Chapter Three: Methodology
Research Design
The study uses a cross-sectional research design that employs the chi-square test of association to test H1, H10, H2 and H20 and an independent samples t-test to H3 and H30.
The chi-square test of association is used in data analysis to discover if there is a relationship between categorical variables. For example, a researcher may want to establish whether there is an association between a voter?s degree level and political affiliation. Kaur (2013) describes a categorical variable as a variable that has two or more subsets of set objects. Common examples of categorical variables include gender and ethnicity. For H1 and H10 in the current study, the two categorical variables are parental alcoholic status (COA and non-COA) and, qualification to UC and CSU schools (yes or no). H2 and H20 have parental alcoholic status (COA and non-COA) and fresh man year completion (yes or no). Rewriting H1, H10, H2 and H20 we get:
H1: There is no association between parental alcoholism and qualification into UC and CSU schools.
H10: There is an association between parental alcoholism and qualification into UC and CSU schools.
H2: There is no association between COA?s completion of freshman year in college
H20: There is no association between COA?s completion of freshman year in college
