Do punitive (punishment-based) interventions work in curtailing repeated truancy rates within a school environment?
Research Design
A 2 x 2 between- subjects factorial design will be implemented by combining a natural and longitudinal study design. Age (primary and secondary) and punitive punishment (fines or after-school detention) acting as our two independent variables, and rate of truancy acting as the dependent variable.
Justification
Natural-Longitudinal Research Design
Natural Experiment
• The independent variables are manipulated but only due to a naturally occurring event or circumstance. As such, random assignment of participants is caused by a naturally occurring exogenous source, usually the implementation of a new policy or guideline, in …show more content…
• Schools within Victoria will also only be used, as educational environments and expectations may differ across states. As such the results will only be generalizable to school within Victoria who come from a middle class socio-economic background.
Feasibility
Feasibility of the proposed study has been adjusted in order to consider the longitudinal aspects. Whilst longitudinal studies are time consuming, time taken to gather the required data is minimal. Within that data will already be possessed by the school and it is just a case of obtaining it. Further, there will be minimal financial outlay, as students are not required to know that they are participating within the study, rather the school will receive a contribution for their time.
Ethics
Given the nature of the data being collected – directly from school and pre-recorded data – this experiment will ask for an ethics exemption as no manipulations of variables will occur, only consent from the participating schools will be