Quantitative Analysis
Quantitative analysis of the returned surveys is based on the close-ended questions. For this study the dependent variable is parent involvement. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was “How much did your family enjoy this activity”. The answer choices for this item were a scale 0-10; 0 = not at all and 10 = a great amount. The independent variable for this study is demographic information. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was the relationship to the child/children who attend Head Start. The answer choices for this question were mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, grandparent, guardian and other. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze these variables.
For the quantitative findings, the following variables were examined using descriptive statistics.The independent variable being “What is your relationship to your child/children who attend Head Start?” the answer choices were: Mother, Father, Step-mom, Step-dad, Grandparent, Guardian, or Other.The overall meaning of this data would be to simply identify who completed the activity with the child.The data indicated that eleven respondents that completed the survey with their child were their mothers.
The independent variable is “What is your relationship to your child/children who attend Head Start ?” and from the data collected the majority of the respondents were mothers and only one other respondent circled the option other for being the child’s aunt.
The quantitative findings, the following variables were examined using descriptive statistics.The dependent variable being “How much did your family enjoy this activity?” The respondents had to answer thai question with a zero to ten scale with zero being not at all, and ten being a great amount. One respondent rated their enjoyment at a six, one respondent rated their enjoyment at a seven and eight respondents rated their enjoyment at a ten.The overall meaning of the data is to show the amount of enjoyment that the repondants plus their child had during activity four. The positive correlation from both independent and dependent variables is “How can parent/family encouragement stimulate children’s involvement” through the activities provided.
The dependent variable is “How much did your family enjoy this activity?” shows that eight respondents had and enjoyment rate placed on ten, repondant seven enjoyment rate was a six and repondant eight enjoyment rate was a seven.
The bivariable analysis from both independent and dependent variables correlate towards each other based off parent involvement.The chart below shows that out of all the participants their relationship choice to the child/children was mother and the rate of how enjoyable the activity was, got to a 9,3.
The table above shows that the overall rate of enjoyment for this activity was a 9.3, according with the mothers that completed the activity with their child/children.
Qualitative Analysis
Qualitative analysis of the returned surveys is based on the open-ended questions. The open-ended questions on the survey were “what did your family enjoy most about these activities”, “what recommendations would you suggest to make these activities better”, and “what are your favorite ways to spend time with your child?”. To answer the research question, how can parent/family encouragement stimulate children’s involvement, inductive open coding was used to determine reoccurring themes in the participant’s responses.
In social research research class we have been working on data and methods for a survey focused on five fun activities. The activities included dino buddie, painted leaf pressings, breaded clothespin butterfly, fall themed scavenger hunt and astronaut pudding. The goal was to see how much parent involvement from each of these activities would show the relationship between parents and their children on how much time they spent together during all activities and would result in some quality time between child and parent. Once we got the results back, eleven respondents out of fifty-one participants completed the survey, only a small portion from what we were expecting.The overall themes that I instantly thought of were fun, family engagement and happiness.
Starting off with the theme fun, it appeared twice out of the eleven surveys we got back. This information would also be of great used for us researchers Because it showed how effective the activities were when it came to being fun for both the parent and the child. For example respondent number four said “It brought a lot of fun and laughter for our family, my kids were able to learn a lot”.We also had responded numbered ten state “they had a lot of fun”.With this results we can conclude that the activities fulfilled their purpose of being fun and giving the families a fun activity to complete together.
Following the theme fun now we’re going to focus on the family engagement theme. This theme appeared nine times out of the eleven surveys.Having this feedback is a successful outcome for our survey because knowing that overall the families got together and spent time to complete this activity.Having so many parents report back saying they had such a good time while doing the activities and that it also helped their family to just have something to do together. Respondent number one said “We did a each activity at least twice. I loved the organization plus how detailed the instructions were and the materials being included”.Respondent number two stated “Spending time together and learning things”.Responding number nine said “The interaction with our child and the fact that the rest of the family was interested in participating as well”.After all the positive feedback we can only conclude that the purpose of the activities were achieved.
The third theme being happiness was brought up by three different respondents, having happiness as one of the themes would also show one of the main purposes of the Head Start activities by being able to provide activities that would result in with the family having a good time together.Responding number three said “the family time we spent together. So happy doing activities”. Responded number five stated “We love the arts and crafts for the scavenger hunt activity”..And responded numbers six said “being together and helping each other”.The results we can come to after collecting this information is that this activities did provide the families some amount of happiness.