Research Methods in Public Policy and Management

Format:          Electronic copy

Word limit:   2,200 words excluding title, tables, graphs and references but including footnotes. You will be penalized if you exceed this limit! (You will not be penalized for writing less than the limit)

Weight:          50% of the overall module mark

Instructions

Write a report which answers Questions 1, 2 and 3 about subjective well-being in the dataset described below. Your report can contain tables and graphs to supplement your content.

Your report should include a cover sheet which you can download from the KEATS Assessment page.

Your report should include an Appendix, into which you have copied and pasted all relevant SPSS output (screenshots are acceptable in the Appendix). This is to evidence that you have conducted the data analysis on SPSS, rather than another programme.

Notes:

• You must use SPSS to conduct your data analysis.
• You should report any relevant statistical tests using the conventions that you have been taught in the lectures and tutorials.
• Tables, graphs and charts can be used to supplement your report, but not used instead of the written aspects of the report. Therefore, you must comment on any table, graph or chart that you include in the report – tables/graphs/charts without accompanying commentary will not receive any marking credit.
• Any tables included in the report should be created yourself. Do not copy and paste tables from SPSS outputs into the main body of your report. However, graphs and charts may be copied and pasted from SPSS outputs.
• You may include references and can use a referencing style of your choice. If you include references, you should also include a corresponding bibliography.

Research Scenario:

Download the data file ‘Quantitative Coursework Data File: Covid 19.sav’ from the Assessment / Quantitative Research Coursework section of Keats.

This data file is part of the broader study ‘Understanding Society’, containing data from UK residents who have completed a short web-survey on different social topics. This survey covers the changing impact of the pandemic on the welfare of UK individuals, families and wider communities. The file for this assignment is based on April and May 2020, the first few months of lockdown in the UK.

The research aim of your coursework assignment is as follows:

To study the different components affecting mental health (measured by subjective well-being, SW), during the UK’s 2020 lockdown due to Covid-19.

The measure of interest for mental health – the variable SCGHQ2_DV – is based on the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). This measure converts valid answers to 12 questions of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) to a single scale by recoding 1 and 2 values on individual variables to 0, and 3 and 4 values to 1, and then summing, giving a scale running from 0 (the least distressed) to 12 (the most distressed). In other words, an increase in the mental health variable (SCGHQ2_DV) indicates a worsening in mental health, while a decrease indicates an improvement.

Data Information:

Below are the main variables that you will need for the coursework assignment. Please note that the data contain more variables than those listed here. You may need to recode variables in order to answer the various questions. You are welcome to use any of the additional variables in the data file to answer Question 3.

Label	Description
Age	Age of individual
Gender	Female = 1; Male = 0
Ethnicity	White British = 0; Other White = 1; Mixed = 2; Asian = 3; Black = 4; Other = 5
Household_income	Current monthly household income
Live_couple	Whether the individual is living in a couple or not 1 = Couple; 0 = Single
Health_condition	Whether the individual has a long-term health condition or not 1 = has a health condition; 0 = doesn’t have a health condition
Month	Month in 2020 that data was gathered 1 = May 2020; 0 = April 2020
SCGHQ2_DV	Subjective Well-being (SW) measured by the GHQ Total

Question 1. Patterns in subjective well-being (35% of total mark)

1. Using the dataset provided, create appropriate descriptive statistics for the current sample focusing on the variables below:

Subjective wellbeing, age, gender, ethnicity, household income, living in couple, existing health condition.

1. Present and compare the descriptive statistics on subjective well-being for the following groups:
2. Males and Females
3. The different ethnic groups
4. Those with and without an existing health condition

1. Test the null hypotheses that there are no significant differences in mean mental health scores for the following groups:
2. Males and Females
3. White and All others
4. April and May
5. Those with and without an existing health condition

Fully report your findings.

Question 2. Identifying factors affecting mental health (45% of total mark)

Generate the following regression model estimating the factors affecting mental health:

SW = b₀ + b₁(age) + b₂(gender) + b₃(white) + b₄(live_couple) + b₅(health_condition) + b₆(month) + b₇(household_income)

Fully report the findings from the model.

Critically evaluate the conclusions that can be made from this analysis.

Question 3. Analysing other factors affecting mental health (20% of total mark)

Carry out and report at least one additional analysis that addresses the coursework assignment’s research aim. Make sure that you justify your choice of analysis.

You can use any other available variables in the dataset, and/or recode existing variables where required.