Quantitative Reporting: Case Scenario

Counselors and school counselors are concerned that the current treatments being offered for smoking dependence are not resulting in a high enough percentage of successful outcomes for adolescents. A complicating factor is that many adolescents experience depression during treatment for smoking dependence. Mindfulness Therapy has demonstrated efficacy for the treatment of depression. The purpose of the study is to determine the efficacy of adding Mindfulness Therapy to the standard treatment program. The research question is: Will the addition of Mindfulness Therapy with standard treatment improve the efficacy of that treatment when used for adolescents with smoking dependence?

The researchers designed a study using a convenience sample of 40 participants who have entered treatment for smoking dependence. The participants were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups, the standard treatment program or the standard treatment program with Mindfulness Therapy. Participants will receive treatment for 16 weeks and then complete a Youth Specific version of the Nicotine Dependence Syndrome Scale (NDSS). The treatment groups are considered equivalent at the beginning of the study based on random assignment to groups. The null hypothesis states there will be no difference in scores on the NDSS between those who receive the standard treatment program and those who receive the standard treatment program with Mindfulness Therapy. The researcher used an independent samples t-test to analyze the data.

The scores on the Youth-Specific NDSS for the two groups are:

Independent Samples T-Test Results

The results are t(38) = 4.9607, p = .000.

Standard Treatment Means =13.25 (Standard Deviation = 3.51)

Standard Treatment AND Mindfulness Means=8.1 (Standard Deviation = 3.04)

Answer questions for the above case scenario

Quantitative Reporting

• What was the research question?
• What type of study design is used (between/within groups, pretest/post-test, etc.)? Please explain.
• Is the correct statistical test used to analyze the data? Why or why not?
• You must include a new measure and are only required to identify and explain one psychometric property.
• Are the results statistically significant? Social science research uses a p value of .05 or less to determine statistical significance.
• Does the researcher reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis?
• What are the implications of the results for the study and the counseling field?