Social Work

Page Contents

• Review Terminology
• Identify the Variables
• Find the Hypothesis
• Evidence-Based Practices

Review Terminology

Identify the Variables

In research articles, the independent and dependent variables often appear directly in the title of the article.

Look at the example below and see if you can identify the independent and dependent variables:

In this article titled "Sleep disturbance predicts depression symptoms in early adolescence," both variables are in the title.

An independent variable potentially influences, affects, or predicts the other variable. In this article, sleep disturbance is the independent variable as it is predicting depression symptoms.

A dependent variable is potentially influenced, affected, or predicted. Depression symptoms are the dependent variable as they are being predicted by sleep disturbance. 

Here is another example:

In this article, the title "Soft drink consumption and mental health in adolescents: A longitudinal examination" indicates that the variables being studied are soft drink consumption and mental health. However, the title alone does not clearly indicate which variables are dependent and independent. In this case, you should read the abstract to learn more about the variables and how they are related. In the abstract we find the following sentence:

"This study examines the [hypothesis] that soft drink consumption predicts aggression and depressive symptoms over time." 

From this, we now know that soft drink consumption is the independent variable predicting aggressive and depressive symptoms, the dependent variables.

References

Goldstone, A., Javitz, H. S., Claudatos, S. A., Buysse, D. J., Hasler, B. P., de Zambotti, M., Clark, D. B., Franzen, P. L., Prouty, D. E., Colrain, I. M., & Baker, F. C. (2020). Sleep disturbance predicts depression symptoms in early adolescence: Initial findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(5), 567–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.12.005

Mrug, S., Jones, L. C., Elliott, M. N., Tortolero, S. R., Peskin, M. F., & Schuster, M. A. (2021). Soft drink consumption and mental health in adolescents: A longitudinal examination. Journal of Adolescent Health, 68(1), 155–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.05.034

Rubin, A., & Babbie, E. (2013). Essential research methods for social work (3rd ed.). Brooks/Cole.

Find the Hypothesis

Researchers should state their hypothesis in the introduction of their research papers. Introduction sections are not always clearly labeled but will generally be the text that comes before the methods section.

A hypothesis statement can be written several different ways, including:

"We hypothesized..."

"We expected..."

"We predicted..."

In this example, the hypothesis is stated at the end of the introduction:

In some studies, there may be multiple, related hypotheses. In other studies, the researchers may not make a formal hypothesis about the nature of the relationship between the variables. Instead, they may be exploring whether there is a relationship or not. 

References

Goldstone, A., Javitz, H. S., Claudatos, S. A., Buysse, D. J., Hasler, B. P., de Zambotti, M., Clark, D. B., Franzen, P. L., Prouty, D. E., Colrain, I. M., & Baker, F. C. (2020). Sleep disturbance predicts depression symptoms in early adolescence: Initial findings from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(5), 567–574. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2019.12.005

Evidence-Based Practices

The National Association of Social Workers defines evidence-based practice (EBP) in social work as "a process involving creating an answerable question based on a client or organizational need, locating the best available evidence to answer the question, evaluating the quality of the evidence as well as its applicability, applying the evidence, and evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the solution."

Below we have assembled a collection of EBP resources: