Parental Regulation, Self-Regulation, and the Role of Technology in College Transition by Hofer - Article Example

Quantitative research article for critique December 6, Quantitative research article for critique and Introduction Hoferauthored the article, ‘the electronic tether: Parental regulation, self-regulation, and the role of technology in college transition,’ which the Journal of the First-year Experience & Students in Transition published in the year 2008. The title succeeds in summarizing the theme and content of the article and therefore offers a hook to the audience. In identifying two types of regulations and noting the role of technology in transition among a target group, a reader understands that the article explores effects of technology on college students’ autonomy. The article is also short, another feature that helps in capturing the audience’s attention. The article however, lacks a formal introduction and this means lack of background information on the subject matter. Once attention of the audience has been captured, developing significance of the article is necessary to build up interest and facilitate readership. The introduction facilitates this by offering background and identifying significance of a study to the audience and this lacks. The audience is therefore forced to read deep into the paper for more insight. The first paragraph of the paper could have been intended to be an introduction but failure to present it in its own section undermines its effectiveness. Research Problem Hofer identifies the study’s research problem in both the abstract and the first paragraph of the article. According to the author, students reduce communication with their parents as the students join college despite existence of technological applications that aid long distance communication. The author notes little knowledge that exists on the rate of communication between the students and their parents, subject matter of the communication, and the role of personal development on the communication during the students’ years of transition to college life as the research problem. The problem is significant to stakeholders to education such as college administrators, parents, and the students because of negative effects with which technology such as the social media and other technology applications have been associated. Paul, Baker, and Cochran (2012) note that such applications have negative effects on students’ academic performance and duration spent on the applications mediates the effect. Almu and Buharo (2014) support this and notes that students who are addicted to technological applications dedicate lesser time to their studies and this influences performance. Time spent on communication with parents is part of the duration that mediate effects of technology on students performance and this supports significance of the author’s research problem to the stakeholders who can apply measures for reducing the level of communication between students and their parents, during the transition period. Understanding the communication and trend during the transition period is therefore significant to monitoring effects of the communication on performance (Hofer, 2008). Literature Review The study’s literature review section is comprehensive, analytical, and reliable. It considered literature on its subject matter with tasks that adolescents engage in as they develop into adulthood as an example of discussed knowledge. The section also identifies development of autonomy among students. Quality and diversity of the explored literature is another significant element of the section. Most of the used literatures in the section are peer-reviewed articles, published in journals. This means that the sources are reviewed for reliability and validity before their publication and therefore justifies the developed research problem. Diversity in sources of the applied journals for literature review also establishes reliability of developed knowledge and identified information gap by showing extensiveness of the literature review. Two of the used articles, though authored by the same person, were published by different journals and this shows diversity in professional perspectives towards development of knowledge gap and problem statement. Another strength of the literature review is its consideration of literature over a long period. The range of publication dates of the applied articles is from the year 1996 to the year 2006 and the decade long period suggests an extensive recruitment of sources for literature review to suggest validity of developed knowledge gap. Consequently, the audience is assured of originality in the scope of study and an objective driven study for knowledge development (Hofer, 2008). The literature review also explores each of the elements of the study’s measures. Another quality of the literature review section is its triangulation approach to identification of resources for use. The author explored existing and independent literature and literature from internal research initiatives. This offered an opportunity for eliminating potential bias as well as an opportunity for ensuring rich literature. Each of the sources, external and internal, could be subject to bias by not both and integrating the two sources helped to ensure reliability of explored literature. One of the common finding from the external and internal sources is transition in autonomy as adolescents adapt to college life. Just like Arnet, an external source noted that students seek autonomy as they advance in age; internal source analysis revealed that college students prefer autonomy because those who are less regulated reported higher level of satisfaction in their relationships with their parents (Hofer, 2008). Even though a research problem is presented, its presentation before literature review suggests that it was developed before exploration of existing literature on the subject. the deductive approach identifies subjective nature of the problem’s development and associated vulnerability to personal interest. A summary of the literature review section to identify knowledge gap on the subject, and therefore align the research problem with literature review results, would resolve weakness of the deductive approach but the literature review lacks this. this therefore restrict the role of literature review to development of the study’s framework and methodology but lack of theoretical or conceptual framework further undermines significance of the literature review section to the study. This is however not a threat to a study’s reliability or validity (Hofer, 2008). Procedure and Methods Research procedures face ethical issues that a researcher should ensure. Informed consent and autonomy are some of the issue and requires that participation in a research be out of the participants’ will and that the participants must be informed of their participation (Speziale, Streubert, and Carpenter, 2011). A researcher should also ensure that applied research procedure does not expose research participants to harm, and should there be exposure, then such should be minimized (Gallin and Ognibene, 2012). The study ensures morality through this moral issue as participation is based on informed consent and the scope of the study identifies no harm the participants. Even though the author does not mention participants’ informed consent in the study, participation was voluntary because it was based on students’ decision to use offered links and complete a survey. The scope of the study that does not involve biological, psychological, or emotional treatment or effect means that the study presented no harm to research participants. In addition, the study’s procedure is precise but elaborate for ease of replication (Hofer, 2008). A sufficient sample size was used for the study but the methods suggest application of convenience sampling, a non-probability sampling strategy that is susceptible to sampling bias and is therefore a threat to reliability. The sample was diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity but not in terms of age. Online questionnaire was used for data collection and its advantages such as cost effectiveness and convenience could explain the high response that the study realized. Questionnaires also limit potential researcher’s influence on participants’ responses and integrating closed and open-ended questions expanded the basis for the study’s data. The author also identifies the study’s measure and this facilitates ease of replication of the study. The methods section is therefore comprehensive to allow for replication but identifies threat to reliability of the study (Hofer, 2008). Data Analysis The author is not explicit on use of statistical software in data analysis but the use of SPSS software in developing research questionnaire suggests that the same tool was used for data analysis. This then suggests validity of the results because of the involved accuracy in the software usage. The analysis section is further comprehensive as it communicates relevant analysis results through narratives and through tables. In addition, data analysis includes descriptive statistics, percentages, and inferential statistics through correlation. The results section is also organized by subheading and this helps in identification of the results (Hofer, 2008). Discussion, Summary, and Conclusion The discussion section reiterates the study’s results and interprets the findings. A sufficient overview of the study is also offered and this allows the audience to capture the study at a glance. Outlining the summary separately from the discussion section would however make it more conspicuous and help in achieving this objective. Recommendations are also offered to stakeholders, though in a passive voice. The author notes that understanding the relationship between students-parents communication and autonomy should be used in first years’ orientation and in guidance and counselling programs. Educating parents of the role of their communication on their children’s education and educating parents and students on effects the communication are also recommended and this offer bases for further research and development of action plans (Hofer, 2008). Conclusion The article has some flaws such as deductive development of research problem and use of non-probability sampling but it has a significant level or reliability and validity, and it meets ethical requirements. These, together with its reliable source mean that it can be used to inform a new research. References Almu, A. and Buharo, A. (2014). Effect of mobile social networks on secondary school students. International Journal of Computer Science & Information Technologies, 5(5), 6333-6335. Gallin, J. and Ognibene, F. (2012). Principles and practice of clinical research. San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Hofer, B. (2008). The electronic tether: Parental regulation, self regulation, and the role of technology in college transition. Journal of the First-year Experience & Students in Transition, 20(2), 9-24. Paul, J., Baker, H., and Cochran, J. (2012). Effects of online social networking on student academic performance. Computer in Human Behavior, 28(6), 2117-2127. Speziale, H., Streubert, H., and Carpenter, D. (2011). Qualitative research in nursing: Advancing the humanistic imperative. Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Read More