Running Head: Impacts of Poverty on School-Aged Children
Methodology Plan

Study Design Plan

This study will employ longitudinal cohort study design. A cohort study is when a group of individuals who share conditions are compared to a group who is not affected by the conditions (Grinnell, 2018). The group of individuals who share conditions must be connected in some way or have experiences the same life events (Grinnell, 2018). Both groups will be sampled over time (Grinnell, 2018). This study will be conducted by mailing paperback surveys to individuals in the Memphis metro area during January 2020 to May 2020. The survey will be poverty based questions and will be mailed to both the experimental and control group. The experimental group will consist individuals in poverty, while the control group will consist of middle and upper class individuals.

Sampling Plan

This study will also use systematic random sampling. In systematic random sampling, the first element from a list is selected randomly, then every nth element is selected (Grinnell, 2018). The nth number is selected by dividing the total number of cases in a population by the number of cases needed for the sample (Grinnell, 2018). In this study, I will gather a list of addresses of families who have school-aged children in poverty and school-aged children in middle or upper class in the Memphis metro area. Once addresses are selected, I will mail paperback surveys to families with a return envelope and stamp. My goal for this study is to have 70 participants, so I will mail out 150 surveys to ensure I achieve my goal or more. I will mail 75 surveys to families who have school-aged children in poverty and the other 75 surveys to families of school-aged children in middle or upper class. If I receive more participants than expected, I will do systematic random sampling again until I result in 78 participants total. I want to result in 78 participants total in case anyone decides to drop out of the study. To promote families to complete my survey, I will inform them that whomever completes the full study will receive resources, such as food, support, or funds. I will also encourage parents to ask the children my survey questions and allow children in 5th grade or higher to complete the survey on their own or with their parent’s assistance.

Data Collection Plan

The purpose of my study is to collect data that supports poverty has a negative impact on educational achievement and mental health. The beginning of my survey will be demographic information. I will ask questions like child’s age, child’s gender, child’s race, parent’s employment status, parent’s annual income, family’s socioeconomic status, and general questions about poverty. The general questions about poverty will be similar to the following questions: “Is child poverty an issue in the United States?” or “Does poverty affect children’s educational achievement?”. Then, I will ask questions about educational achievement. These questions will be similar to: “Do you (child) believe you have all the resources needed to succeed in school?” or “Is your family supportive of your education?”. Next, I will ask questions about mental health. Mental health questions will be similar to: “Do you spend at least 3 hours a day with your parents?” or “Have you experienced any trauma that affects your educational achievement?”. Lastly, I would leave a box for participants to leave any additional feedback or if they would like to go into detail with any question.

Human Protection Plan

Attached to the survey I will mail to participants will be their protection plan. In the protection plan, I will discuss how the participant’s privacy and confidentiality, informed consent, and voluntary participation is important in my study. I will inform participant the purpose of my study, how many participants I am expecting, an overview of questions that’ll be asked in the survey, the expected length of my study, risks, and benefits. Possible risks of my study could be a psychological risk that makes participants remember traumatic experiences from the past. I would also inform participants that they are able to withdraw from the study at any time if they feel discomfort. If the participants withdraw, any previous results they’ve submitted will stay in my study data and they will not affect future data. In addition, the benefit of my study will be resources provided to families at the completion of the study. Furthermore, the surveys I receive should not have a name on them. They only connection to my participants would be their address. Their address would be kept in a private safe. The records from the survey will also be kept private. If any information needs to be publish, the public will not be able to view client’s personal information. Researchers and government agencies are the only ones able to access direct results from participants. Lastly, I would inform participants that their choice to be in the study is voluntary. At the end of their protection plan, I will provide check boxes beside whether the participant gives consent or does not give consent to be in the study.

My study will be very diverse. It will contain different socioeconomic statuses, but individuals must live in the metro Memphis area. I chose Memphis, because Memphis is one of major cities affected by poverty in Tennessee. Anyone living outside of the metro Memphis area will not be able to participate in the study.

Limitations

One of the biggest limitations of this study is that people view individuals in poverty like everyone else. People think that individuals in poverty have the same resources needed to succeed as individuals in upper and middle class. For future studies, it is important that people change their view of individuals in poverty. They must understand that individuals do have jobs and work, but they need other resources to survive.

References

Grinnell Jr, R.M. (2018). Social Work Research and Evaluation: Foundations of Evidence-