People in Sweden are very dedicated to raising their children. They also have lots and lots of social supports for child care, family needs, etc. For example, even fathers get automatic paternal time off when there is a new child. Day care is also commonly used, even if mothers aren't working, because it is an important developmental experience. So, I wonder if the sample is approproiate - if we want to generalize to North American day care.
Their sample only included first-born children to reduce any confounding variables. Results cannot be generalized to other children, all children are different and do not react the same situations.
Restricting the subjects to first-born children with two parents controls for confounds that may resullt from the effects of siblings or single-parent families. However, the results of daycare may not generalize to other children who, because of the possible lessening of attention from their parents, may not benefit as much from a positive daycare experience.
Others samples could have included children of single parents, children with older siblings, or children of various ethnic or socio economic backgrounds.
Because they did not randomly assign the children to groups , their results cannot be generalized to all children, the fact they only took children living with two parents also adds
2) There could have been a number of different subjects used. However, these subjects may have varying subject variables that may influence or confound results. The samples, were chosen in a voluntary format. Because Sweden is an extremely socialist society that supports all members of society and provides major funding to day-care instiutions, individuals are more prone to place infants in day-care institutions. However, such a situation does not generalize across all cultures, such as Canada and the U.S.
2) There could have been a number of different subjects used. However, these subjects may have varying subject variables that may influence or confound results. The samples, were chosen in a voluntary format. Because Sweden is an extremely socialist society that supports all members of society and provides major funding to day-care instiutions, individuals are more prone to place infants in day-care institutions. However, such a situation does not generalize across all cultures, such as Canada and the U.S.
2) There could have been a number of different subjects used. However, these subjects may have varying subject variables that may influence or confound results. The samples, were chosen in a voluntary format. Because Sweden is an extremely socialist society that supports all members of society and provides major funding to day-care instiutions, individuals are more prone to place infants in day-care institutions. However, such a situation does not generalize across all cultures, such as Canada and the U.S.
First born children have no siblings to learn from, therefore, they would be less influenced by outside sources other than the day care setting they were introduced to. Using first born children from two parent families is a way to operationally define the type of child to be used. In a society such as North America where the two parent family is becoming less common, a study such as this would be less practical since it doesn't represent a large( and increasing) portion of the population.
The participants used first born children from two parent families to help to control for extraneous variables. There are so many factors that can effect the experiment, the researchers need to control as many as possible. You could generalize the results to other children, the internal validity was just higher with the choice to use first born children to two parent families.
They could of sampled children from different parts of the world [ex. China,Austrialia ,Canada etc.] because in different places they have different daycare systems and family values.Any time we base our studies with specific samples ,that data is more exact but it restricts us to making interpretations on only that certain population.They used families with first-born children to limit the confounds .The results would not really generalize to other children because birth order could effect results.
By Plamondonj on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:30 pm:
By Brandi G. on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:32 pm:
By Keri on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:44 pm:
Another sample would be a sample that included single parent families and families with more than one child. This could weaken the study by including too many factors to consider in the results but it would make the study less biased towards single parent families.
I think the sample only included first-born children living with both parents to narrow down the differences in the child's home enviroment. I would not expect these results to generalize.
By DonnaR on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:50 pm:
The results of this study probably would not generalize very well because of the sample it is limited to. There are many families with only one parent, or with several children. These factors may influence the development of cognitive abilities due to an increased or decreased amount of individual attention that a child receives. As well, laws governing daycare may differ from country to country, or even province to province, which would affect the quality of care received by the child.
By Filgate C. on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:51 pm:
a question of external validity, (generalizing to any child's cognitive abilities), and many families do have siblings similar in age, so limiting the study to first borns,or have no sibling under 12yrs, or having to be a single child, leaves out important possible factors that an additional sibling may have on cognitive abilities.
By Darren Behr on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:57 pm:
By Darren Behr on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:57 pm:
By Darren Behr on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 02:58 pm:
By Lori on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:02 pm:
By Lynne on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:06 pm:
By Dupuis on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 - 03:28 pm: