Foreshadowed question & Meerkats & Barbies

Foreshadowed question: What are the perceptions adolescent girls possess regarding the relationship (or lack thereof) between their single-parent home and their school performance?

The purpose of an ethnographic study is to describe a cultural group. To do this, the research spends several weeks, possibly months or years, immersing herself into the culture to observe and build a trusting relationship with those she is studying. Data is collected through these observations, in addition to interviews and sometimes document review. The data that was gathered is then analyzed, coded by similar themes, and interpreted to report a description of cultural behavior. Because adolescent girls who come from a single-parent homes do not necessarily flock together and identify as a culture (meaning they have a shared pattern of beliefs, normative expectations and behaviors), I do not believe an ethnographic study would be the design of choice for this foreshadowed question.

The purpose of a phenomenological study is to describe an experience through the multiple perspectives of participants. Much like in an ethnographic study, the researcher will build relationships with participants who have lived (or are living) the experience so that she can earn their trust. Data is collected through interviewing participants either in a focus group or individually. Once data is gathered from the participants, it is analyzed and coded into statements, meanings, themes, or other general descriptions.

I cannot think of a more perfect research design for the stated foreshadowed question than an phenomenological study. Living in a single-parent home as an adolescent girl is an experience that is shared with other adolescent girls, but no two girls will have the exact same experience. Through a phenomenological study, the researcher has the ability to find similarities and differences adolescent girls from single-parent homes share in how they perceive their home environment affecting their education and school performance. The multiple realities of the experience of being a female adolescent student in a single-parent can then be reported to describe the essence of the experience from the perspective of each girl.

Two Studies

Study 1: This study aimed to assess if there was a relationship between the parent and child’s genders and the academic achievement of the child. The study design for this research was correlational. All parents in this study are single parents. The researchers’ hypothesis was that children who live with the parent of the same gender will have higher academic achievement than their counterparts.

Participants for this study were randomly selected from the source population of the US Educational Longitudinal Study—ELS:2002. This population reflects all segments of the United States. After filters were used to produce the randomized sample, the participants were 1755 high school sophomores (150 male and 99 female students living with a single father and 706 male and 800 female living with a single mother).

Data was collected through ELS:2002. This study contained a wide array of student academic performance information, specifically looked at in this study were reading and math grades and reading and math teachers’ evaluations of the student behavior.

Reading and math grades were analyzed through test scores reported to the ELS:2002 study. ELS:2002 had teacher’s evaluate students with a questionnaire. The format of the questionnaire was a five-point Likert-type scale. This data was analyzed using Cronbach’s Alpha.

Conclusions included that the hypothesis did not hold to be reliable and there were no academic benefits for adolescents living with same-gender parents. In fact, results indicated that there were advantages of living with the opposite-gender parents for adolescent girls. In the four sample sets (girls living with fathers, girls living with mothers, boys living with fathers, and boys living with mothers), girls living with fathers tended to have the highest academic achievements.

Because the researchers clearly stated a goal to examine correlation between the two variables (parent and child gender and academic achievement of child), I believe they designed their research accordingly, yielding valid results. The independent variable of academic achievement was clearly examined.

Study 2: This purpose of this research was to study the differences in educational aspirations of adolescents being raised in single-parent families (headed by mothers) compared to those who were growing up with two parents. Because of the goal of the study is to compare two different groups with one variable, the research design in comparative.

Participants for this study were randomly selected from the National Youth Science Project population. The selected sample population was 3432 junior high and high school students. 41.2% were males from intact families, 9.1% males from single-parent homes, 39% females from intact families, and 10.7% were females from single-parent families. Only students between the ages of 12-20 were included in the study.

Data was collected through questionnaires completed by the student. The questionnaire contained items assessing general demographics, achievement/school work, attitudes toward and perceptions of education and schooling, parental background, and other general family information. Though the questionnaire was self-administered, members of the research team were available to answer questions.

Data was analyzed through the answers of the questions on the questionnaire using a 1 (less than high school graduation) to 9 (beyond high school graduation) range for educational aspirations; 1 (mostly below D) to 8 (mostly A) range for grades; alpha coefficient for self-perceptions of learning environment; 1 (less that high school graduation) to 9 (beyond the first university degree, master’s or higher) range for parental education; alpha coefficient for perceived family cohesiveness; alpha coefficient for parental school involvement; 1 (never) to 5 (always) range for parent concern for school; 1 (does not care) to 8 (at least a university degree) for perception of parental expectations after high school; coded categorically (intact family and single-parent family) for family structure; and 1 (none) to 5 (all) range for peer-school related influences.

The study concluded that adolescents from single-parent families tended to fare worse than adolescents from intact families on the factors (academic self-schema, perceived family involvement, background, and having academically-oriented peers) that affect educational aspirations that were outline by a previous study. Academic self-schema (the combination of perceived grades, learning experience, and parental educational expectations) explained a majority of the variance of educational aspirations in adolescents from single-parent and intact families.

Because the researchers clearly stated a goal to compare the educational aspirations of adolescents from a single-parent family to those from a two-parent family, I believe they designed their research accordingly, yielding valid results. Throughout the research, the focus stayed on the variable (educational aspirations) and the factors that contributed to the variable that was being compared.

Garg, R., Melanson, S., & Levin, E. (2007). Educational aspirations of male and female adolescents from single-parent and two biological parent families: A comparison of influential factors. Journal Of Youth & Adolescence, 36(8), 1010-1023.

Sang Min, L., & Kushner, J. (2008). Single-parent families: the role of parent's and child's gender on academic achievement. Gender & Education, 20(6), 607-621.

Threats to Internal Validity

The aim of my research study is to assess the self-perceptions adolescent girls have of how their single family homes affect their school performances. Data will be gathered via interviews with interviewers asking a set list of questions. Like any study, there is a risk for the internal validity of the research to be weakened if extraneous and confounding variables impact the dependent variable. To take all precautions to combat this, these threats are being examined in effort to control the extraneous and confounding variables.

Depending on how recent the adolescent female has found herself in a single family home may have an affect on her how she perceives her school performance. If a girl is adjusting to the new and different home environment (whether it be caused by a recent death, divorce, or other happening), she may self-report that the single parent home is having more of an influence on her school performance than if she had completely adapted to the single parent setting. This type of threat would be categorized has history since time is associated with the independent variable.

Although I would do my best as a researcher to ensure adolescents were selected from schools with similar socioeconomic statuses, school contexts (similar school faculty and staff quality and student populations), and geographic settings, selection still poses a threat to the internal validity of the study. I believe that though measures will be taken to minimize the validity of this study, in a real world setting, no two places are the same, so the effect of the selection settings will inevitably skew results.

My assumption is that some of the interviews with participants may be long, and for the early adolescents (12-14 year olds), this time may effect their answers over the course of the interview session. This type of threat is called maturation. In addition, the cross-sectional design of research will evaluate the self-perceptions of all adolescent girls ranging from ages 12-18 year old. Obviously, the older the adolescent, the more socially, emotionally, mentally, and physically she has developed. If not controlled, this will weaken the internal validity of the research.

When evaluating how instrumentation may influence the internal validity, a couple of threats may be involved. First, whenever one is self-reporting, the standard is completely subjective meaning questions are interpreted in the context of the person who is answering them. In addition, the questions that are asked may not allow for the teenager to expound fully on how she perceives her single parent home affecting her school performance. Questions can be limiting to the extent of the self-perception.

To execute high quality research, I plan to have a team of experimenters assisting with the interviews. Though there will be a list of set questions, the manner in which they are asked depends on the interviewer. This effect, called Experimenter effect, even involves some characteristics of the interviewer that cannot be prevented (age, sex, race, physical appearance). Some of the qualities of the interviewer that can be prevented (behavior, conduct) can be taught during a training session with all interviewers.

As an ethical research practitioner, I will not force a girl to be in the study if she is not a willing participant. I understand that the topic of home life can be a sensitive and vulnerable topic for some adolescent girls to speak about, so the ones who participate may be ones who feel their performance in school is less affected by their single parent living situations. Furthermore, even if some girls who are interviewed do perceive their single parent family having an effect on their school performance, particularly a negative effect, they may not be likely to share this information in fear of shame and embarrassment. I think this proves that a trusting relationship must be built between interviewer and participant to ensure accurate information is gathered.