Introduction
The original survey for this study was sent out last semester where we as a class, collected data from Family Fun Time Activities, with my group getting assigned the activity “Finger Friends”. With the presented data, it had to be duplicated to better accommodate our means of research. In the study, the research question was “Would parents with a higher annual income be more engaged with their children during the activities?” The dependent variable (v6) throughout the study was parent engagement. This was measured on a 0-10 scale with 0 being not involved and 10 being engaged a great amount throughout the activities. The independent variable (v36) throughout the study was the family’s household income. This was measured using a range of incomes such as: “less than $10,000”, “$10,000-$30,999”, “$31,000-$50,999”, “$51,000-$70,999”, “$71,000-$90,999”, and “$91,000 or more”. The purpose of this section of the study is to analyze the data measured through three different inferential statistical tests being an Independent Sample T-test, an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), and a Chi-Squared test.
Independent Sample T-test
Table 1.
Independent samples t-test of parent involvement by income.
| Mean Family Income | t | df | |
| Low Income | 6.75 | -0.20 | 69.54 |
| Everyone else | 6.90 |
Note. p<.05*, p<.01**, p<.001***
The mean parent involvement score for Low Income families was 6.75 out of 10 and the mean parent involvement score for everyone else was 6.90 out of 10. The t-test value was -0.20 and it is not significant. Therefore, the mean parent involvement is not significant between the two income categories. For this Independent Sample T-test, I had to recode the independent variable from the original three categories of “Low Income,” “Middle Income,” and “Higher Income” into two categories being “Low Income” and “Everyone Else”. Following the findings of the Independent Sample T-test, all the other tests include the originally recoded income response categories of “Low Income,” “Middle Income,” and “Higher Income”.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
Table 2.
Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) of child engagement by household income.
| Household Income | Mean Engagement | F-value |
| Low Income | 6.75 | 0.012** |
| Middle Income | 8.67 | |
| Higher Income | 6.00 |
Note: p<.05*, p<.01**, p<.001***
The dependent variable for this ANOVA was child engagement. This was asked on a 0-10 scale. The independent variable for this ANOVA was household income. Respondents were categorized based upon their responses as either “Low Income,” “Middle Income,” or “Higher Income”. The mean engagement for low-income households was 6.74 out of 10. The mean engagement for middle income households was 8.67 out of 10. The mean engagement for higher income households was 6.00 out of 10. According to the ANOVA results (F=0.012) there is a significant difference between these means at the .01 level**. Therefore, household income directly influences child engagement.
Chi-Squared Test
Table 3.
Chi-squared of parent engagement by income.
| Engagement | Low Income | Middle Income | High Income | Total |
| Not Engaged | 4 | 0 | 4 | 8 |
| Engaged | 28 | 12 | 4 | 44 |
| Chi-Square | 9.75** |
Note: p<.05*, p<.01**, p<.001***
The dependent variable for this chi-squared was parent engagement. This was asked through the responses of “Not Engaged” and “Engaged.” The independent variable for this chi-square was family household income. Respondents were placed into categories based on their responses, the categories were “Low Income”, “Middle Income”, and “High Income”. There were 44 total responses for families reporting that they were engaged with their child, while only eight families reported as being not engaged with their child. Four low-income families identified their household as being not engaged, while 28 low income families identified their household as being engaged with their child. There were zero middle income families that identified themselves as being not engaged, while 12 families identified their household as being engaged with their child. Four high income families identified their household as being not engaged, while four high income families also reported their household as being engaged with their child. According to the chi-square (chi square= 9.75) there is significance at the .01 level between family’s household incomes and the rate of parent engagement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, after analyzing the three different test and their statistical outputs, it is clear to see that there is a direct relationship between a parents rate of engagement throughout the activities in correlation to the family’s annual household income. With this being said, the Independent Sample T-test did not produce any significant findings through the two categories of income by engagement. This was the only test included that did not produce any significant findings and was the only test included before the responses of the independent variable, household income, was recoded into the three categories “Low Income,” “Middle Income,” and “Higher Income”. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) produced significance at the .01 level meaning in this test alone, there is a direct relationship between a parent’s rate of engagement and the family’s household income. The ANOVA findings highlighted that the mean engagement of families was higher for Middle Income families. Lastly, the Chi-Squared test also produced a significant finding at the .01 level showing that Lower Income families had higher rates of engagement with their children throughout the Family Fun Time Activities. Although there were limitations to the validity of this study being that the data was duplicated, the findings of the study as a whole show that there is a direct relationship between a family’s household income and how engaged or involved, they are with their children. Throughout the findings of the study, Lower Income and Middle Income families are seen as being more engaged throughout the activities as opposed to the higher income families. This directly implies to the research question being that higher income families are seen as being less engaged with their children throughout the Family Fun Time Activities.