What other samples could they have used? Discuss the strengths and weaknesses
Why do you think their sample only included first-born children living with both parents? Would you expect the results to generalize to other children?
The participants were somewhat appropriate, but new-born children are not the only children that go to a day care so i think that they should also use children that were born second, third, and so on. It is very hard, if not impossible, to find the same participants because all children differ.
1)The children's ages should have varied because of the variety society has in today's daycares.
You could use a sample of first borns, second, third etc. but use matching to control. You can match afterwards. Attempting to make groups balanced. You would take your sample including all children regardless of first born etc. do the study. And match for this variable. This would make the results better for generalization to the population. You would be able to detect if this had any influence on the questions being studied.
It was important to control for things like parenting and siblings. If a child already spent a lot of time with, for example, a grand-mother before going to day-care, this would very much affect his childs experience in day-care. It is the same with sibling. If a child had already learnt to interact with an older sibling or if the child went to the day-care with the sibling, the results may turn out differently.
The participants of the study are not very appropiate because the variation of the subjects is limited. The result of focusing on just 1 and 2 year old children may lead to confounding. What happens if the subject has siblings and lives in a single home environment and are 2 and a half years old? Questions like these have to be answered and can't be done by just limiting to the study to a direct few.
They could have used different ages of children, and not just first born-children, but I think this is a strength, in that it simplifies the experiment. It also acts as a control for confounding variables. Using children that wern't just first borns, one would have to compare between birth status, and life experiences that may have caused confounds. The fact that they only used children living with both parents was also a control, as any other situation can have profound individual effects on a child. Older children entering daycare at a later age could be used, but developments wouldn't have been as accurate. (starting early in life rules out any unforseen problems of starting later.
I think generalation should stay within a community. Different communities and cultures have different interaction with their children. For example, a study conducted for the cities in Alberta could have much different result than maybe say a native community of the north. Problem and solutions could be totally unrelated. A general sample could lead to conducting specific samples, but not to a specific answer.
of different sampling methods that could have been used.
By Digdon on Wednesday, March 18, 1998 - 04:45 pm:
By NitkowskiM on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 02:38 pm:
By Mark Wilson on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 02:48 pm:
Also, the research could had represent the sample from other countriens ranging from first world to third world countries. These two aspects would had made the research more representative of the
population in different countries with different economies and different age groups.
By Cindy on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 02:51 pm:
By Garcia.m on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 02:56 pm:
The experiment could include other children but it would have to be sure to control for such differences in the subjects. Perhaps matching could be used.
By Kristina Polziehn on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 02:57 pm:
By Alanna on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 03:03 pm:
By Heath on Thursday, March 26, 1998 - 03:08 pm:
First born childern were used to avoid extraneous variablies caused by a difference in birth order. Later born childern lack the advantage of having the parent to themselves when they were born. This study can only generalize to first born childern, but can enfluence reseach to include all childern.