Research Question:
If mothers have full-time employment outside the home, does it increase the number of disciplinary cases among the children?
Hypothesis
With increased in the number of hours a parent, specifically the mother, is employed outside the home, this increases the number of disciplinary cases among the children.
Variables
Independent Variable: Hours employed outside of home
Conceptual definition: The effect hours of work outside the home has on the dependent variable
Operational definition: They will be asked how many hours/week they work outside the home in a survey
Dependent variable: disciplinary cases
Conceptual definition: the effect of hours of work outside the home on disciplinary cases of children
Operational definition: they will be asked how many disciplinary infractions they have been involved in per semester from their school data.
The research also needs to put into consideration ‘hours employed in the home’ and ‘part-time employed mothers’ in order to find a base of comparison. In rare cases, stays at homes dads do exist and this happens to have significant effect on the disciplinary cases of the children hence should be considered in the study.
The methodology to be used will be sample survey that involves face to face interviews, use of questionnaires to the respondents. This will be conducted on both the kids and the parents. The kids will be interviewed in their schools while the parents will be interviewed in the neighborhood and at their places of work.
References
Baker, M., Milligan, K., & National Bureau of Economic Research (2011). Maternity leave and children's cognitive and behavioral development. Cambridge, Mass: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Creswell, J. W., & Plano, C. V. (2010). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Publications.
Gregg, P., & Washbrook, E. (2003). The Effects of Early Maternal Employment on Child Development in the UK.
Huerta, M. D., Adema, W., Baxter, J., Corak, M., Deding, M., Gray, M. C., . . . Waldfogel, J. (2011). Early Maternal Employment and Child Development in Five OECD Countries.
