Online data collection for children from low income families

[rong huang]

Hi all,

My name is Rong Huang and I am a Ph.D. student at the University at Albany. I am currently designing my dissertation, which focuses on the cognitive capacities of children living in poverty.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this study now must take place via online data collection. I am concerned about recruitment from this population, as these children may not have stable internet access at home, which makes online testing even more difficult.

Does anyone here have any experience with doing online experiments with children from low-income families? What strategies worked best for you?

Any suggestions or experiences are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, 

[Ilaria Berteletti]

Hi, I imagine that not all school districts are doing this, but ours (in MD) is providing computers and hotspots for internet to all children who request one. This means that low SES are provided with the equipment you need for your study. I'm sure this is a privileged situation but you might be able to find a number of school districts that provide such support and try recruiting your population from these areas.

Ilaria

[jkhart...@gmail.com]

I don't have any experience with specifically recruiting low-income families (though we do get low income families as part of our broad recruitment strategy). Just thinking about technology, I think a lot depends on what you want to do. Do you want them to fill out a survey? Or do you want them to stream video? The first shouldn't be too bad.

I think Ilaria makes a useful point: last I heard, low-income families were more likely to use phones and tablets than laptops. So you will want to make sure the tech you are using is mobile-friendly.

Joshua K Hartshorne

Assistant Professor

Boston College

[rong huang]

Hi, 

Thanks for the information. It is great to know that. Do you know how to check whether the school districts are provided with the devices? Is this a federal support program or other fund support?

Rong

[rong huang]

Yes, this is a great point. For my study, I need to record kids' verbal responses based on some visual prompts and questions, so probably tablets is necessary. I am still thinking about ways to make the tasks available for those children. 

Thank you both， 

Rong

[Lynn Santelmann]

If you're going to ask families to complete experiments on school-district provided equipment, you probably are going to have to get IRB approval from the school district. From what I know in my state, most are provided by the school district, using funds from the state and maybe grants from the federal government. 

You should also make sure your participants can run the experiments - many have the websites that kids can access very restricted. The savvy kids can hack around this, but I'm pretty sure that's not a representative sample of kids!

Lynn

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Lynn Santelmann

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