ILLUSTRATIVE ARTICLE: SURVEY RESEARCH

Every year hundreds of thousands of U.S. college students travel to Florida, Mexico, or similar sunny locales for spring break. For the most part, everybody involved-students, their universities, their parents, and the communities that they are traveling to-realizes that spring break can also be a dangerous time for college students: Students consume more alcohol during spring break and the risks associated with over-consumption are more prevalent. In a survey study conducted by Patrick, Morgan, Maggs, and Lefkowitz (2011), male and female college students completed a survey related to their perceptions of their friends' "understandings" of spring break behaviors. That is, students were surveyed to see if their friends would "have their back" during spring break.

First, acquire and read the following article:

Patrick, M. E., Morgan, N., Maggs, J. L., & Lefkowitz, E. S., (2011) "I got your back": Friends' understandings regarding college student Spring Break behavior. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40, 108-120.

Then, after reading the article, consider the following:

1. What kinds of questions were included in the survey? Identify examples of each.

2. How and when was the survey administered? What are the potential problems with their administration strategy?

3. What was the nature of the sampling strategy? What was the final sample size?

4. What was the response rate for the survey?

5. Describe the demographic profile of the sample.

6. Do you think that these findings generalize to all college students? Why or why not?

7. Describe at least one finding that you found particularly interesting or surprising.