Re DavidEpstein's sceptical post citing the Keele University Press release http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130403071957.htm andsubsequent posts: I emailedRobin Hadley, who undertook the reported research, asking for information abouthis methodology, how the subjects were recruited, and specifically whether theywere self-selected. The relevant part of his response is as follows: "In order to examine the issues surrounding the desire forparenthood a sequential mixed-methods quantitative-qualitative approach wasselected. This approach allows the verification of results, generation of newareas of interest, and provides generalisabilty of results. An on-linequestionnaire was designed to measure the influences, motivations, and reasonsthat may affect the decision to parent. Included was a unique item attemptingto measure the reactions associated with broodiness. Open questions wereintegrated into the survey to provide detail of the respondent’s lifeexperience and, in addition, aid validity by providing feedback on the survey.Respondents were recruited by a snowball technique and over two hundredcompleted replies (n=232) were analysed using descriptive, univariate,and bivarite techniques. The profile of the sample data gave a mode of femalewith the majority of respondents being White-British, degree educated,professional, and heterosexual." Not being a statistician, I could make little sense of this. (Anytranslations of significant sentences will be welcomed!) In response I askedHadley what a "snowball technique" is. In his reply he wrote that itis "verypopular in qualitative [sic] research as a strategy for accessing hard to reachpopulations", and may be defined as: "The recruitment method thatasks a participant to pass details of the study to his/her interpersonalnetwork to generate further recruits." Inreply I wrote that it seems evident that the subjects were self-selected, andthat that reduces the reliability of the results of the survey. I alsosuggested this should have been made clear in the press release. Inhis response Hadley ignored my point about self-selected subjects, and merelythanked me for my interest (!) while directing my question about the pressrelease to the British Sociological Society person responsible for it. AsDavid's link to the following article shows, Hadley is hardly a disinterested researcheron this issue: "I’m 53 now and I’m not a father. Inever will be. I am happily married – to my second wife – and we have nochildren. It’s not that we didn’t want any; since my mid-thirties, I have beenbroody, desperate for the kids that I watched my friends and colleagues havingover the years." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/fatherhood/9969542/Robin-Hadley-I-know-all-about-broody-men-who-long-to-be-dads.-I-am-one.html So we have here another (and possibly the worst) in a recent tendency towards premature pressreleases from universities in the UK and the US publicising unreplicatedstudies without peer-review having, it would seem, as its main purpose thepromotion of the name of the university.
Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London allenester...@compuserve.com http://www.esterson.org -------------------------------------- From: David Epstein <da...@neverdave.com> Subject: "Childlessness hits men the hardest" (n = 16) Date: Thu, 4 Apr 2013 02:02:36 -0400 (EDT) Spotted on Google News: a university press release getting picked up as if it were science news. It's a survey with differences such as "8 out of 16 men" (50%) versus "14 out of 51 women" (27%). <http://www.google.com/news?&q=%22robin+hadley%22&hl=en> Well, you can chi-square the numbers yourself <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130403071957.htm>. There is NOT EVEN ONE DIFFERENCE between men and women in the survey. --David Epstein da...@neverdave.com --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=24846 or send a blank email to leave-24846-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
