Understanding Human Development and Families

Preface

‘An Introduction to Human Development and Families’ is a book that clearly explains the concepts related to the subject matter of human development. The book gives a significant focus on the necessity and benefits of conducting research works on families and children. It analyses the ethics of research on families and children; the causal inference in research on families and children; searching and reading the literature of the subject matter as well as the required methods that are suitable for the measurement of collected data. This book also provides an all-inclusive view of the Politics of Research on Families and Children, the evaluation of Programs in Human Development and Family Science; Advanced Topics in Family Data Analysis, and the analysis of collected data on children, adolescents, older adults in households or families. Methods for analyzing the quantitative data through survey methods, experiments are interpreted and explained in the book that can bring considerable attention to the development of human beings as well as families. The book is an accessible and appropriate piece of work for the students in the behavioral and social sciences, including the fields of social welfare, sociology, nursing, human services, education, psychology, human development and family studies. The book ‘Human Development and Families’ has covered a relatively broad concept that can be used by the undergraduates and postgraduates and can be targeted for a multidisciplinary nature of audiences.

Table of Contents

1 Why do Research on Families and Children? 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 Stages of Social Research 5

1.3 How is Research on Families and Children Different? 12

1.3.1 Families as Systems of Individuals 13

1.3.2 Defining the Family as Problematic 14

1.3.3 Family Members Occupy Multiple Roles and Statuses Simultaneously 14

1.3.4 Behavioral Secrecy within a Family 15

1.3.5 Preconception about the Family and the

Family Life 16

1.4 Benefits to be Derived from a Well-conducted Research 17

1.5 References 17

2 The Ethics of Research on Families and Children 18

2.1 Introduction 18

2.2 Milgram’s Obedience Experiment 19

2.3 Impact on Children and Family Members 21

2.4 Special Concerns in Case of Children 22

2.4.1 Informed Consent and Rights of Children 24

2.4.2 Non-harmful Experimental Procedures 24

2.4.3 Additional Consent 25

2.4.4 Incentive 25

2.4.5 Deception 26

2.4.6 Sharing of Responsibilities 26

2.4.7 Anonymity 26

2.4.8 Keeping Parents in the Loop in case of Jeopardy 27

2.4.9 Tackling Unforeseen Circumstances 27

2.4.10 Confidentiality 27

2.4.11 Communication with Participants 28

2.4.12 Exercising Caution while Conveying the Findings 28

2.4.13 Awareness of Implications of Findings 28

2.4.14 Scientific Misconduct 29

2.4.15 Personal Misconduct 29

2.5 Role of Institutional Review Board 29

2.6 Value of Ethically Sound Research in Tackling Fraud 32

2.6.1 Research without Informed Consent 32

2.6.2 Issue Related to the Privacy of Participants 33

2.6.3 Non-treated Controls 34

2.7 Summary 34

2.8 References 35

3 Causal Inference in Research of Families and Children 36

3.1 Variables 36

3.1.1 Types of Research Variables 38

3.2 Units of Analysis 41

3.2.1 The Importance of Units of Analysis 42

3.2.2 Distinction between Units of Analysis

and Variables 43

3.3 Thinking Causally 44

3.3.1 Temporal Precedence 45

3.3.2 Non-spuriousness 45

3.3.3 Constant Conjunctions 46

٣.٣.٤ Identifying Mechanism and Specifying Context 46

3.3.5 Assessing Causality 47

3.4 Framing the Hypothesis 48

3.4.1 Directional Hypothesis 49

3.4.2 Non-directional Hypothesis 49

3.4.3 Cross-sectional Design 50

3.4.4 Longitudinal Study 51

3.5 Casual Inference in Qualitative Research 52

3.6 Conclusion 52

3.7 References 53

4 Searching and Reading Literature 54

4.1 Reading a Journal Article 54

4.1.1 Steps of Reading a Journal Article 55

4.1.2 How to have a Contextual Understanding

of a Journal Article? 55

4.1.3 Approaches of Reading a Journal Article 56

4.1.4 Types of Journal Articles 57

4.1.5 Gathering a Practical Experience 58

4.2 Where do I go from Here 58

4.3 How do Journal Articles get Published 59

4.4 Steps of Publishing a Journal Article 61

4.4.1 Selecting a Journal 61

4.4.2 Preparing a Manuscript 62

4.4.3 Proofreading the Manuscript 63

4.4.4 Selecting a Reviewer (Optional) 63

4.4.5 Taking Account of Reviews 64

4.4.6 Tips to Handle the R&R 65

4.4.7 Finalizing the Article for Publishing 67

4.5 Research Monographs 68

4.6 Edited Volumes 68

4.6.1 An Editor’s Role 69

4.6.2 Responsibilities of the Authors (Contributors) 70

4.7 Other Types of Publications 70

4.8 References 71

5 Sampling Issues 72

5.1 Samples and Sampling 72

5.1.1 Differences between Population and a Sample 73

5.1.2 Stage of Sampling 75

5.2 Defining the Population 77

5.3 Sampling Designs 78

5.3.1 Features or Characteristics of a Good

Sampling Design 78

5.3.2 Types of Sample Design 78

5.4 Bias in Sampling 83

5.5 How Large a Sample should be? 83

5.6 Formula for Calculating the Sample Size 85

5.7 Steps Involved in Choosing the Sampling Technique 85

5.8 Choosing a Sampling Technique 88

5.9 Summary 88

5.10 References 89

6 How Do We Measure Concepts? 90

6.1 Introduction 90

6.2 Concept of Human Development 91

6.3 Characteristics of a Good Measurement Procedure 93

6.3.1 Measurement of HDI by Planning

Commission Method 97

6.3.2 What are the Reliability and Validity of HDI? 101

7 Studying Families: Methods for Quantitative Data 104

7.1 Introduction 104

7.2 Studying Families: Through Experiments 105

7.2.1 Internal Validity 105

7.2.2 External Validity 107

7.3 Studying Families through Survey Methods 109

7.3.1 Questionnaires 109

7.3.2 Mailed Questionnaire 110

7.3.3 Telephone Interview 111

7.3.4 Time Diary Methods 112

7.4 Studying Families through Non-reactive Techniques 112

٧.٤.١ Four Kinds of Errors Introduced by the Respondents 112

7.4.2 Three Kinds of Errors Introduced by

the Researcher 114

7.5 Types of Non-reactive Research 114

7.5.1 Archives 115

7.5.2 Observations 115

7.5.3 Physical Traces 116

7.6 Ethics and Quantitative Methods 118

7.7 Limitations of Quantitative Data 122

7.8 Conclusion 123

7.9 References 124

8 Studying Families: Methods for Qualitative Data 125

8.1 Introduction 125

8.2 Qualitative Research Compared to

Quantitative Research 126

8.2.1 Qualitative Research 126

8.2.2 Quantitative Research 127

8.2.3 Points of Distinctions between Qualitative

Research and Quantitative Research 128

8.3 Types of Qualitative Research Strategies 130

8.3.1 Strategy 1: Data Collection under

Qualitative Research 130

8.3.2 Strategy 2: Data Analysing 132

8.3.3 Strategy 3: Data implementation:

A Combination of Data Collection and

Data Analysis 133

8.4 Studying Families through Observation 135

8.4.1 Methods of Studying Families through Observation 135

8.4.2 Benefits of Observation Research 136

8.5 Ethics and Qualitative Research 137

8.5.1 Importance of Ethics in Research 137

8.5.2 Qualitative Research Ethics 138

8.5.3 Principles/Guidelines for Qualitative

Research Ethics 138

8.5.4 Challenges for Ethical Qualitative Research 141

8.6 Evaluating Qualitative Research 143

8.6.1 Criteria for Evaluating Qualitative Research 143

8.7 Conclusion 145

8.8 References 145

9 Studying Families: Mixed Methods 146

9.1 Introduction 146

9.2 Mixed Method Approaches 147

9.2.1 Explanatory Mixed Method Design 150

9.2.2 Exploratory Mixed Model Design 150

9.2.3 Triangulation Mixed Model Design 151

9.2.4 Embedded Mixed Model Design 153

9.2.5 How to Time Mixed Method Research

Approaches? 156

9.2.6 Priorities in Mixed Method Approaches 156

9.2.7 How to Mix in a Mixed Model Approach? 157

9.2.8 Issues with Procedures of Mixing Qualitative

and Quantitative Data 157

9.3 Mixed Model Studies 159

9.3.1 Definition of Mixed Method Research 161

9.3.2 Mixed Method Design: Advantages

and Disadvantages 162

9.4 Closing Thoughts on Choosing a Research Method 163

9.5 References 165

10 Analyzing Data on Families and Children 166

10.1 Introduction 166

10.2 Descriptive Statistics 167

10.2.1 Central Tendency 167

10.2.2 Variability 168

10.3 Inferential Statistics 169

10.3.1 Hypothesis Testing 170

10.3.2 Probability 171

10.3.3 Sampling Distribution 172

10.4 Decision Making Problem 172

10.4.1 Correct Decision 173

10.4.2 Type I and II Error 173

10.4.3 Selection of Significance Level 174

10.5 Interpretation of the Result of Insignificance 174

10.6 Statistical Tests 176

10.6.1 The t-test 176

10.6.2 The F Statistics 178

10.6.3 Correlation Coefficient 179

10.7 Correlational Method 182

10.7.1 Effect Size 182

10.7.2 Advanced Correlational Methods 182

10.7.3 Regression Equation 183

10.7.4 Multiple Correlation 183

10.8 References 184

11 Advanced Topics in Family Data Analysis 185

11.1 Ideas of Nested Entities 185

11.2 Analyzing Nested Data 186

11.2.1 Stable Group Models 187

11.2.2 Dynamic Group Models 188

11.3 Individual Change Over Time 191

11.4 Contextual Factors: Moderators and Mediators 193

11.4.1 Context Which can also be Multifaceted Variable 193

11.5 Final Thoughts on Nested Interests 196

11.5.1 Central Theme with a Nested Story 196

11.6 References 199

12 Evaluating Programs in Human Development and Family Science 200

12.1 Introduction 200

12.2 Needs Assessment and Social Impact Assessment 201

12.2.1 Needs Assessment 201

12.2.2 Social Impact Assessment (SIA) 203

12.2.3 Criticism Leveled Against the Social Impact Assessment and Needs Assessment Framework 204

12.3 Outcome Assessment 205

12.4 Process Research: How does it Work? 206

12.5 Some Thoughts about Randomization in Evaluation Research 208

12.5.1 Types of Evaluation 208

12.6 The Relationship between Applied and Basic Research 211

12.6.1 Applied Research 211

12.6.2 Basic Research 212

12.6.3 Points of Distinction between Applied

Research and Basic Research 212

12.7 Conclusion 216

12.8 References 217

13 Politics of Research on Families and Children 218

13.1 Introduction 218

13.2 Ethical Implications of Research on Families and Children 219

13.2 Institutional Review of Research 222

13.3 Distinctive Issues a Researcher might face while

Working with Subjects who are Children 223

13.3.1 Issues Regarding Confidentiality and Privacy 224

13.3.2 Issues of Non-treated Controls 225

13.4 Political Concerns while Conducting Research 226

13.4.1 Funding 227

13.4.2 The Discipline in which the People are Working 229

13.4.3 Hierarchal Structures 229

13.5 Political Control of the Journals where Research

Work is Published 230

13.5.1 Corruption in Academia 230

13.6 Concluding Thoughts on the Ethical and Political

Concerns of Research Work 232

Index 234

Chapter

1 Why do Research on Families and Children?

1.1 Introduction

Research can be classified as a cautious deliberation of study about a specific concern or a difficult task using technical and scientific methods. The American sociologist Earl Robert Babbie has defined research as a systematic inquest which would elucidate, envisage and management of the observed phenomenon. And, the research involves both inductive as well as deductive methods.

An inductive research method is generally used to analyze the scrutinized occurrence, whereas; deductive methods are used for the verification of the scrutinized occurrence. An inductive approach is associated along with qualitative research, whereas; a deductive approach is normally associated along with quantitative research.

Research upon a family and the relation of a parent with their children is such a complex phenomenon that needs to get observed minutely and efficiently. The study integrates and critically evaluates the facts about the necessity of family characteristics for the essential development of children.

In today’s busy and economy centric life, research-related on the topic of family and their significant role in building a strong relationship among the family members seems to be quite absurd and often said to be a waste of time. But in today’s busy and hurried life, it has become quite evident for an individual to assure less time for his or her family, which leads to unhappiness and quarrel within the family members. But many of the people seem to think research on families is useless and not applicable in the present scenario, while the fact is that every individual has a family and every individual has an internal connection with their families. A connection or a strong bonding with an individual towards his or her family will encourage a person to keep a positive mindset in any of the work which he or she may either possess. The strong bonding of an individual with his or her family will tend to gather a variety of experiences such experiences will help an individual to develop into an ideal person. The experience will help an individual to gather more knowledge about individuals towards his or her family, and experience might probably assist an individual in gathering basic knowledge about his family and will also help that individual to know the characteristics of every individual of the family, including their likes and dislikes. While the maximum of the research studies claims to get our facts sure about our families and also demeans any research which is based on the family or the members of the family. Though, the reader may ask him or her about his or her knowledge of the family in which he or she belongs, through which a true concept might get raised.

Curiosity is one of the special aspects of human life which an individual must hold right from birth. Because curiosity plays an important role in making our mind thinks on any of the matter with more accuracy and precision. Thus, the curiosity is such a character which might probably encourage an individual to think about the need for social research based on family and its importance in the life of an individual. A good of biologists believes in the fact which the human brain as hardwire for solving challenging tasks and answer critical questions. Hence, with the assistance of this curiosity, humans have achieved tremendous success in some of the critical inventions, i.e., development of an engine for the fighter jet; development of rocket technology, even the construction of a space station in the outer space is the result of curiosity. Well, not only in the sector of science and technology but also in the sector of art and literature, spiritualism and humanity curiosity has played a well-defined role for its upliftment. As without curiosity, it was not even possible for the human to achieve such advancement within a few centuries. One of the famous scientists of all time, Albert Einstein, had quoted a phrase which implies the meaning of nothing in this world happens without reason. For every instance, there must be a reason, and humans have to believe in this fact and have to lead their own life accordingly. Hence, in this world, much of the research work has been conducted to get the reason for any such complex problem which appeared in the mind of an individual. A major manifestation of the things often claims for the search for self-understanding and needs to know the reasons which lead to these things to happen. We can get a very example of such instance from the experiences of our personal life as in our life many situations can arise where we may find us in a sort of dilemma or confusion which bound us to think for the reasons which have to lead us to such absurd situations.

Apart from finding of the absurd reason for the present scenario, there may also arise some innate questions which probably might arise in the mind of the majority of the population, such as the reason behind the declining rate of family sizes continuously, the reason behind the violence of the women by men either physically or mentally, the reason which causes the children to get addicted to toxic drugs, though here remains controversy as all the children do not get addicted towards drugs apart from a few and also the causes which lead to the failure of an intimate and close relationship. Thus, here come some of the different reasons for different causes, but the base of all the reasons can probably be the family and the relationship of the parents with their children. Abuse of a wife from her husband continuously will probably put a negative impression of the father towards his child who might result into the creation of a distance between the child and father or between the child and his or her family members, such distance of the child from his or her family might probably tend the child towards drug addiction and inhalation of toxic materials which follows by impacting the health of that child negatively. Thus, for making a healthy and happy family, the family members must council over the negative aspects by conducting thorough research, which will result in more bonds between the family members. Henceforth, research within a family is much necessary for conducting a healthy and happy family.

Though during the different phases of time, humans have enlarged two ways to answer our questions, which starts with why. While two of the most important forms of answering the questions of why can probably be - Religion and Science. These two approaches define a variety of answers and knowledge to humans for their most critical and complex questions. So, let us get some concepts about these two approaches – at first, if we talk about religion for the answer of various critical and complex problems then it must be said that religion is the scripture of facts which might have no evidence about the solution to a particular problem, but for a devotee, religion plays the role of a major tool to make an individual relax and encourage him to find a solution, whereas the religion can also provide various philosophical ways to get the solution of various problems. For example, many people think the shlokas (written scriptures) in the Shrimad Bhagwad Gita might probably add nothing in the life of a person to control his or her life perfectly, whereas; for a religious person it is his or her belief on those scriptures which can lead and give some specified answer for the problems which had encircled his life. Similarly, the teachings in the Bible (the holy book of Christians) and Torah (the holy book of Jews) might probably show the ways of life and provide a solution to various problems of life. Religion is something which might probably assist the person in understanding the different pros and cons of life and also helping a person to get the solution by using his or her mind and psychology. But on the other hand, science is probably that approach which deals with facts and figures. Either be it for scientific inventions and discoveries or answering the questions of the human, science attempts to answer the question of why by constructing a variety of theories. By plotting various hypothetical figures, science tries to answer the questions of why. The theory of science tries to make people have some faith in their theories and principles. As we all know that science generally deals theories, concepts and principles, so science keeps the fact in mind before conducting any research and study. The science deals with skills and techniques to find out a concrete result with theory to get the desired result. However, today the very basic fact is humans generally accept the theories of science to getting a perfect reply to any problem rather than the theory provided by the religion.

In the present scenario, science and technology have been so upgraded that even the researchers and the philosophers accept the theory of science regarding a particular subject and also compel them to think: how science has carved out such a logical answer or solution? Specifically, how the scientific methods can help to understand the complexities of every family of the house? As there are more than billions of families in the world and the complexities of each family differ from the complexities of the other family. So, to understand such a process, we need to discuss the stages of various types of social researches.

1.2 Stages of Social Research

Social Research deals with the implementation of various research programs which gets implemented in the research procedure; thus, the procedures are explained below.

Exploration of the Problem

The prime motive of behavioral and social research is to trace out those things which are precisely going on in society. Such research helps us to get an exact idea about the societal and behavioral data of society. There can be a variety of topics or subjects on which a person will be willing to conduct his or her research, but at some of the time, a certain topic might arise in which the person may not have any knowledge. There can also be many topics that seem to be catchy and interesting, but the scholar or researcher may not have such knowledge on his or her topic of interest; at that of time, the researcher commences his or her investigation or exploration for finding out a valid answer for their question. As because every person conducts research somewhere, we begin by casting a wide net in our search for explanations. Though, we start our study on any subject by having a few ideas about what the fact is and how it works. The majority of humans are curious about the correlation of the factors that are related with our birth-rate, and the age of marriage which has been increasing with a sequential rate of the human might get curious about the type of therapies which work best upon a child to get him out from the addiction of drug. Several people do not have any such idea about the type of research they should conduct at a certain stage of life; in that case, the person must get an idea of whether the research has been conducted or not, which he or she was willing to conduct.

To conduct a research study, one must get to know the facts that whether they have enough hold on the existing literature which he or she is going to research. After conducting enough study on the type of literature, the investigator can begin his or her research by conducting a simple investigation and unscientific observation on their target samples. The daily work and their way of life will help the investigator to get a broad idea of the conduction experiment. The preliminary observations can generally qualitative and interpretive, which will form a strong base to define the problem because without defining a problem, it would not be easy for the researcher to get into a prominent solution. The probable questions might be:

◊ What are the key processes and concepts which need to be understood?

◊ What phenomenon of behavior is important?

◊ What may be the characteristics of the setting or situation understudy?

◊ What factors seem to be related to the outcome?

Thus, a person can pursue another way to conduct his or her research by simply having a casual discussion with a small number of people on their behavior. If a researcher wants to study the decision making of employment issues for a couple, then the probable process might be the selection of a certain couple – does not matter either they are a friend or close acquaintance – and having a chat with them about their experiences of their married life. Do the couples have any plan for employment before having children? Or do they have decided to have children first and then they would decide on who is going to take care of the children and who will be going for employment? What are the types of problems which they have encountered in making such decisions? How much time would each parent invest outside the home for different causes? However, the mentioned queries display the type of issues that a researcher would not have thought before the conduction of the research program. Such issues would probably assist the researcher in getting knowledge about the nature of the problem.

Description

Once the researcher has adopted some parameter of the research, then he or she must classically devise a probable description of