Section 1

The research was based on the fact that adolescents subjected to marital clash at a young age demonstrate an increased likelihood of being victims of mistreatment in their romantic relationship. The researchers conducted a survey amid more than 140 adolescents having parents who were cohabitating or married during their birth. Half of the participants had a parent, commonly the father with alcohol addiction and/or family dysfunction (Sciencedaily.com, 2019).

The survey focused on exposure of the children to conflict and quarrel between their parents, their approaches and views about their association with mother, and their participation in any kind of dating violence. The report suggested that children experiencing average positive parenting behaviour from mothers during their eight grade demonstrated reduced likelihood of being involved any dating violence during their teenage years, regardless of extreme martial conflict between their parents. The media report also elaborated on the fact that the acceptance and warmth of a mother towards her teenagers might provide prevent the children from being a part of an abusive relationship at a later stage in their lives, regardless of the contentious nature of the mother’s marriage (Sciencedaily.com, 2019).

Section 2

The objective of a research abridges what the researchers intend to accomplish in a particular study and a well-defined objective helps the readers to focus on the study. Moreover, a research question is mandatory in a media report about any scientific investigation and acts in the form of an answerable inquiry about the phenomenon that is being investigated (Patten, 2016). The media report about this research started with the concluding statements and the findings of the research, without any clear information about the purpose of the investigation. While summarising a research article, it is essential for the reporter to highlight the theoretical framework or model, based on which the researchers conducted the investigation. These theories help in explaining, predicting, and understanding the phenomena, from the point of view of the researchers. Thus, it would have proven helpful if the report contained a description of the psychological theory that formed the basis of this investigation.

While the reporter mentioned surveys as the tool of data collection, no definite information was given regarding the sample size, the sampling pattern, and the number of male and female participants. Specifying the exact number of participants was essential since larger sample size provides more appropriate mean values and also facilitates identification of outliers that might otherwise skew the collected data (Chow et al., 2017). Had the sampling strategy been convenience, and not non-probability sampling, the validity of the findings would have been affected since convenience sampling prevents generalisation of the results to wider population and also encompasses the possibility of over- or under-representation of the target population (Etikan, Musa & Alkassim, 2016). Descriptive statistics are generally performed with the aim of summarising a particular data set that is representative of the larger population (Ho & Yu, 2015). However, the researchers did not mention about the procedure used for statistical analysis. Hence, lack of adequate information about the research methodology would have also prevented knowing if the results were biased.

Section 3

Thus, it can be concluded from the media report that exposure of children to marital conflict during their early adolescence was extrapolative of teen dating violence at a later stage during their adolescent years. However, it was also found that when the children were subjected to increased level of maternal acceptance and maternal conflict, their prolonged exposure to marital conflict between their parents failed to foresee their susceptibility to teen dating violence (Sciencedaily.com, 2019). The findings mentioned in the report also suggested that decreased levels of responsiveness, warmth and affection from the mothers failed to weaken the adverse impacts of parental marital conflict upon the children.

The report also suggested that parents having better communication skills are able to resolve differences and are less likely to have skirmishes in their home, thus can model suitable conflict management abilities to their children. It was also deduced from the media report that there is a need to assess the variations in impact of marital conflict on female and male children, and the impact of an alcoholic mother on the protective influence of positive parenting (Sciencedaily.com, 2019). Taking into consideration all of the missing information, the media report will not be considered useful for educating readers about abusive relationship and susceptibility. In order to estimate the significance of the media report, the original journal reference, cited at the end of the report will be thoroughly read and analysed (Livingston et al., 2019). This will help in gaining information on the aspects of the research that had not been discussed in the report, and will also facilitating educating the readers on the phenomenon being investigated.

References

Chow, S. C., Shao, J., Wang, H., & Lokhnygina, Y. (2017). Sample size calculations in clinical research. Chapman and Hall/CRC.

Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4.

Ho, A. D., & Yu, C. C. (2015). Descriptive statistics for modern test score distributions: Skewness, kurtosis, discreteness, and ceiling effects. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 75(3), 365-388.

Livingston, J. A., Lessard, J., Casey, M. L., Leonard, K. E., & Eiden, R. D. (2019). Teen dating violence in a high-risk sample: the protective role of maternal acceptance. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260519880165.

Patten, M. L. (2016). Questionnaire research: A practical guide. Routledge.

Sciencedaily.com. (2019). Teens who have loving bond with mother less likely to enter abusive relationships. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/10/191030100043.htm