Survey Question Assignment
Surveys are used to collect data from respondents for descriptive, explanatory, or exploratory research purposes. Respondents’ complete questionnaires for researchers to gather generalized information about a topic, a method commonly used in the social sciences. The first step in developing a survey is asking for consent from participants. When creating a survey, it is important to format each question consistently and keep the layout uncluttered by using only one question per line and keeping items shorter. To gather the most amount of information, open-ended (respondents provide their own responses) and close-ended questions (respondents select an answer from a list) should both be included. Guidelines for creating effective questions include making sure items are clear and relevant, to avoid confusion. Researchers should avoid negative items (such as using the word “not” in the question) and biased items and terms. Also, respondents must be both competent and willing to answer the questions (Babbie, 2014).
The research question proved to us by our professor was broadly stated: “How do parents of three–five-year-olds navigate the perceived benefits and risks of their children’s technology use, and how do their feelings about this influence their household rules and media habits?” To narrow down this question to my specific independent and dependent variables, my research question states, “How does the income level of parents of three–five-year-old children influence the rules they set for their children’s technology use?”
My dependent variable is parental rules on children’s screen use. The item from the questionnaire that was used to operationalize this was, “I often engage with my children when they are using devices”. Answer choices for this item were a scale of zero to ten, zero represents “not at all” and ten represents “a great amount”. My independent variable is parental income level. To measure this independent variable, I am using the survey question “What is the highest level of education you have completed?” The attributes to this question are “Some high school or less”; “High school diploma or GED”; “Some college, but no degree”; “Associate’s or technical degree”; “Bachelor’s degree”; “Graduate or professional degree (MA, MS, MBA, PhD, JD, MD, DDS, etc.)”; and “Prefer not to say.”
This survey is well written because it follows the guidelines for a high-quality questionnaire. First, the survey requires participant consent before being able to read or respond to any of the questions. The questions are clear, relevant, appropriate for the target population, and the responses are inclusive to all respondents, all with a consistent format. They do not include bias, double-barreled wording, and negative phrasing. By following these guidelines, the responses collected from this survey should be valid and reliable views of the respondents.
References
Babbie, E. R. (2014). The Basics of Social Research. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.