Abstract
There is a need for researchers to embark on a mission to reveal the causal factors of violence in adolescent relationships. It is apparent that psychological issues are a part of the causal factors, but there is a need to reveal how these factors relate to other causal factors to promote violence in relationships. This paper proposes a study to be conducted among 200 participants. The research will use a qualitative design to highlight some of the factors that influence violence in adolescent relationships.
Introduction
Unfortunately, nowadays violence is a more common manifestation of human feelings than tenderness or care. Violence has been existing as long as humanity exists and even in the modern world with a new level of humanization, the problem still demands a solution. With this in mind, the given research is significant because it will reveal the factors that influence violence in adolescent relationships, and provide a basis to alleviate the situation for the affected parties. Additionally, the research aims to prove a hypothesis which states that manifestations of violence among people are triggered by different external factors that influence the conscience and mood of a person and that men are more often uses it as a remedy.
Different researchers use various approaches to the investigation of this problem. Thus, practically all of them are apt to think that the reasons for violence in adolescents may be found in early childhood. In researching this problem, special attention is given to the relations between males and females and the impact of violence on these relations. Though, according to the statistical data based on the results of various surveys, practically all researchers share one view that “although both males and females report being abused in relationships, abuse has a greater impact on females than on males” (Cleveland, Herrera & Stuewing, 2003, p. 325). At the same time, it must be admitted that males also suffer from violence, though in a less degree. Cleveland, Herrera, and Stuewing are sure that the repetitious cases of the abuse in adolescence continue with the development of relations and can persist for years (2003).
A person may not resort to compulsion until the relationship between the couple complicates. A persons attitude towards violence is predetermined by many factors, such as education or upbringing. Sometimes, the reason for a persons inclination to aggression may be the psychological trauma obtained in early childhood or the cases of violence from the parents.
Additionally, according to the research conducted by OKeefe among high school students, males are less susceptible to the impact of serious relations in comparison with females. According to O’Keeffe’s opinion (as cited in Cleveland, Herrera, & Stuewig, 2003), it may be explained by the fact that males are less tied to their female partners or perceive their relations less seriously.
At the same time, according to the data of other researchers, both males and females in the conflict situation resort to force in equal measure (Capaldi & Crosbi, 1997). These researchers also assert that the aggression of a male towards the partner is predetermined by his anti-social behavior while the violence portrayed by the young woman is explained by her depression or her low self-esteem.
Another interesting research was proposed by the group of scientists who investigated the dependence of the level of violence upon the socio-demographic factors (Halpern, Oslak, Young, Martin, & Kupper, 2001). In their research, they concluded that the aptitude for violence is also predetermined by such factors as nationality, education, gender, religious beliefs and the structure of the family.
The given research paper rests on statistical data and different kinds of variables which are dependent variables and independent variables.
Dependent variables
The researcher will measure the behavioral response of the participants concerning the factors that trigger violence. The method of direct observation can be used to fix the reaction of a person. The dependent variable will be aggression/violence. The researcher will also observe the facial expressions of the participants when they are responding to some sensitive questions. Video recording will be used to record this data. Every participant will be examined for once only.
Independent variable
The independent variables will be the factors that influence the development of aggression and violence. These factors will include the psychological conditions emanating from childhood issues. The researcher will identify the presence of these factors in the lives of participants, and relate them to the dependent variable. With this in mind, there will be several levels of variables that will be comprised of the psychological conditions of the past. Poverty, the bad atmosphere in the family, isolation can be taken as levels of independent variable experience. All these variables should be controlled with the help of different questions and the recording of the facial expression of participants. That is why, all participants will be instructed to answer the question, however, emotions will be the main factor which will be controlled.
Method
This study will use a qualitative design to establish the factors that influence violence in adolescent relationships (Christensen, Johnson & Turner, 2014). The study will use interviews and questionnaires to collect data from the participants. The researchers, who conduct the study, should found a group of volunteers who will agree to participate in the study for free. The study will involve a sample space of 100 participants for the interview, and 100 participants for the questionnaires. The total sample space will be 200 participants. The interviews will be conducted on a one-on-one basis with the individual partners, and the questionnaires will be administered to the respective participants. They will be required to fill out the questionnaires privately for authenticity. The participants will be randomly selected from the targeted society, and they will be mixed races. The educational background will also vary among the partners.
Participants
The recruitment process of the participants will involve inviting university students who are in relationships to take part in the interviews and filling out the questionnaires. The researcher will identify a sample space of 100 males and 100 females to take part in the respective methods of data collection. The participants will be selected from different cultural backgrounds. The age limit for the participants will be from 14 years to 19 years. Individual participants will be required to have been in a relationship for more than one year. The participants will also be selected based on their experience with violence; hence, an extensive search for participants will be necessary. Participants who have experienced violence in their current or past relationships will be given higher priority for participation.
All participants will be divided into two groups. Each group will consist of 100 participants, with 50 males and 50 females. The participants in each group will be selected randomly from the entire sample space, and diversity will be considered in each group. Participation will be voluntary, and matters of ethics will be considered. The data and information collected will not be disclosed to the public concerning the respective participants. The participants will be required to authorize the researcher to use the information to develop an analysis that will potentially validate the hypothesis.
Materials
The researcher will conduct a structured interview with 100 participants. The interviews will be video recorded for analysis at a later stage. The video recording will facilitate an evaluation of the behavior of the participants as they respond to sensitive questions. The researcher will also distribute printouts of questionnaires to the second group of 100 participants. Participants in this group will be required to fill out the questions in the printouts immediately after issuance. Some additional psychological tests will not be needed because this sphere will be analyzed with the help of video recording which will show peculiarities of the psychological reaction of every respondent.
Procedure
The research design is qualitative, and it will entail the use of interviews and questionnaires to collect data and information from the participants. The interviews will take place in a room where the researcher will question each participant in the first group using a structured interview. The questionnaires will be distributed to selected participants in a hall that can accommodate the entire group. The participants will be provided with pens to fill out the questionnaires and the entire process will be video recorded to study the behavior of the participants as they fill out the questionnaires. The researcher will focus on their facial expressions as they fill out answers to sensitive questions in the questionnaires.
Projected results
In the course of the experiment, the data connected with the main factors which cause the appearance of manifestations of violence will be collected. Additionally, visual evidence and materials which can help to analyze the behavior of people will also be obtained. This data will help in further research
It should also be mentioned that this data will be collected simply by analyzing the interviews and video recordings. This descriptive statistics will help to obtain clear and reliable material for analysis as facts and numbers obtained from the survey will be used. Participants will also be required to provide information about the specific triggers that influenced the violence on their part of their partners. There will be questions requiring the participants to indicate some of the factors that influence violent reactions from their partners. Participants will indicate whether they are male or female, and their partner’s sex will also be highlighted so that the information they give can be analyzed under the males or females. Data on exposure to psychological torture during childhood will be collected, and the researcher will focus on analyzing the data provided by participants that have been the instigators of violence in their relationships. Data about the emotional effects of violence on the participants’ relationships will also be collected. The researcher will also look to collect data revealing whether the participants had witnessed violence in their family in their childhood years.
The collected data from the interviews and the questionnaires will be analyzed qualitatively. The researcher will look for patterns formed by the data to develop a qualitative description of the causal factors of violence in adolescent relationships. The main focus will be identifying the common factors revealed about violence in males and females in adolescent relationships respectively. The researcher will look for recurrent causes of violence in relationships on the part of the males and females to develop a clear picture of some of the most common causes of violence in adolescent relationships. The researcher will also analyze some of the childhood issues that will be highlighted by the participants as major causes of their respective capabilities of aggression. The researcher will develop a psychological approach to analyzing the data to develop a comprehensive understanding of how childhood issues may have influenced the development of violent personalities. The data provided by the participants will be placed in a table highlighting the frequency of the descriptive words used to indicate the sentiments of the respective participants and the researcher will look for a pattern in the descriptive statistics to develop a conclusion. The significance level will be set at 0.05 (5%). All these conclusions will comprise inferential statistics which should be widely used at the end of the work to underline the significance of the research and facts obtained in the course of the investigation.
Implications
If the findings support the hypothesis, it is expected that the analysis process will reveal that violence in adolescent relationships is a recurrent issue in the majority of the relationships. The results will also reveal that the main cause of violence in the relationships is an aggression on the part of the males. The results will also indicate that the main initiators of violence in relationships will be teenagers that were subjected to psychological issues in their childhood.
If the results do not support the hypothesis, the researcher does not expect to find any relationship between the causal factor of violence in the relationships of the participants. Descriptive statistics collected will not provide any helpful pattern that can be used to make deductions on the causes of violence in adolescent relationships.
References
Capaldi, D., & Crosby, L. (1997). Observed and Reported Psychological and Physical Aggression in Young, Ay-Risk Couples. Oregon Social Learning Center, 6(2), 184-206.
Christensen, L. B., Johnson, R. B., & Turner, L. (2014). Research methods, design, and analysis (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Prentice-Hall.
Cleveland, H., Herrera, V., & Stuewig, J.(2003). Abusive Males and Abused Females in Adolescent Relationships: Risk Factor Similarity and Dissimilarity and the Role of Relationship Seriousness. Plenum Publishing Corporation, 18(6), 325-339.
Halpern, C., Oslak, G., Young, M., Martin S., & Kupper, L. (2001). Partner Violence Among Adolescents in Opposite-Sex Romantic Relationships: Findings From the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. American Journal of Public Health, 91(10),1679-1685.