Case:

Does Paying Employees to Get Fit Pay Off?

Giving money to sedentary workers can be a good incentive for them to improve their fitness, and it can be a cost-effective way for companies to reduce absenteeism, according to recent research. Researchers found that people paid to attend lunchtime fitness classes had higher fitness levels. Not only that, but when the researchers followed-up at the end of the year, they found that those employees who were paid to attend fitness classes had fewer absences than employees who had not been given a financial boost to get fit. The research was done at a manufacturing company that had 3 shifts per day: 7am-3pm, 3pm11pm, and 11pm-7am. Each shift had a "lunch hour" half-way through the shift, and the company hired fitness instructors to give fitness classes during the lunch hours to all the employees. The company offered employees on the 7am - 3pm shift no financial incentive to attend the fitness classes, but employees on the 3pm-11pm shift were offered $5 for each class they attended, and employees on the 11pm - 7am shift were offered $10 for each class they attended.

For the period of the research, employees stayed on the same shift the whole time. The research followed employees for three months during which time the employees volunteered to wear "fitbit" style wristbands that recorded their resting heart rates and variability in their heart rates, and transmitted this data on their fitness levels to the researchers at the end of every month. The fitness instructors recorded attendance at each class and shared their attendance records with the researchers at the end of each month. At the end of the year, the researchers obtained absenteeism records from the company for all employees for that year and the prior year. The researchers found that employees who were in the $5 and $10 groups attended 1 fitness class per week, on average, and reported a 5% improvement in their fitness levels. Those who had not been paid attended only 1 fitness class per month, on average, and showed only 2% improvement.

Upon analyzing the data, the researchers found that the fitness improvements in the $5 and $10 groups were not significantly different from each other, but were significantly higher than the improvement in the no-incentive group. When looking at the follow-up absenteeism data, the researchers found that employees in both paid groups had 1 less absence for the year, on average, compared to the previous year, whereas those in the noincentive group had no change in their absence levels from the prior year. The researchers noted that there was higher turnover in the afternoon (3pm-11pm) and overnight (11pm - 7am) shifts as compared to the early-day shift (7am - 3pm), but considering the high cost of employee absence, they concluded that offering lunchtime fitness classes with small monetary incentives - no matter how small - is a cost-effective way to reduce absenteeism.

Questions to answer:

1. In what ways does the research design described in the article fit or not fit the ideal version of a longitudinal research design? Explain your answer using information from the text.

2. What were the independent and dependent variables in this research?

3. Identify two (2) threats to internal validity that could exist in this research given the research design. Explain how each threat applies to this specific research.

4. What statistical technique should have been used to analyze the relationship between the independent and dependent variables?

5. What are the four steps of program evaluation discussed in this course? Using the research described in this case, outline what should occur in the four steps of program evaluation.

Case 2:

Mom's job changes affect kids' behaviour

OTTAWA - Children of mothers who frequently change jobs tend to have higher levels of behavioural problems than children whose mothers have stable jobs or whose mothers stay at home, according to research conducted at the Applied Research Branch of Human Resource Development Canada. "What we're looking at is stability," said Paul Roberts, author of the research. "Stability is important for children, whether it be relating to maternal employment or even maternal nonemployment." In an era where job security is elusive, the study raises questions about whether governments should adopt policies that bolster job security. "It points to job stability as being an important factor that governments have to look at for families," Roberts said.

The research, made public by Human Resources Development Canada, is based on data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), a major federal governmentfunded research project that is tracking thousands of young Canadians from birth to adolescence. The NLSCY research uses a nationally representative sample of children, with the children in this particular research ranging in age from 6 to 7 years in 1994 and reaching the age of 10 to 11 years in 1999. The sample was obtained through a cluster sampling technique, which involves random selection from clusters of children across age ranges and Canadian regions. The final sample included all 1333 children who had no missing data for the period of the research.

Roberts's research, titled The Effect of Changes in Maternal Employment and Family Composition on Children's Behaviour, found that mother's job changes can have a significant impact on their children's behaviour, especially for women who moved in and out of several jobs, said Roberts, a senior research analyst with the Canadian Council on Social Development. "Mothers who were experiencing high levels of transition, that is multiple employment changes over the period from 1994-98, their children were most likely to have higher or elevated levels of behavioural problems."

The behavioural problems in the case of mother's job changes were most often forms of indirect aggression, said Roberts. Changes in family composition, such as parents splitting up, tended to be linked more to physical aggression. However, not all transition was bad, Roberts found. If a mother left a poor-quality job for a better-quality job, it tended to cancel out the negative effect of the transition on the children's behavioural problems. Still, the children with the fewest behavioural problems were those whose mothers changed jobs the least and had the most rewarding jobs - whether they worked in or out of the home.

The results mean that an economic downturn which throws many people out of work could result in higher levels of behavioural problems among children, Roberts said. The results of the research played a key role in shaping government policy on children and youth.

Questions to answer:

1. What were the variables used in this research? Make sure to identify the role of each variable (e.g., independent, dependent, etc.). Draw a box-and-arrow diagram to represent the researchers' theoretical framework.

2. Identify the research design used in this research and justify your answer.

3. What statistical test would you use to examine the following research hypotheses?

a. Children of mothers who frequently change jobs have more behavioural problems than children whose mothers have stable jobs or those whose mothers stay at home.

b. The mothers' salary level and the number of jobs held in a five-year period are related to the frequency of behavioural problems in their children.

4. Identify two (2) threats to internal validity that could exist in this research due to the research design that was used. Explain how each threat applies to this specific research.

5. Discuss the external validity of this research based on the sampling approach.

6. Should the results of this survey "play a key role in shaping government policy?" In answering this question, consider both the internal and external validity of the research.