The Place For My Writers Notes

Original posting 26 September 2008

Serendipity -- that's when doing one thing produces a result somewhere else than you expected. Making hand cranked ice cream helps you lose weight because of the exercise, or some such.

In preparing for a course on research methods, I am reading some articles on various kinds of measurement and surveys and so forth. One of these from 1985 by Alwin and Krosnick compares ranking -- picking the most and least important items -- with rating -- giving each one a selected level of importance. Hohum stuff, capable of putting even academics to sleep. However, their experimental survey fascinated me because it is a measurement of parental evaluation of the qualities of children -- what do parents think are the most important qualities for a child to have? Of course, the results are buried in this dry academic comparison of measurement methods.

Before I go into their results, take a minute and consider for yourself which of these qualities you consider most important or least important for a child to have:

1. That he has good manners
2. That he tries hard to succeed
3. That he is honest
4. That he is neat and clean
5. That he has good sense and sound judgment
6. That he has self-control
7. That he acts like a boy (she acts like a girl)
8. That he gets along well with other children
9. That he obeys his parents well
10. That he is responsible
11. That he is considerate of others
12. That he is interested in how and why things happen
13. That he is a good student

You might also want to consider what you think parents in the 1980s would have considered most important or least important.

I took it upon myself to really look at their results. Two thirds of the parents consider honesty as being one of the most important qualities. That's two out of every three parents. The next cluster is down around one third of the parents -- one in three -- and includes obedience to parents, good sense and sound judgment, responsibility, considerate, and self-control. The next three are in the high 20s and include good manners, tries hard to succeed, and interested in how and why things happen.

Then down at the bottom, with about 25%, or one in four parents, there is neat and clean, acts like a boy or girl, and gets along well with other children. And with just 23.6%, there's being a good student. The least important item on the list is being a good student.

Incidentally, ranking does change this a little bit. In that case, the three most important are honesty, good sense, and responsibility. The three least important are being neat and clean, being a good student, and the very least important is acting like a boy or a girl.

Either way, I think these are interesting results. I think it's too bad they didn't ask the children what they thought the parents believed -- that would've made a wonderful comparison. Still, cleanliness, gender-appropriate actions, getting along with others, and being a good student aren't important to parents? Honesty, good sense, responsible, considerate, self-control -- this is what parents want?

As Mr. Spock would say, fascinating. And they published those results in a study on measurement methods. Serendipity!