Describe risk and protective factors that may be associated with the problem

Each student is responsible for developing a 5-page (double spaced) mid-term paper that explores a social problem and then develops a case study that illustrates how this problem, challenge, or dilemma affects a target child, youth, parent, or family system. The case study can be based on an individual or family system that you know from your professional social work practice or may be a composite that you develop based on your reading and experience. All facts identified in your statement of the problem should be based on research with appropriate citations identified using APA format. The research should come from peer-reviewed journal articles that may be on the syllabus or ones that you locate on your own through literature searches.

The paper should include the following components:

Introduction & Purpose of Paper ( page): Identify the purpose of your paper, describe why it is important, and introduce how your paper will achieve the purpose of the paper by outlining the sections that will follow.
Statement of the Problem, Challenge, or Dilemma (3 pages): in this section, include the following sub-sections
o Define the problem;
o Describe the scope of the problem (how big of a problem it is, how many people are affected by it nationally and locally, etc.);
o Describe the nature of the problem (e.g., are certain groups disproportionally affected by the problem?);
o Describe risk and protective factors that may be associated with the problem;
o Describe the short-term and long-term effects of the problem on your target population.
Case Study (1 page): Based on the description of the problem, illustrate how the factors you summarized above affect your target client system. Include the following sub-sections:
o Describe the client system (child, youth, parent, family) including information about demographics and race and ethnicity, socio economic status, living situation;
o Risk and protective factors;
o Effects of the problem, challenge, or dilemma on your target client system.
Conclusion ( page): Summarize your key take home points and once again emphasize why this problem is important for social work to address.

Please include section headers in your paper and be mindful of the fact you will also be graded on writing, editing and APA formatting.

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