology also has certain disadvantages, and one of them refers to the fact that this approach fails to explain the nature of connections between variables and find deeper meanings (Rahman, 2020). With this in mind, the selected method seems suitable to investigate the problem under analysis.
Design
After methodology, one should select the suitable design to investigate the issue under analysis. Since it is necessary to identify whether the selected intervention impacts the incidence of a dependent variable over a certain period of time, a pretest-posttest design is suitable. This approach involves measuring a specific phenomenon before an intervention has been implemented and after it (Chen et al., 2021). Since the first research question aims to determine the extent to which a change in one variable affects the other one, it is reasonable to implement a correlational study. According to Leedy and Ormrod (2019), this design focuses on such possible connections and states that a correlation exists “if, when one variable increases, another variable either increases or decreases in a somewhat predictable fashion” (p. 176). That is why the selected approach seems appropriate for the current study.
In addition to that, it is necessary to admit that the suggested design implies a few additional peculiarities. Firstly, the research paper only relies on participants’ self-reports to collect data, and a specifically tailored questionnaire seems appropriate for this task. This tool was chosen because it is impossible to find other more objective instruments to measure the presence of family conflicts. Secondly, the current study does not imply a control group. This statement denotes that the same individuals participate in pretest measurement, are subject to the intervention, and involve the object of posttest analysis. That is why it is impossible to mention that the study is a true experiment. Consequently, it is now possible to present the complete articulation of the design used. Thus, the research is a pretest-posttest, correlational study relying on the participants’ self-reports and implying no control group.
Rationale
The given section is used to demonstrate that the selected methodology and design are perfectly suitable for the given research. On the one hand, it is possible to support this statement by showing that other methodological approaches do not allow for meeting the research purpose. The qualitative methodology cannot help answer the research questions because they involve the quantification of some data. However, the qualitative method is used to investigate phenomena or generate new ideas regarding a specific concept. A true experimental design is not necessary for the research paper because there is no need to introduce a control group (Leedy & Ormrod, 2019). Finally, systematic reviews and meta-analyses are not helpful because they completely rely on other scholars’ evidence, while the present study aims to collect new data to test the research questions.
On the other hand, the rationale behind choosing the given methodological approach can be traced from looking at other studies that utilized the same approach to test the effect of particular interventions. For example, Farahanifar et al. (2019) conducted a pretest-posttest study and found that systematic motivational counseling was an efficient intervention to improve conflict resolution strategies. In addition to that, a correlational study by Cerrato and Cifre (2018) demonstrated that the selected design could be used to assess the effect of different conflict situations on families. That is why this evidence reveals that other scholars frequently use the selected methodological approaches to investigate the same or related phenomena.
Planning Strategy
A planning strategy is an essential element of methodology because it reveals what processes and in what sequence should be performed to conduct the study and arrive at reliable outcomes. The present research proposal relies on rational planning because this strategy seems the most suitable. This planning approach steps include “assessing needs, identifying and analyzing problems, selecting intervention strategies, writing goals and objectives, decision-making about the details of program design, and evaluation” (Netting et al., 2008, p. 113). These steps should be performed in a fixed order because each activity builds on the previous ones. It is worth admitting that the given research proposal has already completed some of these steps. For example, the need or the gap has been found, and the absence of literature about how family counseling can manage the problem of interfamily conflicts should be addressed. In addition to that, the identified problem demonstrated that a response was necessary, and the literature review chose counseling as a potential intervention. These examples reveal that rational planning is an appropriate strategy for the given research proposal.
Ethical Considerations and Concerns
Since the project involves working with human subjects, it is necessary to ensure that relevant ethical issues are adequately addressed. On the one hand, participants should sign an informed consent form. This document is used as an indicator that the individuals agree to participate in the research project and are aware of the research process, possible consequences, and risks (Gefenas et al., 2022). It is reasonable to make the recruited individuals sign these documents and store them as proof that the participants were informed about the research activities. On the other hand, these individuals should reflect that they are voluntarily involved in the project. For this purpose, they are asked to complete informed consent forms.
In addition to that, one should clarify that some ethical concerns can affect the proposed research. Firstly, the work with sensitive information about interfamily conflicts demonstrates that adequate attention should be drawn to ensuring privacy and confidentiality. Participants should be certain that their personal details will not become known to the general public. Secondly, research authors should ensure that their recruiting strategy does not imply any discriminatory practices. For example, a higher number of minorities in the sample size can place a stigma on these populations. This information indicates what ethical issues and considerations are significant for the proposed project.
Management Plan
Proposed Timeline
The project implies pretest and posttest measurements, with the intervention being implemented in between. That is why it is rational to comment on an expected timeline of the project. The sample size selection and recruitment is the first step, and one week seems sufficient to cope with the task. Once the required number of individuals is reached, the participants should participate in a pretest measurement. Two-three days will be needed to organize the test and analyze the results. After that, the involved people should be subject to the proposed intervention. It seems that a suitable option is to make the participants attend family counseling sessions over a 4-week period. Posttest measurement is the following step, and 2-3 days seem sufficient to perform it. The final process in the project will imply summarizing the findings and creating a formal report. Approximately one week will be needed to complete this task. This information demonstrates that it will take about seven weeks for the research authors to conduct the project.
Feasibility
At this point, one should comment on whether it is feasible to conduct the proposed research project. For this purpose, it is necessary to look at the cost-and-benefit analysis. It is worth admitting that the project implies many strengths and advantages that deserve attention. The proposed research addresses a topical issue because family conflicts are widespread and have adverse consequences for numerous individuals. That is why it is scientifically justified to make the study that aims to assess the effectiveness of a specific intervention to mitigate the problem. This information demonstrates that the project is going to present useful information for the area of social work because practitioners can understand the impact of using family counseling in conflict management.
Simultaneously, it is not impossible to mention that the research requires many resources. There is no need to deal with paid software programs or information that implies any fees to be accessed. Furthermore, it is not necessary to involve many specialists in the proposed project. The research author will recruit the participants, conduct the literature review, conduct all the necessary measurements and calculations, as well as create the final project. In addition to that, it is necessary to find and recruit a social worker who will lead family counseling sessions with the participants. Thus, the cost-and-benefit analysis reveals that the project is feasible because its potential advantages outweigh the costs.
Anticipated Challenges
This section comments on what difficulties can affect the project and its implementation. Firstly, it is quite possible that not many individuals will be willing to participate in the project because it means that they will need to disclose their personal problems. That is why the invitation to participate in the project should include a detailed description that the project guarantees confidentiality and that its results can help solve the problem. Secondly, the design implies that participants’ self-reports are a principal data collection tool. This information denotes that the results may not be accurate if some participants want to embellish their answers for this or that reason. It is reasonable to acknowledge this fact while interpreting the obtained results. Finally, it can be challenging to ensure that the recruited individuals participate in all the family counseling sessions. Low attendance rates can make it challenging to assess the effectiveness of the intervention under consideration.
Conclusion
The given paper has presented a research proposal to investigate the issue of family conflicts. These occurrences are common between spouses and between parents and children. In the United States, more than 250 million people represent the family population, meaning that the problem is topical for the entire nation. That is why this state of affairs needs a response, and family counseling seems a suitable option. The proposed research suggests conducting a quantitative, pretest-posttest, correlational study relying on the participants’ self-reports. This design involves a few ethical issues, including informed consent, voluntary participation, and confidentiality, and the research proposal has demonstrated how they can be addressed. It will take approximately seven weeks to complete the project, and the cost-and-benefit analysis has demonstrated that it is feasible. A few challenges can adversely affect the research and its implementation, but specific actions have been discussed to understand how this negative effect can be minimized. In conclusion, the research proposal demonstrates how and why this study should be conducted.
References
Cerrato, J., & Cifre, E. (2018). Gender inequality in household chores and work-family conflict. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1330.
Chen, C. A., Hsieh, C. W., & Chen, D. Y. (2021). Can training enhance public employees’ public service motivation? A pretest–posttest design.Review of Public Personnel Administration, 41(1), 194-215.
Farahanifar, M., Heidari, H., Davodi, H., & Aleyasin, S. A. (2019). Comparison of effectiveness of systematic motivational counseling and acceptance and commitment therapy on conflict resolution styles of incompatible marital woman.Journal of Research in Behavioral Sciences, 17(1), 44-55.
Gefenas, E., Lekstutiene, J., Lukaseviciene, V., Hartlev, M., Mourby, M., & Cathaoir, K. Ă“. (2022). Controversies between regulations of research ethics and protection of personal data: informed consent at a cross-road.Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy, 25(1), 23-30.
Jones, J. H., Call, T. A., Wolford, S. N., & McWey, L. M. (2021). Parental stress and child outcomes: The mediating role of family conflict.Journal of Child and Family Studies, 30(3), 746-756.
Leedy, P. D. & Ormrod, J. E. (2019). Practical research: Planning and design (12th ed.). Pearson.
Mowen, T. J., & Boman, J. H. (2018). A developmental perspective on reentry: Understanding the causes and consequences of family conflict and peer delinquency during adolescence and emerging adulthood.Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(2), 275-289.
Netting, F. E., O’Conner, M. K., & Fauri, D. P. (2008). Comparative approaches to program planning. Wiley.
Rahman, M. S. (2020). The advantages and disadvantages of using qualitative and quantitative approaches and methods in language “testing and assessment” research: A literature review.Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), 102-112.
Sari, A. K., Neviyarni, S., & Syukur, Y. (2021). Family counseling anticipating bullying behavior in children. Journal of Education and Teaching Learning, 3(2), 35-43.
Sinko, L., He, Y., Kishton, R., Ortiz, R., Jacobs, L., & Fingerman, M. (2021). “The stay at home order is causing things to get heated up”: Family conflict dynamics during COVID-19 from the perspectives of youth calling a national child abuse hotline. Journal of Family Violence, 1-10.
Statista. (2021). Families in the United States – Statistics & facts.