Problem Statement
What is a Research Problem?
• It is a summary of the research problem that is used to gain approval
from your supervisor/ management
• It illustrates what is missing in the literature that requires further
investigation.
• It should be
• concise
• measurable
• achievable
• contextualized
• relevant
How to write a Research
Problem?
1. Contextualize the problem
2. Identify its importance
3. Highlight the gap in the literature
4. Define your objectives
1- Contextualize the Problem
Try to provide background information:
• Where/ when does the problem arise?
• Who may be affected by the problem?
• Have there been any attempts to solve that problem? What are they?
2- Identify its Importance
You need to explain:
• why addressing this problem is important
• how it may affect the society/ population/ institution
• what could happen if the problem is not solved
• who may be affected by the consequences and how
• if it is relevant to any aspects or not
3- Highlight the gap in the
literature
• You need to summarize the findings of the previous studies that are
relevant to your topic then point out what is still missing and requires
investigation.
• The gap could be:
• Missing population
• Missing research methods
• Missing data collection tool
• Missing variables
• Missing conditions
• Inconclusive findings
4- Define your objectives
Explain how you intend to address the problem.
N.B. Write the objective in the infinitive form:
• The aim of this study is to ….
• This study aims to ….
• This research paper aims to investigate ….
After that, state your research question.
Activity!
Read the following excerpts and try to find the
a. Gap in the literature
b. Importance of the study
c. Purpose of the study
Social networking is a new phenomenon and very few studies so far have been carried out on its impact on
mental health issues around the world and particularly this part of the world where the use of social media is
increasing day by day. Facebook use has been associated with its possible negative effects to psychological
problems.2 Kross described that social media may lead to depression and anxiety.23 Considering the findings
of other research studies, it is important to investigate the relationship between social networking and
depression among university students. The main objectives of the study were: (i.) To investigate the
perceptions of university students regarding the usage of social media networks (ii.) To find out gender-wise
differences of university students in using social media networks and the level of their depression (iii.) To
measure the relationship of social media and depression among university students.
Very few prospective or experimental studies exist testing causal models of the relation between SNS use and depression.
However, the studies that do exist appear to point to the possibility of a bi-directional relation; that is, high levels of SNS
use have been found to prospectively predict increases in depression (e.g., Vernon, Modecki, & Barber, 2016), and
individuals with depression appear to be more vulnerable to the negative impacts of SNS use (Vernon et al., 2016).
Qualitative reviews of the much larger number of studies examining the cross-sectional association between depression and
SNS use reveal that this relation has been inconsistently replicated and is complex, likely varying as a function of a number
of methodological and sample moderators (Baker and Algorta 2016; Blease 2015; Frost and Rickwood 2017; Seabrook
et al. 2016). Therefore, the time is ripe for a rigorous metaanalysis to quantify the strength of the concurrent relation
between SNS use and depression symptoms, and to identify key moderators that can be used to inform much-needed studies
designed to test causation .
Many prior studies have explored the relationship of social media usage with the users’ mental health problems
(e.g. depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and self-esteem) among the various age group of people in
developed countries (Glazzard & Stones, Citation2016; Hou et al., Citation2019; Savci, Citation2016; Shensa
et al., Citation2018; Wang et al., Citation2018; Waqas et al., Citation2018). In the least developed countries
such as Afghanistan, there is not enough relevant academic literature . Therefore, this study will contribute by
examining whether the relationship between the excessive use of social media and mental health problems are
the same or not in developed and in least developed countries . The main objective of this study is to
investigate the correlation between social media addiction and depression among university students in the
Khost province of Afghanistan.
Published studies on the association between social media use and depression have yielded mixed results .[16, 17]
Some studies suggest that SM users may experience decreased depression, [18] possibly from an in- crease in social
capital, perceived social support, and life satisfaction. [19, 20] Other studies, however, indicate that frequent use of
social media may be associated with de- clines in subjective well being, life satisfaction, and real-life community. [17,
21] All of these prior studies, however, have been limited by small and/or localized samples. Furthermore, they have
tended to focus on one specific platform, Facebook, [16, 21] while real-life usage, especially among young adults,
tends to incorporate a diverse array of social media sites such as Twitter, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, Snapchat, and
Vine. [14, 15]. In this study, we aimed to examine a broader range of SM exposures and to determine the association
between SM expo- sure and depression in a large, nationally representative sample of young adults . Understanding
the relationship between SM use and depression could allow the development of interventions or preventative
strategies for at-risk populations.
Recent systematic reviews examining the association between online technologies and depression have found a ‘general
correlation’ between SM use and depression in adolescents, but with conflicting findings in some domains (e.g. the
association between time spent on SM and mental health problems), overall limited quality of the evidence (Keles,
McCrae, & Grealish, 2019), and a relative absence of studies designed to show causal effects (Best, Manktelow, & Taylor,
2014 ). The scope of search in these reviews is broader in topic, including online technologies other than SM (Best et al.,
2014) or focused on a select number of studies in order to meet the requirements of a systematic review (Keles et al.,
2019). With this scoping review, we aim to expand the inclusion of studies with a range of designs, while narrowing the
scope of the topic of SM to those studies that specifically included SNS use. Additionally, we aim to expand the
understanding and potential research gaps on the bi-directional association between SM and depression and suicidal
behaviours in adolescents, including studies that consider SM use as a predictor as well as an outcome. A better
understanding of this relationship can inform interventions and screenings related to SM use in clinical settings.