Survey Research

To create a good survey, you need three important aspects which are to make it: Descriptive, Exploratory, and Explanatory. The best practices for survey research are to have a good initial research topic, make an initial research question that has an achievable goal, and create survey questions that are specific and only focus on one aspect of the research at a time. It is also important to make sure that we simplify each of these questions enough and make them appropriate to the survey to make sure that the respondents are willing to answer. An example of this would be making sure not to include a question that could possibly invoke bias from the respondent. Making a good survey means that you must also add open and close ended questions. Open-ended questions are used so that the respondent can add their own answers. Close-ended questions are used to obtain specific information such as adding 0-10 scale. Two more things to consider when asking questions are: you must make them clear, and you must avoid double-barreled questions.  The research question at hand for this survey is “How does Family Fun Time Activities affect Family Involvement?”, and specifically, I am interested in how education affects family involvement.  A question that I will use to operationalize my independent variable is “What is the highest level of education anyone in your household has completed?”.  A question that I will use to operationalize my dependent variable is “How Involved Was Your Family During These Activities?”.  The first question is a well written one because it is specific and directed at one topic.  The second question is well written because it is a close-ended question that can be answered using a 0-10 scale that can tell us how much each family was involved.