Survey Design

To form good research questions the items of the questions must be clear. The question must be one question and avoid double-barreled questions. To get good results on a survey the respondents must be the competent answer as well as the respondents must be willing to answer. The questions also need to be relevant to answer the research question you are trying to find. In a survey, the shorter items are best to avoid negative items as well as to avoid biased items and terms. To format your questions it is best to keep them uncluttered to keep one question per line and keep the format consistent. Some questions that work well are Contingency questions, which are questions that get answered if you answered another question. Some ways to make a survey more presentable is to start with easy questions, such as close-ended questions, then ask the tougher ones, and not randomize the order. Make sure to put the demographic questions at the end of your survey. My research question is does the education level of the parental guardian/guardians affect parent involvement?

The research question I’m choosing for my dependent variable is “On a scale from 0 to 10 how much did you help your child with the activity?” with 0 did not help and 10 did the activity for them/with them.

The research question I’m choosing for my independent variable is the education level of the parental guardian so the question I’m using is “What is the highest level of education anyone in your household has completed?”, and then list the answers such as less than high school, high school/GED, some college, college degree, more than a bachelor’s degree.

These are good questions. They ask one question in the question and clear and don’t have any double-barrel questions. They are straightforward questions and are easy to answer.