This assignment is for a quantitative methods sociology class. This assignment is a critical methodological review of a recently published article that uses a multivariate analysis technique.
What you should do:
You need to summarize and evaluate the study, the summary should take up a lot less space and the focus should be on the evaluation. What the author did and what this is about.
The focus of this review is on methodological aspects, NOT other areas such as theoretical aspects. The journal article should be approached with the principles of research design in mind. Research designs can never be perfect so you must critique different aspects, which includes: sampling, issues are representativeness, non-response, measurement (including reliability and validity), theory testing (what theory the author wants to test and whether it is possible to test it with the measures and the data they are using: available measures/limitations of secondary analysis)
INCLUDE independent research on top of that provided in the journal.
You need to have a balanced discussion where you discuss BOTH strengths and weaknesses.
Questions to ask about the journal:
What are the aims of the study, how was the paper presented, how do they make use of previous literature.
Ask questions about research design: Are the variables used to capture key concepts of interest appropriate? Are they valid and reliable? Are there other measures in the literature that would be more appropriate? Anything that threatens the quality of the measure? (Not all measures are problematic or have limitations; make informed decisions)
How does theory inform the study? What are the research hypotheses? Are the authors really able to test the hypothesis?
Are the inferences being made and the conclusions appropriate?
Are research transparency concerns addressed? Regarding to how much detail the authors have addressed in the journal, for example, have they spoken about response rate, provided adequate detail about missing data, or item non-response)
How could the work be extended?
Is the sample appropriate?
In addition, please come up with a title for the paper. The name of the journal article is: Family and Gender Values in China: Generational, Geographic, and Gender Differences. The citation for this journal is: Hu, Y. and Scott, J. (2014) Family and Gender Values in China: Generational, Geographic and Gender Differences. Journal of Family Issues 37(9) 1267-1293
I have attached the journal aswell. Please contact me if you have any questons while completing this assignment.
