Are teenagers who have been abused in their childhood acting different than those who hadn’t been abused as children? Are they showing signs of being abused; acting out or even replicating the abusive behavior on their peers, significant other as they mature?
The research design I would use is Longitudinal and I would use observations and interviews with their teachers, friends, and others that are relatively close to the teenagers and who actually know them to see whether or not they are acting out irrationally and seeing if it is a direct cause of being abused as children. I would look at teenagers who are sophomores and juniors in high school. Examining teenagers who are acting out, and try to find out if they have been abused in the past, or are still being abused, whether it is emotionally, physically, or both.
Matt, I like your research question, for I have involved in helping programs where children were/are abused and neglected. I noticed that the child I was assigned to work with did lash out and showed abusive behavior toward their peers, including me. There were times where the student I worked with was a very well behaved student, but one it only took one thing to set the chid off and to be back to the aggressive self. This research question is very interesting and I could relate well to it!
ReplyDeleteI like your idea here Matt. I think you could collect alot of interesting data as well! Building on your idea, there are also youth who blend in or hide resulting from abuse or neglect. I think broadening from just observations of kids acting up; lets not forget the wallflowers who avoid confontation/uknown outcomes fearing punishment. I feel if done right a study with your concept could point out key abuse identifiers to help teachers, law enforcement, and CFS get to children in trouble!
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