Research Methods in Psychology: Problem Statement on Absenteeism

This psychology assignment presents a problem statement focusing on school absenteeism, particularly among adolescents. The student identifies the issue as a significant problem associated with various risk behaviors, citing research indicating factors such as homelessness, emotional distress, and peer influence as contributors. The literature gap is highlighted as a lack of studies from the teenagers' perspective, failing to capture their values and beliefs. The target group is adolescents, with potential societal impacts including increased crime and substance abuse if the problem remains unaddressed. The assignment utilizes APA formatting and includes references from relevant studies to support the analysis of the problem, its causes, and potential consequences.

Running head: RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY
RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note

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Problem statement:
In the recent era, school absentees are identified as one of the crucial problems that are
associated with a range of risk behaviours. Ch, Abdullah and Khatoon (2017), suggested that in
the majority of the cases, homelessness, poverty, absence from the specific lessons, emotional
distress, emotional distress of the children are often the reason behind the frequent school
absents which can be considered as the risk factors. On the other hand, high retention rate,
parental employment, poor parental dynamics, poor quality of teachers are also severe risk
factors behind school absentees. It is usually observed that children of the 13 to 21 years tend to
involve in school absentees due to peer influence (Gubbels, van der Put & Assink, 2019). The
consequence of this school absentees includes antisocial, delinquent poor, physical neglect,
sexual abuse.
The literature gap:
The literature gap is that very limited studies are conducted on the perspective of
teenagers. While a majority of the study was conducted on the teenagers from the perspective of
researchers or another perspective, limited research was conducted from the perspective of the
teenagers to gain an understanding of the reason of school absentees. Consequently, the
researchers failed to capture the values and beliefs of the teenagers and the emotional distress
they subjected to (Keegan & Gable, 2016).
The target group of the problem:
While the target group of the problem is the adolescents, it can affect society.

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What happens if the problem is not addressed:
If the problem is not addressed then it will increase the rate of crime, substance abuse,
anti-social behaviours, physical and mental health problem, severe bully and physical neglect. It
will also further impact social balance.

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References:
Ch, A. Q., Abdullah, N. A., & Khatoon, M (2017). Factors Causing Absenteeism Among The
Students Of Secondary Level Schools. JPUHS, 30(1), 25.
Gubbels, J., van der Put, C. E., & Assink, M. (2019). Risk factors for school absenteeism and
dropout: a meta-analytic review. Journal of youth and adolescence, 48(9), 1637-1667.
Keegan, M., & Gable, R. (2016). A Mixed Methods Study of the Causes of Chronic Absenteeism
in a Large, Urban High School., 55.