Research Proposal

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I plan to do my critical response paper on the topic of divorce. It is something that effects nearly 50% of families yet is never really written about. My essential research question will discuss the effects of divorce on adolescents. Some questions that would influence my research would be
1.   Does divorce help or hurt children?
2.   Do court rulings on custody effect the success of the student?
3.   Does having divorced parents make you stand out or fit in?
4.   Does divorce effect more than a student’s academics?
5.   Does divorce influence healthy relationships?
6.   Does timing of divorce effect anything?
7.   Is divorce actually the kid’s fault?
8.   Can divorce be positive?
My parents divorced a week before my seventh birthday (great timing, I know) and I struggled a lot when they first divorced. Luckily, my elementary school was really involved with their students, and they created a group for students with divorced parents. We called ourselves “bugs” because we were in the B.U.G group aka the Break-Up Group. Looking back, that probably had some negative effects lol.
I have selected this topic because I seem to have a very different opinion on divorce. I think that it has been the biggest blessing in my life and I can’t really see my life any other way. I do not think I would be as successful or happy without my parent’s divorce. Our Lit Circle book, All The Bright Places, covered the topic of divorce and really explored both sides. I plan to use web resources and possibly some interviews. I think it would be a good mix of academic and actual accounting of divorce. I will most likely claim that divorce has more positive effects than negative effects.

The challenges I foresee with my research are articles that are repetitious. They’ll probably just have on-the-surface statistics on depression and not really explore the true, long-term characteristics of divorce on adolescents.

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