Establishing Reliability and Validity
In conducting a research or survey, the quality of the data collected in the research is of utmost importance. One’s assessment may be reliable and not valid and thus this is why it is important that when designing a survey, one should also come up with the methods of testing the reliability and validity of the assessment tools. For MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to conduct a survey, the questions they propose to use must pass the validity and reliability test for one to conclude that the survey is reliable and valid. This survey will try to find out the risk factors that contribute to drunken driving by teenagers or young adults.
Reliability can be defined as the statistical measurement of how consistent and repetitive a research tool or instrument can measure what it is purported to do (Litwin, 1995, p. 6). Validity on the other hand is the measure of how truly or correctly the tool or instrument can measure what it is designed to do (Miller & Kirk, 1986, p.19). Reliability and validity are asymmetrical, meaning that one can be able to achieve ideal reliability with no validity but with a perfect validity comes a perfect reliability. But theoretically, one cannot be able to achieve a perfect validity as no instrument or tool can perfectly be standardized and no assessment or experiment can be perfectly controlled (Miller & Kirk, 1995, p. 21). Normally, tests on reliability are done but none are done on validity. To assess the reliability and validity of the questions that MADD want to use in their survey, several tests will be run on the questions to evaluate the different types or reliabilities and validity. To establish the validity and reliability of this survey, a pilot survey ...
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...and validity of the questions that MADD wish to use, then we can have confidence that the survey data collected will be close to the true value and that it measures the risk factors that play a big role in teenage drunk driving. Having a perfect survey is not possible, but with good standardization of the research tools, we can be able to achieve a high level of reliability and hence a highly valid survey result.
Works Cited
Carmines, E. G., & Zeller, R. A. (1979). Reliability and validity assessment. London: Sage Publications Inc.
Goodwin, C. J. (2010). Research in psychology: Methods and design. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Kirk, J., & Miller, M. L. (1986). Reliability and validity in qualitative research. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Litwin, M. S. (1995). How to measure survey reliability and validity. London: Sage Publications Ltd.
Teenage drinking has become a big problem around the world the studies have shown between seventy to eighty percent of every teen has had an alcoholic beverage. (ClayPool 2) That is about half of the students in a public school. 1.9 million teens from the day they turned twelve to the age of twenty are considered heavy drinkers. (Well-connected 21) But only twelve out of fifteen actually have a problem drinking alcoholic beverages. (Goodwin 63) Many teens die in traffic accidents each day from the age sixteen to nineteen. There has been around 2,700 teens in the United States killed and almost 321,000 were treated for injuries suffered by motor-vehicle crashes, but then were released to go home. The cost to repair the damages of an alcohol-related accident is estimated to be around one-thousand, five- hundred all the way up to one-hundred, forty-eight billion dollars. ("Teenage" 64) But alcohol-related crashes also cost American taxpayers one-hundred billion dollars not just the driver. ("Drinking") Days of the week with the highest deat...
Hingson, Ralph. "Prevention of Drinking and Driving." Alcohol Research & Health. Winter 1996-1997: 219-226. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
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There are two basic psychometric properties, validity and reliability that have been used to evaluate the quality of scale development. Psychometric testing used to evaluate the quality of instrument (Polit& Beck, 2010).
Since MADD has been in existence there has been a 43% decline in alcohol related traffic fatalities (MADD stats and resources homepage). It has consistently been providing statistics on excessive drinking, complete drunk driving research, the effects of underage drinking, laws regarding alcohol, and current news stories. MADD is not just advertised on the television and library, but has continuously been able to reach the public through the use of the internet. The website www.madd.org has reached thousands of people to spread the word of the harmful effects of alcohol abuse whether the consumer is underage or not. The large load of ...
Alcohol is causing too many deaths. Each year, excessive drinking is responsible for the deaths of 80,000 people in the United States, 4,700 of which are young Americans (6). Alcohol by itself is dangerous; this danger is (made greater) when individuals consuming it are allowed to drive a vehicle. Research has shown that a pedestrian struck by a vehicle moving at 40 miles an hour has a fifty percent chance of getting killed as a result of the impact (9). A distracted or impaired driver will not be able to react as fast as a non-impaired driver, meaning a drunk driver is a more dangerous driver than a sober one.
The use of alcohol by adolescents is implicated in about one third of all fatal crashes involving teens.
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Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...
Teenage alcohol abuse is one of the major problems that affect academic performance, cause health problems and is responsible for the death of teenage drivers and sometime their passengers. Many teens drink because they think it is cool and do not understand the dangers of drinking alcohol. In 2008 a survey on the students views on alcohol was conducted in the Atlanta Public School System of 4,241 students surveyed results showed 74% of sixth graders felt there was a health risk while 25% felt there was no health risk; 81% of eighth graders felt there was a health risk, while 19% felt there was none; 82% of tenth graders felt there was a health risk, while 18% felt there was none, and 84% of twelve graders felt there was a health risk, while 15% felt there was none. Given these results on average of all grades, 20% of the students surveyed were unaware of the dangers of alcohol use. If one calculates, using the formular of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (2003), “three teens are killed each day when they drink alcohol and drive. At least six more die every day from other alcohol-related causes” (table 79). The impact of this student population’s lack of knowledge equates to 49 of those students per week who most likely will die because they do not understand the dangers of alcohol.2
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Alcohol at a young age can include many serious injuries, including vehicle accidents. According to M.A.D.D. (Mothers against Drunk Driving)”In 2010 the highest drunk driving rates were found amongst those ages 21 to 25 (23.4%), and 18 to 20 (15.1%). After age 25, the drunk driving rates decrease.” Many new drivers are around the age of ...
Examination of the Dynamics of Individuals Who Use a Safe Ride Program Instead of Driving Home While Drunk." American Journal of Drug & Alcohol Abuse 31.2 (2005): 305-325. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Apr. 2011.
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