ALTERNATIVE FINAL PROJECT OPTION
This is a formal paper of a minimum of four typed pages. Margins should be no more than 1 inch on all sides, and you should use 12-point Times New Roman font. Please proofread this assignment, as the number of spelling/type errors will count against you. This assignment is worth 100 points.

Most of us are or will become parents and even teachers. This course will prepare you to become an effective role model, parent, and teacher of child(ren) in your own family. You will come to understand how individuals learn and develop and will be able to provide learning opportunities that support intellectual, social, and physical development at all age/grade levels.

This assignment is designed to help you to know, understand, and use the major concepts, principles, theories, and research related to the development of human beings. Upon completion of this course, you will have constructed a learning opportunity that supports a childs individual development, acquisition of knowledge, and motivation.
PART ONE (minimum 3 pages)
Conduct research on the following topic, including the multiple perspectives on the issue, and your personal experience relevant to the topic. The first page should provide an overview of the topic and answer the questions provided. The next two three pages should address the questions below succinctly with academic support and citations. You must use a minimum of 6 academic sources and 3 non-academic but helpful sources for parents. An academic source may be the textbook, other child psychology textbooks, or a peer-reviewed journal article from a professional journal.

CONFLICT & DIVORCE
Research information about conflict and divorce and how these impact children from ages birth through 13 years of age. The purpose of this step is to help you use academic databases to search for topics and to choose appropriate sources from mainstream developmental journals. Use psychological journals from the library online. Avoid popular media and esoteric sources as references. Don’t worry if you cannot understand the details of the statistical part of the article. Review the article carefully and organize your ideas before you start writing.

Be sure to follow APA 7 guidelines. A good resource for that is at Purdues Writing Lab: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html
I will be looking at structure and organization of your paper, how the references are used to support your arguments, how you examine developmental issues, and how you incorporate multiple perspectives on your topic that vary by age, gender, culture, or history.
In your paper, be sure to address at least 5 of the following questions:
1.    How does long-lasting parental conflict affect a family?
2.    Discuss how bad marriages can influence children and other relatives over time.
3.    Is it useful for parents to stay married “for the children’s sake”?
4.    How will parental conflicts affect the way their children act as parents later?
5.    What are the reactions of children to divorce and how do those reactions change as a function of age, socioeconomic status, and gender?
6.    What are the positive and negative features of single parent homes?
7.    What are the rights of children?
8.    How old should children be before they can choose or determine which household should be become their home? At what age do parental and child rights change?
9.    How do finances, gender, race, age, geography, and extended family support influence the success of single-family homes? What are the consequences for the child’s later adult relationships and marriage?
PART TWO (minimum 1 page)
The final part of the project is to use one page to list a variety of resources to help families with conflict and divorce. This is an annotated bibliography. Include the academic articles you found as well as other resources for the family. Here is an example of an annotated bibliography:
Baig, E. C. (2019, Jul 24). Divorce is hard. These 7 apps can make coordinating and communicating with your ex easier. https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/07/24/7-divorce-apps-help-navigate-life-with-your-ex/1748032001/
This practical article provides an overview of seven different phone apps designed to help divorcing or divorced parents manage family life. The apps reviewed include OurFamilyWizard, coParenter, AppClose, SupportPay, TalkingParents, Mend, and Divorceify. Each application offers different ways of maintaining communication with direct arguments and helps parents resolve differences. Many judges and parenting coordinators support the use of apps such as these mentioned.
McHale, J. P., & Carter, D. K. (2019). Through the eyes of the child: An advanced parenting coordination intervention for high conflict post-divorce families. The UB Journal of Psychology, 49(3), 156163. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Debra_Carter2/publication/338865389_Through_the_Eyes_of_the_Child/links/5e306343458515072d6a9aa7/Through-the-Eyes-of-the-Child.pdf
This article provides a description and outline of an intervention used with high conflict parents offering ways to find unity to improve the family environment for the child or children. It includes an overview of six sessions and uses a parenting coordinator to teach parents how to work with one another.
The purpose of this assignment is to display your critical thinking about an issue in child psychology.

Figure 1: Grading Rubric for Alternative Final Project
 
Does not meet expectations
0 points

Meets expectations
10 points

Exceeds expectations
25 points

Overview
 
Did not provide a clear overview of the topic of conflict and divorce.

Provided an overview but it was unclear.

Provided a clear overview on the topic of conflict and divorce.

Evidence & Support     Did not use at academic sources to support research or did not provide parenting resources in annotated bibliography.      Did not use the minimum 6 academic resources to support research or did not provide a minimum of 3 parenting resources in annotated bibliography.    Clearly provided a minimum of 6 academic resources to support research and provided a minimum of 3 parenting resources.
Mechanics & Quality   
6 or more errors. Not collegiate quality work.
   
No more than 6 errors. Average collegiate work.
   
No errors. Above average collegiate quality work.

APA 7 formatting    Did not follow APA 7 formatting for paper.    Followed APA 7 formatting but with mistakes.   
Followed APA 7 formatting with virtually no mistakes.