By Saul McLeod, published April 24, 2020
An APA abstract is a brief, comprehensive summary of the contents of an article. An APA abstract summarizes, usually in one paragraph of between 150–250 words, the major aspects of a research paper or dissertation in a prescribed sequence that includes:
The purpose of the abstract is to give the reader a quick overview of the essential information before reading the entire article.
Place the abstract on a separate page, after the title page but before the introduction section.
Note: This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019.
An APA abstract must be formatted as follows:
Include the running head aligned to the left at the top of the page (professional papers only) and page number. Note, student papers do not require a running head.
On the first line, center the heading “Abstract” and bold (do not underlined or italicize).
Do not indent the single abstract paragraph (which begins one line below the section title).
Double-space the text.
Use Times New Roman font in 12 pt.
Set one-inch (or 2.54 cm) margins.
If you include a “keywords” section at the end of the abstract, indent the first line and italicize the word “Keywords” while leaving the keywords themselves without any formatting.
Although the abstract will appear as the very first part of your paper, it’s a good practice to write your abstract after you’ve drafted your full paper, so that you know what you’re summarizing.
[*NOTE: DO NOT separate the components of the abstract – it should be written as a single paragraph. This section is separated to illustrate the abstract’s structure.]
One or two sentences describing the overall purpose of the study and the research problem(s) you investigated. You are basically justifying why this study was conducted.
Women who are diagnosed with breast cancer can experience an array of psychosocial difficulties; however, social support, particularly from a spouse, has been shown to have a protective function during this time. This study examined the ways in which a woman’s daily mood, pain, and fatigue, and her spouse’s marital satisfaction predict the woman’s report of partner support in the context of breast cancer.
Information regarding the participants (number, and population). One or two sentences outlining the method, explaining what was done and how.
Pretest data from a larger intervention study and multilevel modeling were used to examine the effects of women’s daily mood, pain, and fatigue and average levels of mood, pain, and fatigue on women’s report of social support received from her partner, as well as how the effects of mood interacted with partners’ marital satisfaction.
One or two sentences indicating the main findings or trends found as a result of your analysis.
Results show that on days in which women reported higher levels of negative or positive mood, as well as on days they reported more pain and fatigue, they reported receiving more support. Women who, on average, reported higher levels of positive mood tended to report receiving more support than those who, on average, reported lower positive mood. However, average levels of negative mood were not associated with support. Higher average levels of fatigue but not pain were associated with higher support. Finally, women whose husbands reported higher levels of marital satisfaction reported receiving more partner support, but husbands’ marital satisfaction did not moderate the effect of women’s mood on support.
A brief summary of your conclusions and implications of the results, described in the present tense. Explain to the reader what the results mean and why the study is important.
Implications of these findings are discussed relative to assisting couples during this difficult time in their lives.
Aiken, L. H., Clarke, S. P., Sloane, D. M., Sochalski, J. A., Busse, R., Clarke, H., ... & Shamian, J. (2001). Nurses’ reports on hospital care in five countries. Health affairs, 20(3), 43-53.
Boeding, S. E., Pukay-Martin, N. D., Baucom, D. H., Porter, L. S., Kirby, J. S., Gremore, T. M., & Keefe, F. J. (2014). Couples and breast cancer: Women’s mood and partners’ marital satisfaction predicting support perception. Journal of Family Psychology, 28(5), 675.
Oldfield, J., Humphrey, N., & Hebron, J. (2017). Risk factors in the development of behavior difficulties among students with special educational needs and disabilities: A multilevel analysis. British journal of educational psychology, 87(2), 146-169.
McLeod, S. A. (2020, April 24). How to write an abstract for a scientific paper. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/abstract.html
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