scholarly journals Alternatives to Randomized Control Trials: A Review of Three Quasi-experimental Designs for Causal Inference

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (119) ◽  
pp. 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brittany Gorrall ◽  
Jacob Curtis ◽  
Todd Little ◽  
Pavel Panko

<p><span>Los diseños de Pruebas Controladas Aleatorizadas (PCA) son típicamente vistas como el mejor diseño en la investigación en psicología. Como tal, no es siempre posible cumplir con las especificaciones de las PCA y por ello muchos estudios son realizados en un marco cuasi experimental. Aunque los diseños cuasi experimentales son considerados menos convenientes que los diseños PCA, con directrices estos pueden producir inferencias igualmente válidas. En este artículo presentamos tres diseños cuasi experimentales que son formas alternativas a los diseños PCA. Estos diseños son Regresión de Punto de Desplazamiento (RPD), Regresión Discontinua (RD), Pareamiento por Puntaje de Propensión (PPP). Adicionalmente, describimos varias mejorías metodológicas para usar con este tipo de diseños. </span></p>

2017 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 977-1001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leesa M. Foreman ◽  
Kaitlin P. Anderson ◽  
Gary W. Ritter ◽  
Patrick J. Wolf

We consider situations in which public charter school lotteries are neither universally conducted nor consistently documented. Such lotteries produce “broken” Randomized Control Trials, but provide opportunities to assess the internal validity of quasi-experimental research designs. Here, we present the results of a statewide charter school evaluation using a broad-based student matching evaluation design, and run two additional analyses using the charter application waitlists as robustness checks. Our additional models, which address concerns of self-selection by using only charter applicants as matched comparison students, yield similar effect estimates and thus provide support for the use of matching designs in charter school evaluations.


Author(s):  
Kevin Esterling

This chapter describes the methodological considerations necessary for making a causal inference regarding the effect of institutions and group contexts on deliberation. This chapter focuses on the elements of the research design of a study and the assumptions that are necessary to state a causal inference given a particular design; these considerations are applicable to randomized experimental designs, both in the lab and in the field, as well as to quasi-experimental or natural experimental designs using observational data. The chapter shows how to assess the internal validity of a study for identifying a causal effect for a given study and briefly discusses external and epistemic validity considerations that are of particular urgency for empirical deliberation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 1017-1028 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ledetra Bridges ◽  
Manoj Sharma

The purpose of this article was to systematically review yoga interventions aimed at improving depressive symptoms. A total of 23 interventions published between 2011 and May 2016 were evaluated in this review. Three study designs were used: randomized control trials, quasi-experimental, and pretest/posttest, with majority being randomized control trials. Most of the studies were in the United States. Various yoga schools were used, with the most common being Hatha yoga. The number of participants participating in the studies ranged from 14 to 136, implying that most studies had a small sample. The duration of the intervention period varied greatly, with the majority being 6 weeks or longer. Limitations of the interventions involved the small sample sizes used by the majority of the studies, most studies examining the short-term effect of yoga for depression, and the nonutilization of behavioral theories. Despite the limitations, it can be concluded that the yoga interventions were effective in reducing depression.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1558-1566
Author(s):  
Hendrik Prayitno Luawo ◽  
Tintin Sukartini ◽  
Joko Suwito

The method in preparing this Systematic review is based on literature studies from various electronic databases including Scopus, Proquest, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and ScienceDirect by conducting a comprehensive review using the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes) guidelines. The keywords used are"effectiveness and "physical activity" AND "fatigue" AND "elderly". There are 9 original articles with 6 articles using the Randomized Control Trials (RCTs) research method, 2 articles using the quasi-experimental method, and 1 article using the prospective cohort method according to the inclusion criteria. This systematic review shows the effectiveness of various physical activities on reducing fatigue in the elderly, this systematic review can be used as evidence when doing a combination of joint activities and self-exercise at home as a good choice physical exercise intervention for the purpose of reducing fatigue in the elderly


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 772-789
Author(s):  
Retno Puji Astuti ◽  
Rizki Fitryasari ◽  
Hendy Muagiri Margono

Body image is an important issue for adolescents. This is related to the surrounding appearance that is considered attractive by most people where beautiful people are those who have a tall body and white skin. The purpose of this Systematic review is to analyze the effect of psychological interventions on adolescent's body image. Systematic review accessed five electronic databases (Scopus, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Science Direct, and ProQuest). The search was carried out from April to June. 25 articles were analyzed. Most of the psychological interventions provided offline were 16 studies and the rest were through indirect intervention methods. The research design consisted of 17 randomized control trials and 8 studies using quasi-experimental. Two types of psychological interventions can be used as alternatives to enhance and maintain a positive body image: direct psychological intervention and indirect psychological intervention using technology.


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