Case -I

The headline for a story on Tech Times reads, "Parents of 'difficult children' likely to
use ipads to pacify kids." The story is about a survey reported in the medical journal
JAMA Pediatrics. According to a new study by researchers from the C.S. Mott
Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan, parents from low-income families
were more likely to give mobile devices to calm children with social and emotional
difficulties. Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the researchers recruited 144
healthy children between the ages of 15 and 36 months from low-income families.
The researchers asked the parents how often they give or allow the use of mobile
devices during a variety of situations. Different scenarios include eating, being in
public, during chores, when the children are in distress and at bedtime. What were the
results? They found that parents were more likely to use mobile devices as a coping
strategy to pacify children who are having tantrums to keep the peace at home.
Discussion Questions:
a) What kind of claim is it to say "Parents of 'difficult children' likely to use ipads to
pacify kids" (Frequency? Association? or Causal?) What are the two variables in
this claim?
b) Consider each of the two variables in this claim. How did they operationalize each
variable in the study? Was each variable measured or manipulated?
c) Is this a correlational study or an experiment? How do you know?
d) The headline implies that the parents used ipads mainly "to pacify difficult
children". Is that accurate, according to what you've read about the study's methods?
Did they actually ask about children's levels of behavioral problems?
e) Sketch a diagram of conceptual framework to show the variables under study.