Research
1

TOPIC SELECTION: FIND A GAP

Topic Selection: Find a Gap Assignment
Student Name
Department of Counselor Education and Family Studies, Liberty University
Author Note

Student Name

I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Student Name

Email: [email protected]

Topic Selection: Find a Gap Assignment

1) First Topic of Interest: I wonder if there is improved outcome when counseling children of military service members when using spiritual counseling? Comment by Dr. Kirk: Such an important topic! So think about what variables you might measure to see an “improved outcome”?

Gap Statement: According to Pandya (2018),

…The following questions emerge from the results, which need further research. The mediating effects of parental variables viz. vocation, occupation, parenting styles, parental anxiety, and cohabitation duration, on child anxiety disorders and treatment response need to be explored. Comment by Dr. Kirk: Is this from the discussion section or the literature review? Remember, the literature review is the author’s narrative of the gap in the literature that they seek to fill with their study. The discussion section will detail the author’s suggestions for future research IN LIGHT of their study.

Reference

Pandya, S. P. (2018). Spiritual Counseling Program For Children with Anxiety Disorders: A multi-city experiment. Journal of Pastoral Care & Counseling, 72(1), 45–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/1542305018761631 Comment by Dr. Kirk: Please review APA formatting for references. This will be in sentence case.

This article researched a spiritual based counseling program and how that impacted children who have anxiety disorders. The results of this study concluded that treatments with the addition of spiritual education and counseling can be beneficial to children. Comment by Dr. Kirk: Excellent, you identified a gap and you are building off of it

2) Second Topic of Interest: How does animal-assisted therapy affect children in the Latino community who are victims of childhood sexual abuse? Comment by Dr. Kirk: WOW, such an important topic.

Gap Statement: “Further research examining the effectiveness of AAT across a range of ethnicities to more accurately determine for whom this kind of intervention is most appropriate is needed” (Signal, Taylor, Prentice, McDade, Burke, 2017). Comment by Dr. Kirk: Clear. So what variables might you measure? Comment by Dr. Kirk: Place page number for quotations

Reference

Signal, T., Taylor, N., Prentice, K., McDade, M., & Burke, K. (2017). Going to the dogs: A quasi-experimental assessment of animal assisted therapy for children who have experienced abuse, Applied Developmental Science, 21(2), 81-93. Doi: 10.1080/10888691.2016.1165098

This article explores the idea of animal assisted therapy (AAT) in children who have suffered from childhood sexual trauma and demonstrated avoidance related symptomology. The study concluded that there is encouraging evidence that AAT improves some symptomology. Comment by Dr. Kirk: I think this is so important because you are honing in on a particular population.

3) Third Topic of Interest: Does the presence of a chronic illness, such as diabetes, affect the association between anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life and mental health in the Taiwanese community? Comment by Dr. Kirk: The only issue with this is that you might have a wide range of illnesses that might illuminate different answers. For example, diabetes is treatable, other chronic illnesses might not be. Something to consider

Gap Statement: “Generalizability of the results of the present study is further limited to relatively healthy individuals, as specific illnesses were not sampled” (Shiah, Chang, Chiang, Lin, Tam, 2015, p.43). Comment by Dr. Kirk: Yes… so this is still “researchable” .. but think through and read through to see if you can specifically identify an area that has not yet been researched

Reference

Shiah, Y., Chang, F., Chiang, S., Lin, I., & Tam, W. (2015). Religion and Health: Anxiety, Religiosity, Meaning of Life and Mental Health. Journal of Religion and Health, 54(1), 35-45. Retrieved January 19, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/24485237 Comment by Dr. Kirk: Please review APA format for references

This article researched the relationship between anxiety, religiosity, meaning of life, and mental health and how these factors impact each other. The researchers concluded that discovering the meaning of life can be an important factor in improving anxiety and related symptomology.