HOMEWORK ONE: JOURNAL ARTICLE ANALYSIS

Homework One: Journal Article Analysis

Kristin M. Deel
Dayton, Ohio

Author Note
Kristin M. Deel, Dayton, Ohio.
Correspondence concerning this journal review should be addressed to Kristin
Deel, 4790 Delba Drive, Dayton, Ohio 45439. Email: deel.7@wright.edu

HOMEWORK ONE: JOURNAL ARTICLE ANALYSIS

2

Issues surrounding drug use and violence are very important to our youths safety which
is why I chose to analyze the journal article Drugs in Schools: Myths and Realities by Peter J.
Venturelli (2000). The basic research question stated by Venturelli is which research conclusions
about the extent and trends of drug use are myths and which are realities (2000). By definition, a
null hypothesis is a statement of equality between sets of variables (Salkind, 2013). For
example, the null hypothesis in this article is that there is no correlation between youth drug
users and youth violence (Venturelli, 2000). This article analysis will explore at least one
dependent variable and level of measurement, an independent variable and its level of
measurement, an example of descriptive statistics found in the article, and an example of
inferential statistics found in the article, if applicable.
First, we will explore a dependent variable found in the journal article. A dependent
variable may also be known as the outcome variable because it determines the score of one
variable based on the value of another, independent variable (Salkind, 2013). One of the myths
is that most drug users will move from soft drugs to hard drugs, so a good example of a
dependent variable used in Venturellis research is graduating from soft drugs to hard drugs
(2000). We could even go on to say that this dependent variable is nominal because one either
moves to hard drugs or does not (Salkind, 2013).
In addition to dependent variables, there are also independent variables. Independent
variables are the predictors that determine what will happen with the dependent variables
(Salkind, 2013). Continuing with the example of the soft drugs to hard drugs myth, the fact that
one uses soft drugs is the independent variable that may or may not cause one to use hard drugs
further down the line (Venturelli, 2000). The research found that most soft drug users are able to

HOMEWORK ONE: JOURNAL ARTICLE ANALYSIS

3

put a limit on themselves rather than move on to hard drugs, meaning that the independent
variable does not cause the dependent variables value to increase in this case (Venturelli, 2000).
Now that we have covered dependent and independent variables, it is time to examine an
example of descriptive statistics in the article. Descriptive statistics are used to pull together our
data set (Salkind, 2013). For example, Venturelli summarized illicit drug use by gender and age
in a chart (2000). The chart showed age and gender, whether they have ever used drugs, used in
the past year, and used in the past month (Venturelli, 2000). The age groups were 12-17 and 1825 years old (Venturelli, 2000).
When reading scholarly journal articles, it is important to look for inferential statistics in
addition to descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics are how we make inferences about the
larger population based on the sample group of data (Salkind, 2013). The Venturelli article does
not actually include an example of an inferential statistic which is why an example has not been
provided.
In conclusion, Venturellis research showed great examples of how we use dependent
variables, independent variables, and descriptive statistics to help describe the world around us.

HOMEWORK ONE: JOURNAL ARTICLE ANALYSIS

4

References
Salkind, N.J. (2013). Statistics for people who (think they) hate statistics (The third Excel 2010
edition). Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.
Venturelli, P. J. (2000). Drugs in schools: Myths and realities. Annals of the American Academy
of Political and Social Science, 567(1) 72-87. doi: 10.1177/002214650905000102