How Does Social Disorganization Impact Family Dynamics?

Every new study does not have to reinvent the wheel – there have likely been studies conducted in the past that focus on similar research questions. It is important to identify those studies and discuss what they can tell us for a variety of reasons: 1) It gives us an idea of what is currently known or unknown about a given issue, 2) it can give use a baseline from which we can compare the results of our own study, and 3) it can suggest directions for future research. In essence, a good literature review contextualizes your own study. Your literature review will contain the following elements: 1. Introduce the Research Question: Briefly (1-2 pages) provide the context for the study and introduce the reader to what your research question is. You should include a statement like: “The research question guiding this literature review is… [insert your question here].” (the question usually goes toward the end of the introduction) 2. Literature Narrative: Write a brief literature review (8-10 pages), informed by the studies that you located. I suggest using past research on your topic to guide what should be included in your literature review. Consider this a narrative write up of the information that you provided in your literature table, with a review of the existing published literature on your topic. You will have to present empirical information (using the studies you located) regarding the following:  Describe the problem or program/ policy you have chosen, making the case for why it is important using scholarly literature.  Review some information on what is known about your problem or the effectiveness of your policy or program using scholarly literature.  DO NOT write an article by article summary, as this is not a scholarly review of the literature. Remember the key components of a literature review we discussed in class and refer back to the slides from those two lectures – summarize existing literature, analyze it, and critique it.  Effective literature reviews cover as much of the literature as possible. As such, the expectations for number of references will be higher than for the literature table; the “required” amount of references is highly dependent on the research question. 3. APA Citations and References: Throughout the literature narrative, please use the appropriate parenthetical (i.e., in-text) citations, and then provide a reference list at the end of your document.

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