This recent piece in USNews describes the results of a poll about how young parents feel about their kids' use of smartphones and tablets.
Let's use this story to practice what you are learning about surveys and polls.
Here's one excerpt from the journalist's story.
Surveying more than 2,300 parents of children up to age 8, researchers from Northwestern University found that the vast majority -- 78 percent -- report that their children's media use is not a source of family conflict, and 59 percent said they aren't concerned their kids will become addicted to new media.
a. Will this sample of 2300 parents be able to generalize to American parents overall? What do you need to know? (and, what kind of validity are we asking about here?)
b. Based on the report above, what kind of question do you think the researchers asked--a forced choice question? An open ended one?
Here's another excerpt:
"We asked parents what their challenges were as the parents of young children . . . and sometimes media was never mentioned," said study author Ellen Wartella, director of Northwestern's Center on Media and Human Development. "Parents of children this age are concerned about their health, safety, nutrition and exercise, and media concerns are much lower down the list. That was a surprise."
c. Based on this information, do you think the "challenges" question was closed ended? open ended? Do you think they used a construct valid way to ask this kind of question?
Finally, here's one more part of the story:
The notion that parents are apt to shush their kids by handing them a smartphone or tablet also appears to be false, according to results. To keep their children quietly occupied, moms and dads said they were more apt to turn to toys or activities (88 percent), books (79 percent) or TV (78 percent). Of parents with smartphones or iPads, only 37 percent reported being somewhat or very likely to turn to those devices.
A reader of this news article submitted the following comment:
Parents never tell the truth in situations like this. Either they hate to admit that they shut little junior up by putting him in front of a phone, or they don't even realize how much they do it.
Look around you in restaurants and just watch how many parents with small children let them sit there playing with mom's phone or a Nintendo DS.
d. Which validity is the reader criticizing? What do you think of the reader's comment?
Suggested answers:
a. 2300 is probably plenty--as long as it is a sample that was obtained via some probability sampling method (such as random sampling or cluster sampling), 2300 is an adequate sample size. Remember--when it comes to external validity, it's not how many are in your sample, it's how you got it.
b.We can't be sure without checking, but I suspect this was a closed ended question, something like, "is your child's media use a source of family conflict?" or "to what extent is your child's media use a source of family conflict?"
c. In this case, it seems clear that the question was open-ended, such as, "what are your challenges as a parent?"or, "Tell us about some challenges you face as a parent. If you are interested in measuring what parents think about first when it comes to parenting challengies, an open-ended question might be the best. If you asked them, "is media use your biggest challenge?" you might get more parents to say "yes" than if you simply ask them, "what are your biggest challenges?"
d. This reader is criticing the study's construct validity. While it is probably very easy and efficient to ask parents to self-report their ways of calming their kids, the reader has a good point, in my opinion. Parents probably do not want to admit that they quiet their children with a smartphone or tablet. A better way to find out what parents do to keep kids quiet is by visiting a few restaurants and observing what children are doing. Can you design a study that would do this? How can you be sure your study has good external and construct validity?
Comments