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INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES IN RESEARCH
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INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES IN RESEARCH
Post a cohesive summary of the following discussion below:
Post your research question. Describe the independent and dependent variables.
Identify the level of measurement of both the independent and dependent variables. Provide a brief rationale for your classification of each variable.
Discuss considerations of analyzing data related to each variable based on its level of measurement.
Identify any advantages or challenges you might encounter in your statistical analysis of each variable.
DISCUSSION
Post your research question. Describe the independent and dependent variables.
Research question: Can primary care patients use NP-guided 4-week online stress-reduction skills training to lower anxiety, depression, and perceived stress during the COVID pandemic.
The independent variable (IV) is the stress-reduction skills training. This variable is a dichotomous nominal level variable. Participants did not receive this intervention before the study and will receive the interventions at the end of the study.
The dependent variables are level of stress, anxiety, and depression.
Identify the level of measurement of both the independent and dependent variables. Provide a brief rationale for your classification of each variable.
The level of perceived stress is a dependent variable measured on a 10-item perceived stress scale. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is the most widely used psychological instrument for measuring stress perception (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983). It is a measure of the degree to which situations in one’s life are appraised as stressful. Items were designed to tap how unpredictable, uncontrollable, and overloaded respondents find their lives.
Anxiety is a dependent variable measured on a 7-item anxiety scale (GAD-7). The GAD-7 is a valid and efficient tool for screening anxiety and assessing its severity in clinical practice and research (Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams, & Löwe, 2006).
Depression is a dependent variable measured on The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ). It is a self-administered, reliable, and valid measure of depression severity (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001).
The researcher will also gather a variety of descriptive data about participants. The surveys will be distributed with questions about age, ethnicity, employment status, marital status, gender, presence of chronic health condition, availability of health insurance, and income. It would be helpful also to include questions about whether a participant had the COVID infection or not and if any family member had a COVID infection. Age is the only ratio-level measurement in this data; all other variables are nominal and can provide additional study characteristics. For example, the researcher can see how many participants with a history of COVID infection participated in the study versus participants without it.
All three dependent variables, stress level, anxiety, and depression, will be measured by interval-level measurements using scales. The interval-level of measurement provides information about ranking order as in ordinal-level measurement, but it also gives magnitude (Polit, 2010, p.7). All scales are artificial and created by humans to provide a tool for the measurement of complex and abstract concepts (Gray, Grove, & Sutherland, 2017, p. 368).
Discuss considerations of analyzing data related to each variable based on its level of measurement. Identify any advantages or challenges you might encounter in your statistical analysis of each variable.
As Polit (2010, p.9) recommended, the researcher needs to use the highest level of measurement possible to analyze data in various ways. In the proposed research, descriptive statistics such as demographics can be uploaded as a data matrix using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) data files. Qualitative data analysis methods will be used, such as coding data, generating, reducing themes, and contextualizing the results (Gray, Grove, & Sutherland, 2017). It will allow the researcher to analyze and describe participants. On the other hand, the interval-level measurement will provide a possibility of hypothesis testing using probability laws (Polit, 2010, p.13). For example, the researcher can use paired samples t-test to compare the baseline with follow-up scores on the scales.
The proposed research will use a multivariate statistic due to multiple variables assessed, and it also will add challenges in statistical analysis (Polit, 2010, p. 14).
Overall, using the data analysis plan proposed by Polit (2010, p. 14) should help a researcher conduct sound research.
References:
Cohen, S., Kamarck, T., & Mermelstein, R. (1983). A global measure of perceived stress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 24, 386-396. Retrieved from https://www.sprc.org/system/files/private/event-training/Penn%20College%20-%20Perceived%20Stress%20Scale
Gray, J.R., Grove, S.K., & Sutherland, S. (2017). Burns and Grove’s the practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. (2001). The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of general internal medicine, 16(9), 606–613. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1525-1497.2001.016009606.x
Polit, D. (2010). Statistics and data analysis for nursing research (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc.
Spitzer, R. L., Kroenke, K., Williams, J. B., & Löwe, B. (2006). A brief measure for assessing generalized anxiety disorder: the GAD-7. Archives of internal medicine, 166(10), 1092–1097. https://doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.10.1092
