Large-Scale Questionnaire Design and Methodological Considerations: Learnings From the Australian Child Wellbeing Project

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth O’Grady ◽  
Katherine Dix ◽  
Mollie Tobin ◽  
Petra Lietz
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Questionnaire Design ◽  
Child Wellbeing ◽  
Australian Child ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Content analysis across new media platforms: Methodological considerations for capturing media-rich data

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 532-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa B Hurwitz ◽  
Aubry L Alvarez ◽  
Alexis R Lauricella ◽  
Thomas H Rousse ◽  
Heather Montague ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
New Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Sampling Frame ◽  
Multiple Sources ◽  
Complex Sampling ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Rich Data ◽  
Rich Content

Content analyses sway policy by describing the prevalence of mass media messages and implying effects. However, content-based research focusing ondynamic new media products such as websites, mobile applications, and video games presents methodological challenges. Our team recently conducted a large-scale content analysis exploring food marketing to children across media platforms, in which we captured and analyzed a variety of media-rich content. We consulted multiple sources to form our sampling frame, employed a complex sampling technique to allow for generalization of findings, used screen-capture software to record our exploration of media products, analyzed data using video coding software, and created a custom scale to determine the target audience of certain media products. We believe the steps we have taken may provide valuable insights into aspiring content analysts interested in studying media-rich content and address challenges that have been plaguing content analysts for the past two decades.

scholarly journals Measurement Invariance of Liberal and Authoritarian Notions of Democracy: Evidence From the World Values Survey and Additional Methodological Considerations

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boris Sokolov
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Heterogeneous Data ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Construct Development ◽  
Democratic Attitudes ◽  
Multiple Group ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Considerations

This article offers a gentle introduction to the measurement invariance (MI) literature with a focus on its relevance to comparative political research. It reviews 1) the conceptual foundations of MI; 2) standard procedures of testing for MI in practical applications within the multiple-group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) paradigm; and 3) two novel approaches to MI, Bayesian approximate measurement invariance, and MGCFA alignment optimization, which are especially suitable for dealing with extremely heterogeneous data from large-scale comparative surveys typical for modern political science. It then provides an empirical illustration of the key concepts and methods from the MGCFA-MI literature by applying them to testing for MI of two recently introduced measures of democracy attitudes, so-called liberal and authoritarian notions of democracy, across 60 countries in the sixth round of the World Values Survey. These analyses show that both measures can be considered reliable comparative measures of democratic attitudes, although for different reasons. Finally, this study emphasizes that some survey-based constructs, e.g., authoritarian notions of democracy, do not follow the reflective (correlation-based) logic of construct development. These alternative measures, known as formative measures, do not assume strong correlations between their indicators, for which reason it is inappropriate to test their comparability using the reflective MGCFA approach. Instead, their comparability can be tied to their correlations with theoretically relevant external variables.

A practical guide for researchers and reviewers using the ABCD Study and other large longitudinal datasets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie Marie Saragosa-Harris ◽  
Natasha Chaku ◽  
Niamh MacSweeney ◽  
Victoria Guazzelli Williamson ◽  
Maximilian Scheuplein ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Structure ◽  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Diversity And Inclusion ◽  
Data Release ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Adolescent Brain Development

As the largest longitudinal study of adolescent brain development and behavior to date, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study® has provided immense opportunities for researchers across disciplines since its first data release in 2018. The size and scope of the study also present a number of hurdles, which range from becoming familiar with the study design and data structure to employing rigorous and reproducible analyses. The current paper is intended as a guide for researchers and reviewers working with ABCD data, highlighting the features of the data (and the strengths and limitations therein) as well as relevant analytical and methodological considerations. Additionally, we explore justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts as they pertain to the ABCD Study and other large-scale datasets. In doing so, we hope to increase both accessibility of the ABCD Study and transparency within the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience.

scholarly journals Methodological considerations for large-scale breath analysis studies: lessons from the U-BIOPRED severe asthma project

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 016001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Waqar M Ahmed ◽  
Paul Brinkman ◽  
Hans Weda ◽  
Hugo H Knobel ◽  
Yun Xu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Severe Asthma ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Breath Analysis ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Methodological considerations and empirical data to the onset of efficacy of antidepressants and to the prediction of therapy outcome

1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 177-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
H Müller ◽  
H.J. Möller
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Drug Response ◽  
Rating Scale ◽  
Clinical Signs ◽  
Final Outcome ◽  
Therapy Outcome ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Clinical Samples ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Hamilton Rating Scale

SummaryIs the onset of efficacy of antidepressants always delayed and which early clinical signs predict final outcome of therapy ? Our analyses show that strict response criteria produce necessarily later onset estimations rather than less strict ones. In two large-scale clinical samples we compared different estimation methods of the day of onset. Patients' direct ratings produced the earliest onset estimations. Because of the strong dependency of onset estimations on measurement methods, we argue that it is still open to debate, in which degree drug response is delayed. Concerning early clinical signs of final outcome we compared early changes of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) items with several measures of final outcome. From the data we analyzed, there are no sufficiently precise signs of final outcome within the first 2 weeks of therapy.

scholarly journals Methodological Considerations for Cost of Illness Studies of Enteric Fever

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. S111-S119
Author(s):  
Nelly Mejia ◽  
Enusa Ramani ◽  
Sarah W Pallas ◽  
Dayoung Song ◽  
Taiwo Abimbola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Facility ◽  
Cost Of Illness ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Enteric Fever ◽  
Time Budget ◽  
Cost Information ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Methodological Choices ◽  
Patient Morbidity ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Abstract This article presents a selection of practical issues, questions, and tradeoffs in methodological choices to consider when conducting a cost of illness (COI) study on enteric fever in low- to lower-middle-income countries. The experiences presented are based on 2 large-scale COI studies embedded within the Surveillance for Enteric Fever in Asia Project II (SEAP II), in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan; and the Severe Typhoid Fever Surveillance in Africa (SETA) Program in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Madagascar. Issues presented include study design choices such as controlling for background patient morbidity and healthcare costs, time points for follow-up, data collection methods for sensitive income and spending information, estimating enteric fever–specific health facility cost information, and analytic approaches in combining patient and health facility costs. The article highlights the potential tradeoffs in time, budget, and precision of results to assist those commissioning, conducting, and interpreting enteric fever COI studies.

scholarly journals Proxy-Based Northern Hemisphere Surface Temperature Reconstructions: Sensitivity to Method, Predictor Network, Target Season, and Target Domain

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (13) ◽  
pp. 2308-2329 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Rutherford ◽  
M. E. Mann ◽  
T. J. Osborn ◽  
K. R. Briffa ◽  
P D. Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Warm Season ◽  
Cold Season ◽  
Target Domain ◽  
Proxy Data ◽  
Mean Temperature ◽  
Reconstructed Temperature ◽  
Temperature Reconstructions ◽  
Methodological Considerations

Abstract Results are presented from a set of experiments designed to investigate factors that may influence proxy-based reconstructions of large-scale temperature patterns in past centuries. The factors investigated include 1) the method used to assimilate proxy data into a climate reconstruction, 2) the proxy data network used, 3) the target season, and 4) the spatial domain of the reconstruction. Estimates of hemispheric-mean temperature are formed through spatial averaging of reconstructed temperature patterns that are based on either the local calibration of proxy and instrumental data or a more elaborate multivariate climate field reconstruction approach. The experiments compare results based on the global multiproxy dataset used by Mann and coworkers, with results obtained using the extratropical Northern Hemisphere (NH) maximum latewood tree-ring density set used by Briffa and coworkers. Mean temperature reconstructions are compared for the full NH (Tropics and extratropics, land and ocean) and extratropical continents only, withvarying target seasons (cold-season half year, warm-season half year, and annual mean). The comparisons demonstrate dependence of reconstructions on seasonal, spatial, and methodological considerations, emphasizing the primary importance of the target region and seasonal window of the reconstruction. The comparisons support the generally robust nature of several previously published estimates of NH mean temperature changes in past centuries and suggest that further improvements in reconstructive skill are most likely to arise from an emphasis on the quality, rather than quantity, of available proxy data.

scholarly journals On the comparability of adults with low literacy across LEO, PIAAC, and NEPS. Methodological considerations and empirical evidence

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tabea Durda ◽  
Britta Gauly ◽  
Klaus Buddeberg ◽  
Clemens M. Lechner ◽  
Cordula Artelt
Keyword(s):  
Educational Attainment ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
Language Background ◽  
Socioeconomic Characteristics ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Sample Representation

Abstract Background In Germany, three large-scale surveys–the Level One Study (LEO), the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), and the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)–provide complementary data on adults’ literacy skills that can be harnessed to study adults with low literacy. To ensure that research on low-literate adults using these surveys arrives at valid and robust conclusions, it is imperative to ascertain the comparability of the three surveys’ low-literacy samples. Towards that end, in the present study, we comprehensively assess the comparability of adults with low literacy across these surveys with regard to their sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Methods We used data from LEO, PIAAC, and NEPS. We identified features of the sample representation and measurement of (low) literacy as potential causes for variations in the low-literacy samples across the surveys. We then compared the low-literacy samples with regard to their sociodemographic and socioeconomic characteristics and performed logistic regressions to compare the relative importance of these characteristics as correlates of low literacy. Results The key insight our study provides is that–despite different sample representations and measurement approaches–the low-literacy samples in the three surveys are largely comparable in terms of their socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics. Although there were small differences between the surveys with regard to the distribution of gender, educational attainment, and the proportion of non-native speakers within the group of low-literate adults, results revealed that both the prevalence of low literacy and its correlates were largely robust across LEO, PIAAC, and NEPS. Across all three surveys, lower educational attainment emerged as the most significant correlate of low literacy, followed by a non-German language background, unemployment and low occupational status. Conclusions Our study provides evidence that all three surveys can be used for investigating adults with low literacy. The small differences between the low-literacy samples across the three surveys appear to be associated with sample representation and certain assessment features that should be kept in mind when using the surveys for research and policy purposes. Nevertheless, our study showed that we do not compare apples with oranges when dealing with low-literate adults across different large-scale surveys.

scholarly journals Graduates' Perceptions and Evaluation of Study Programmes: Analytical Framework and Methodological Considerations

2019 ◽  
pp. 99-118
Author(s):  
Piotr Bielecki
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Teaching Effectiveness ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Graduate Employability ◽  
Conceptual Question ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Scientific Attention ◽  
Programme Outcomes ◽  
International Research Project

This paper aims to draw scientific attention to the significance and usefulness of socio- logical approach, namely higher education (HE) graduates’ perceptions survey as a one of the mechanisms to collect and use graduate feedback facilitating the study programmes’ evaluation, and in turn, enlarging our knowledge on the enhancement of HE quality, the improvement of graduate employability, and effective ways of smoothing the transition from education to work. The emphasis is being placed on critical description of the analytical framework set out by authors of the international research project - DEHEMS on HE graduates feedback. The DEHEMS project uses secondary - processed data based on primary - raw data as generated by two Europe-wide and large-scale research projects: REFLEX and HEGESCO. The paper comprises four parts. Firstly, the basic conceptual question is analysed, that is, the role and the need for the use of feedback from graduates collected through national and international surveys perceived as a measure of HE programme evaluation (pro- gramme performance, teaching effectiveness). A particular attention is given to its two main elements: programme activities/components and programme outcomes/impact, as per programmes logic model. The second part is devoted to the discussion on the analyt- ical framework and methodological approach adopted in the DEHEMS study. The third part contains key elements of analytical framework presented in schematic form. Finally, some brief conclusions and further study directions follow.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document