Sociological Research II Term Paper

Term Paper Instructions

1. Name your independent and dependent variables. State the numeric values they take on and describe precisely how they are scored on the California Family Risk Assessment. State the maximum and minimum possible numeric scores a household can be given on both the independent and dependent variables and state how a household gets both the minimum and maximum score on each variable.  To be able to do this, examine your item on the CFRA. Describe how the probability of maltreatment changes or doesn’t change as a function of risk scores.

Hints: For all independent variables on the California Family Risk Assessment (CFRA) and for the dependent variable you all share, the lowest possible numeric value or “score” is zero (0).  You can see this for independent variables by looking at the CFRA form on BB.  Every lettered response alternative a., b., etc., has a number that is its numeric value shown to its right on the form. “Response alternatives” are the same as “variable values” or “values of a variable”.

More hints: The following independent variables on the CFRA all have two possible response alternatives (i.e. variable values), lettered a. and b. and have maximum possible numeric values or scores of one (1):  N1, N3-N7, A1 – A4, A8, and A9.  A6 also has two possible response alternatives (i.e. variable values) but has a maximum numeric value or score of two (2). “Numeric values” are the same as “scores” or “risk scores”.

More hints: One CFRA independent variable, N2, has a maximum possible score of three (3) and the person calculating the score for N2 is instructed to “assign the highest score that applies”. (all the cases (households) in the databases you have used for your analysis were scored by child welfare workers on real cases in the field—i.e. out there in reality land).

More hints: Six CFRA independent variables have maximum possible scores arrived at by following an instruction like this:  “Check applicable items and add for score”.  To see this, look at the CFRA form. These variables are N8 – N10; A5, A7, and A10.  The maximum possible scores for these variables vary from two (2) (for variable N8) to three (3) (for variables N9, N10, A5, A7, and A10). All these variables get their maximum possible scores when all “applicable items” are checked or noted by the scorer as present in the case.  These response alternatives b., c., etc., are distinct from response alternative a., which, for these variables is always designated “not applicable”.