Table 1
Comparison between with Child and Parent’s Relationship with Child
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Independent Samples T- test
Variable Mean T
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Spent 5 hours or less 9.26 -2.69***
Spent 5.1-10+ hours 9.86
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Note. Time spent with the child was recoded from 0-10 into two groups. Group 1 contains all reports of spending 5 hours or less, Group 2 contains all reports of spending 5.1 to 10 hours or more.
P>0.05*, P>0.01**, P>0.001***
An independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the amount of hours parents interact with their children on a typical day and their ratings of their relationships with their children which resulted in a t-score of -2.69. As reported in Table 1, the independent samples t-test found that there is a significant difference between the scores at the p>0.001 level. These results means that we reject the null hypothesis because there is a significant difference in the rating of parent-child relationships based on the amount of hours parents spend interacting with their children on a typical day.
Table 2
ANOVA test for Parents’ Rating of their Relationships with their Children According to Age Groups
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Age groups Mean SD Sum of Squared Mean of Squared F-value
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Less than 20 0 (N/A) 0(N/A) 0(N/A) 0(N/A) 0(N/A)
21-25 9.63 .67 .2193 .2193 .367
26-30 9.79 .58 .2193 .2193 .367
31-35 9.14 1.21 .2193 .2193 .367
36-40 9.75 .50 .2193 .2193 .367
41+ 9.50 .84 .2193 .2193 .367
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Note. There were 0 responses to age group 1 (ages less than 20), therefore the numbers for this group came out to 0. N/A was put to define as “Not Answered”.
P> 0.05*, P> 0.01**, P> 0.001***
Due to the findings in the ANOVA test, there is no significant difference in the rating of parents’ relationships with their children according to the parents’ age groups. This analysis came from the calculated F-values were less than the critical values.
Pearson’s Correlation
The relationship ratings between the parents and children were predicted by the number of hours parents spent with their children on a typical day. Both variables were asked on a 0-10 scale. Findings indicate that there is a weak positive correlation (r=.289) between the hours spent with children on a typical day and the relationship ratings between the parents and children. In other words, when parents spent more time with their children on a typical day, they were more likely to rate their relationship with their children more positively. The researcher does not know if this would be true in a larger population.
The researcher was interested in seeing how parental involvement affected the rating of parent-child relationships. Multiple statistical tests were done to test how various measures of parental involvement such as time spent with children as well as the parents’ age groups in relation to their relationship with their children. These statistical tests include: an independent sample t-test, an ANOVA test, and a Pearson’s Correlation test. The independent sample t-test was conducted to compare the amount of hours parents interact with their children on a typical day and their ratings of their relationships with their children which resulted in a t-score of -2.69. The variable of time spent with the child had to be recoded due to skewed responses. The recoding took all responses in the rating of 5 hours or less into group 1, while responses of 5.1 hours of more were put into group 2.This t-score of -2.69 shows that there is a significant difference at the .001 level, meaning that there is a significant difference in the rating of the parent-child relationship and the amount of time parents spend with their children. The ANOVA test was conducted to test if the age of the parents affected their relationship with their children. There were multiple age groups, however the age group of less than 20 had zero responses and therefore the data for this group was 0 or defined as not answered (N/A). The resulting F-scores of this test for all age groups were .367 which were not significantly different at the .05 level meaning that there is no significant difference in the parents’ age and their rating of their parent-child relationships. And finally, a Pearson’s Correlation test was run on the variables of time spent with the child and the rating of the parent-child relationship. Findings indicate that there is a weak positive correlation (r=.289) between the hours spent with children on a typical day and the relationship ratings between the parents and children. In other words, when parents spent more time with their children on a typical day, they were more likely to rate their relationship with their children more positively. The researcher is not certain if this finding would be the same in the general population. These three statistical tests helped the researcher understand the relationship between parental involvement and its effect on the parent-child relationship. The results of these three tests have shown that there is a positive relationship between an increase in parental involvement and the rating of parent-child relationships, particularly when parents spend more time interacting with their children they are more likely to rate their parent-child relationship more positively.