Course Code and Name:MSJ 11102 Communication Research
Project Name:Research Proposal on mental health issues among teenagers from broken families in Dhaka.
Project Date:Summer 2020
Project Description:As this is an introductory course on communication research, we were required to create a sample research proposal based on a social science-related issue. This was a group project and counted as the final project of this course. As the COVID pandemic pushed the university to go online, it was initially a little inconvenient for us to form a team – as most of the coursemates didn’t know each other’s. Initially, students individually proposed research topics during the midterm examination explaining their chosen topic. Subsequently, the course teacher curated 8 topics from the pool of 40 proposed by each student, with mine being among the selected few. Based on these chosen topics, the instructor then assembled groups of 5 members to work on a comprehensive research proposal. This sample proposal includes the title of the study, background of the study, research objective, research questions, literature review, research methodology, timeline and budget.
Project Justification:The topic we have proposed as our research proposal was ‘Understanding mental health issues among teenagers from broken families in Dhaka’. We felt like this was a topic that usually gets overlooked in our society, and should be eyed onto as the rate of broken families popping up day by day in a horrifying motion. In a recent survey, it has been figured out that…almost 50 thousand divorces were filed in the last 6 years which convulsed us to think about what happens to the children of these families post-separation.
Meanwhile, after our primary available resource-based content analysis, we had come to realize that after growing up in a broken family it’s almost inevitable for any child, especially those who are in their teenage years to be psychologically or socially normal like other children coming from neutral families. The stability of the family creates a building block for children to progress throughout life. When parents separate, the children are left with no stability causing them to lose basic concepts of childhood that may carry with them throughout life. Watching parents take a home from a traditional family lifestyle to a “broken” home by getting separated is very devastating for a child’s mental well-being. It is easy for any husband or wife to get rid of their disputes through a divorce and lead their life alone or get involved in some other life. But what could happen to the children’s life and future? Everything goes on but the psychological trauma of the kids remains untreated. Doesn’t this tendency signal that a major societal alteration is underway, for the children coming from these broken families in the city? That’s why we thought of conducting an in-depth study to understand how the mental health of teenagers suffers and how they deal with their grief being in a family dispute. The broad objective of this research is to understand the overall consequences on the mental health of family breaks on teenagers.
Learnings and Outcomes (Self-reflection):
- How to write a Research Proposal.
- Develop teamwork ability.
- Understood the depth of familial impacts on teenage mental health.
- Learned to effectively design qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
- Realized the importance of diverse data sources for comprehensive analysis.
- Understood challenges in conducting sensitive research in societal contexts.
- Learned to budget and logistical plan for a research project.
- Recognized the significance of prior literature in shaping research directions.
- Learned to manage time and structure long-term projects effectively.
- Learned the responsibility of proposing solutions for societal issues.