Survey questions are a valuable tool that provides sociology the ability to make
seemingly abstract social situations true research data. The survey question at hand, “How does
the addition of “family fun activities” outside of school increase “family involvement” among
parents and children?”. Family involvement will be measured by counting interactions where all
members of the family are present and interactive. While family fun activities will only include
activities that all members of the family agree are “fun”.For this study the dependent variable is
family involvement. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was a scale asking.
“How involved the family was throughout the activity?” The answer choices for the item were zero to ten,
zero being not at all and ten a great amount. For the study the independent variable is socioeconomic status.
The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was “What is your annual household
Income?” Using those two questions, I can quantify whether adding fun activities actually increases family
involvement by using the same parameters on families that do not engage in family fun activities.