7 pages, 24 hrs

Number of sources: 18
Topic: Quantitative Assignment		Academic Level:Ph. D.
Number of Pages: 7 (Double Spaced)	Category: Education
Language Style: English (U.K.)
Writing Style: APA

Quantitative assignment – Analysing and reporting on the Pupil Health Survey

Please read all of the following carefully

Background to the study

In 2007 the University of Glasgow undertook a piece of research for the local Health Board. This work involved conducting a large survey of pupils in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year in all Glasgow’s secondary schools. In each school half of the pupils were selected for inclusion in the survey. In total, 9246 pupils took part in the study.

•The PDF document ‘Glasgow health and wellbeing questionnaire’ is a copy of the

questionnaire used.

•The SPSS datafile ‘Health 2013 assignment’ contains all of the survey responses.

However, a number of variables and areas included in the questionnaire have been excluded from the database since they are not relevant to this assignment.

In this assignment you have three tasks to address. Each task should be written up as a separate section of your assignment report.

Task 1 Profile the survey respondents

Investigate the following variables to ‘describe’ the pupils who took part in the survey.

Variable	Question number	Notes on the data
Gender	94	Categorical data
Age	3	Scale (measurement) data
Year group	4	Ordinal data
Self-esteem	8a-8g	Q8 is a standard instrument for measuring self-esteem. A score is calculated for those pupils who complete all of the instrument items. Raw scores (measurement data) are contained under the file variable Esteem (higher scores means higher levels of self-esteem). The variable Esteemgrp (categorical data) categorises the pupils into two groups – ‘high self-esteem’ and ‘low self-esteem’. Original responses to Q8a-8g have been removed.
Depression	9a-9j	Q9 is a standard instrument for measuring tendency towards depression. Again a score is calculated for pupils who complete all of the instrument items. Raw scores (measurement data) are contained under the file variable Depress (higher scores means increased likelihood of experiencing depression). The variable Depresgrp (categorical data) categorises the pupils into two groups – ‘less likely to experience depression’ and more ‘likely to experience depression’. Original responses to Q9a-9j have been removed.
Illness and disabilty	17	Categorical data
Asylum seekers	97a	Categorical data

Notes and suggestions for Task 1

Here you are expected to describe the characteristics (profile) of the responding pupils. What can you tell the reader about the pupils who took part in the survey? This description should draw on basic frequencies, measures of dispersion and measures of central tendency. In addition the data/variables should also be looked at in terms of associations and differences. Crosstabulation, correlation, and t-tests could all be deployed in generating a profile of the survey respondents. Please refer to the workshop notes for descriptions on how to carry out such procedures. You should also report any caveats (cautions) that you have identified with the data. Charts and diagrams may also be useful in presenting your data.

Task 2 Investigate the health data

Select one area from the following list and conduct analysis on the data. This analysis should attempt to identify which, if any groups of pupils (e.g. males/females, those with high or low self-esteem etc.) are more or less likely to engage in certain activities/behaviours.

Questionnaire section	Pages and question numbers	Notes on data
How do you feel?	Page 1 to page 5. Questions 5, 6, 7, 10a, 10b, 11a, 11b, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16.
Physical activity	Page 6 to page 8. Questions 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32.
Your Diet	Page 8 and page 9. Questions 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41
Smoking	Page 10 and page 11. Questions 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50	Q42 has been recoded. The new categories are ‘smoker’ and ‘nonsmoker’.
Drinking Alcohol & Drugs (this includes both alcohol and drug sections)	Page 12 and page 13 Questions 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56	Q51 has been recoded. The new categories are ‘regular drinker’ and ‘irregular/non-drinker’.

Notes and suggestions for Task 2

You should use the variables and profile generated in Task 1 to help in analysing the data in your chosen section. It can be useful to think about what you would expect to see in the data before you run the analysis. For example, you might speculate that males would be more likely to drink alcohol than females or that older pupils would be more likely than younger pupils to use cannabis. Thinking like this can help you generate questions to explore in the data. You should also report any caveats (cautions) that you have identified with the data. Again, crosstabulation, correlation, and t-tests could all be deployed in exploring the data. Please refer to the workshop notes for descriptions on how to carry out such procedures. Charts and diagrams may also be useful in presenting your data.

Task 3 Comparing your findings with other relevant studies

The final task is to look at your findings from Task 1 and Task 2 in relation to other relevant research and comment on any similarities and differences. For example, if you investigated smoking then you should look for studies on young people (secondary school age?) and smoking behaviour.

Notes and suggestions for Task 3

You are not expected to conduct a full literature review. However, you are expected to find a small number of relevant studies/articles and ask yourself the question, Too what extent are my findings in line with those from other studies? If your findings are not in line with those from other studies you should suggest why you think they are different. You should limit your search to the last ten years and, if possible, prioritise other national (UK) studies before international studies. Studies which involve meta-analysis (collecting and analysing the findings from many studies) can be particularly helpful in allowing you to quickly see where previous research has been conducted, where findings are in broad agreement, and where research findings have been contradictory. As usual, students are reminded to pay attention to presentation, language, structure and correct citation and use of references.

Length of assignment: 2000 words +/- 10%