Extended Abstract

Introduction: Social problems have always existed throughout the history of human social life. Although entering the modern age has solved or reduced a number of older social problems, modernity itself has generated a large number of social problems, so that today we see the diversity, multiplicity, and increasing growth of social problems. As official and unofficial statistics show, the current state of social harm in the country is worrying. Reducing and solving social problems has always been one of the most important tasks and concerns of governments, but the experiences of global development and the failure of past government models in solving social problems Indicates that a purely governmental approach to achieving sustainable development and solving social problems is not very effective, and instead citizens themselves should seek to solve existing problems in the form of non-governmental organizations. Voluntary and non-governmental organizations are social organizations that mediate between individuals and society. The increase in the number and impact of these organizations in the present century is significant. These organizations can be considered as one of the best solutions and key factors in solving and reducing social problems. The purpose of this study is to conduct a meta-analysis of the research conducted on the role of non-governmental organizations in solving social problems.

Method: The statistical population of the study is all articles and dissertations done in Iran in this field in during the years 1991-2019. Through research in databases, 104 researches were extracted and general information about them was provided and in the next step to calculate the Effect size only those research studies were selected that had been done quantitatively using survey questionnaires, the number of which is a total of 23 research papers (academic articles) and dissertations.

Findings: Findings showed that 29.8% of the research was done quantitatively, and 70.2% was conducted qualitatively. Therefore, we are faced with the dominance of qualitative method in research in this field. Of the total research conducted in the field of the role of non-governmental organizations in solving social problems, 56.7% are articles and 43.2% are dissertations. Findings show that 26.9% of research has been done in the field of social sciences, 38.4% in the field of law, 10.5% in the field of political science, 7.6% in the field of geography, and 16.3% in other fields. Therefore, most research has been done in the fields of law and social sciences. According to the findings, 61% of the articles were scientific-research studies, 18.6% were promotional scientific studies, and 20.3% were conference papers and other types of articles. The findings showed, environmental variables, women’s empowerment, street children, etc. crime prevention, urban and rural development, security and addiction have been among the most frequent variables in research in this field. The results of “effect size” statistics indicate that the highest effect size is related to the variables of crime prevention with a coefficient of 74%, then the variables of addiction, empowerment of women and children, and the environment respectively with coefficients of 45%, 42%, 41%.

Degree of Freedom	Heterogeneity Test	Random Effects Confidence Distance	Distance Fixed Effects	Random Composite Effects	Fixed combination effects	The dependent variables
1	0/22	(0/22-)-1/17	0/34-0/55	0/45	0/45	Addiction
4	6/611	2/97-(-1/53)	0/67-0/79	0/72	0/74	Crime Prevention
5	0/116	0/7-0/14	0/37-0/47	0/42	0/42	the environment
5	0/185	0/7-0/001	0/35-0/47	0/35	0/41	Empowerment of women, children
3	0/007	0/39-0/16	0/20-0/34	0/28	0/28	Urban and rural development
1	0/016	0/38-(-0/02)	0/07-0/25	0/18	0/16	Security

Discussion: By reviewing and analyzing the findings of the research under study, some of the criticisms in previous research studies were as follows.
One of the issues that was observed in most of the research studies was that although the subject of the research was to measure the relationship or the impact of non-governmental organizations on solving various social problems, but in practice no measurement was done and no real data was provided. And the data presented were abstract data in such a way that the researcher did not measure the real impact of organizations in problem solving, but referred to experts and relevant people and asked them about the role and effects of NGOs in solving social problems. For example, in a study entitled “The Role of Public Institutions’ Participation in Social Crime Prevention” (2016), no real data were provided on measuring the performance of NGOS. And the research data were abstract and arose from the personal views of employees and social, judicial and disciplinary experts of the police and managers and employees of NGOs
One of the important features of a research study, especially in quantitative research, is a clear and operational definition of variables and how to measure them in research. Unfortunately, in some studies, it was found that the researcher did not specify what his definition of research variables was and with what criteria and items he measured them. For example, in a study entitled “The Impact of NGOS Activities on Crime Prevention of Women Heads of Households” (2010), there appeared to be a similar objection. Independent variable indices were also distinguishable only by hypotheses, and no explanation was given as to what components and items these indices were measured with.
Prolonging and presenting topics that have little to do with the subject of research is one of the weaknesses of many studies, and this issue was especially evident in the research literature.
One of the problems of research is that the title of the research is not clear and also does not respond accurately to the hypotheses and objectives of the research. For example, in the study “Study of Social Capital with Emphasis on the Role of Non-Governmental Organizations in the Prevention of Addiction” (2011), as can be seen, the title of the research does not correctly specify the subject of the research. And the place of cause and effect of the variables in the title was not clear. In addition, the aims of the study state, “This study seeks to examine the extent to which  NGOs  can be effective in preventing addiction by emphasizing social capital.” On the other hand, the research sample only includes addicts in medical centers, and the question arises that when there are no non-addicted people in the sample, how can it be said that these centers have affected the prevention of addiction through their impact on increasing social capital? Of course, the research included good findings, but there was not much agreement between the research findings and the title and purpose of the research.
Finally, in a general conclusion, it can be acknowledged that in this study, although according to the requirements of quantitative meta-analysis method, the effect size was measured, but in the opinion of the researchers, most of the studies suffered from major methodological problems and appropriate statistical treatment, like not choosing the appropriate statistical population, etc. so we cannot rely much on estimates of the size of the relationship, therefore the size of the effects estimated in the present study may not be very accurate.
Ethical considerations
Authors’ contributions
All authors contributed in producing of the research.
Funding
The present study did not have any sponsors.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
Following the ethics of research
In this article, all rights relating to references are cited and resources are carefully listed.