Was The Study Qualitative Research

1. Was the study qualitative or quantitative? Why?

It was a quantitative study because it was assessing whether certain factors predict parental involvement. Cresswell explains that “some quantitative research problems require that you explain how one variable affects another” (Creswell). Therefore, I infer that assessing whether certain factors predict an outcome is best suited to quantitative research because it involves explaining how the variables affect each other.

2. What was the research problem for the study?

Creswell states that “The problem being addressed (in the parent involvement study (Deslandes & Bertrand,2005) is that we know little about what factors relate to parental involvement in secondary-level schooling.” (Creswell).

Forty-six percent (354) of the participants were parents of Secondary I students, 30% (231) were parents of Secondary II students, and 24% (185) were parents of Secondary III students. Nearly 51% of the students were girls and 49% were boys. Forty-seven percent of the students were first born in their family, 37% second born, 13% third born, and 3% fourth and fifth born, respectively.” (Deslandes & Bertrand, 2005)

They further analyze the demographics of the sample were as follows:

“Approximately 84% of the respondents were mothers, and 13% were fathers. The other respondents were either stepmothers or stepfathers, or others. Seventy percent of the participants were employed outside of the home. Seventy percent lived in a traditional family, and 30% lived in a nontraditional one, which corresponds exactly to what is being reported in the Quebec population in general.” (Deslandes & Bertrand,

In these paragraphs, the authors rely on the model of the parent involvement process, and they discuss the literature surrounding each of the four major factors that are expected to influence parental involvement. They begin by reviewing the literature about the demographic or personal factors such as family size and educational level, then they proceed to review the literature about the major factors in the study that they predict will influence parental involvement—parents’ role construction, parents’ self-efficacy, parents’ perceptions of teacher invitations, and parents’ perceptions of student invitations. In this way, the introduction establishes the research that has been reported in the literature on each of the four factors in the study and foreshadows the research questions that will be addressed in the study.”