When researching in the Central Virginia area through Headstart programs, I was interested in knowing whether or not pre-planned activities helped parents spend more time with their children. Through different methods of evaluating a survey that was sent out to each family that completed the pre-planned activities, it was determined that the pre-planned activities had little to no effect on how much time parents were able to spend with their child. Parents were able to find time to spend with their child on the activities provided, but did not necessarily have to help or interact with the child to complete the activity. Through an Independent Samples T-Test, I wanted to see how the noodle necklace helped get parents involved with their children.
Table 1
Independent Samples t-Test Results for Help with Activity
| Variable Mean t-statistic
|
|
Whole Family 7.62 1.651 |
| Parent Help Only 6.50 |
Note: *p<0.5 **p<0.01 ***p<.001
Parents were asked whether or not other family members had to help their child complete the noodle necklace activity. According to the graph above, parent only help compared to getting the whole family involved was lower. Other members of the family were also involved in completing the activity with the participation of the parents. This chart also shows how more than just parents were able to spend time with each other because of the pre-planned activity.
When running an ANOVA test, I wanted to see how effective the stress ball activity was in helping family members express and discuss different emotions.
Table 2:
ANOVA of How Effective the Activity was in Discussing Family Emotions based on How Long
it Took to Complete the Activity
|
Mean |
Standard Deviation |
Sum of Squares |
Mean of Squares |
F-Value |
|
| 0 | 3.0 | 1.604 | 1.6037 | .255 | |
| 5 | 2.5 | 2.12 | |||
| 6 | 2.5 | 1.30 | |||
| 7 | 2.0 | 1.41 | |||
| 8 | 2.67 | 1.36 | |||
| 9
10 |
2.8
3.14 |
.837
1.01 |
p<.05*, p<.01**, p<.001***
This table shows that family members who participated in the game found that there was no significant difference in how families were able to discuss their emotions with each other based on the activity itself. The p-value was .25. This is greater than .05, which shows that the activity did not help families talk about their emotions.
With the last test, I did a Pearson’s Correlation to determine if the Noodle Necklace activity helped improve overall family relationships. According to the chart, parents who ranked having less time with their child increased 0.13 units for every increase of how the necklace imprived family relations. With a p=value of 0.39, the test showed that there was no significant value.
Table 3
Independent Samples t-Test Results for Help with Activity
| Estimate Std. Error t-value Pr(>ltl)
|
|
(Intercept) 7.5930 7.696 2.87e-09*** |
| V36 0.1360 0.863 0.394 |
This chart shows that there is no relationship between improved family relations and how much time they are able to spend with their child.
Overall, according to the parent’s responses, the tests showed that there are no major differences in how much time parents spent with their child prior to the pre-planned activities and after participating with the activities. These results come from questions that were used to survey parents on their thoughts about how they felt the pre-planned activities helped with getting them involved with their children’s academic work.