Running Head: Single Parent Upbringing Single Parent Upbringing Fernando Pupo SO 300 Research Methods Park University The focused question for my research is: How being raised by a single parent affects how children and their development? In order to make our research successful we should conduct research about similar researches done in the past on similar or related topics with the same outcome. The same will be a part of the Literature Review of our research which includes all the scholarly articles that we can study during the course of our research. This will help us to broaden our thinking and help us to think ideas which we might have missed. Thus conducting a literature review is an essential part of a research process. It is also not possible for us to go use the entire article as a part of our research process or else the essence of our research questions would get diluted, thus conducting a literature review should be done with utmost care. We shall take notes from the different articles we review and include those notes as literature reviews in the report. An article which I reviewed in the course of the study was “Are Married Parents Really Better for Children? What Research Says about the Effects of Family Structure on Child well-being” by Mary Parke. The topic mentioned above and my research topic is very similar and the main scope of research by Mary Parke is the effect of family structure on the wellbeing of children. There is not a very big difference in the topic of my research. A thorough study of the topic helped me to refine my research question. Earlier my research question was focussed only on the growth and development of a child under single parenting. But with the study of this paper I changed the research topic to “The effects of single parenting on the well being of children”. Thus now my study not only included the affects of single parenting on the growth and development of a child, but also on how the same child lived as an adult and if the single parenting had any significant impact on the life of the same child as an adult. The basic question asked by Mary Parke in her study is “How the changes in family structure have affected the well being of children”. The topic is very explicit in nature and clearly states the possible outcome. There can be only two outcomes for this research whether the changes in family structure witnessed over the last few decades have or have not affected the well being of a child grown up under single parenting. The major ideas of the study by Mary Parke was that the if single parenting effects the well being of children, then how can marriages be made more stronger in order to avoid the effects single parenting has on the well being of children. The study also tries to find out the differences between a child who is raised under two parents and those raised by single parenting. It also looks at if there exists any significant differences between the well-being of these two.

1. Running Head: Single Parent Upbringing
Single Parent Upbringing
Fernando Pupo
SO 300 Research Methods
Park University
The focused question for my research is: How being raised by a
single parent affects how children and their development?
In order to make our research successful we should conduct
research about similar researches done in the past on similar or
related topics with the same outcome. The same will be a part of
the Literature Review of our research which includes all the
scholarly articles that we can study during the course of our
research. This will help us to broaden our thinking and help us
to think ideas which we might have missed. Thus conducting a
literature review is an essential part of a research process. It is
also not possible for us to go use the entire article as a part of
our research process or else the essence of our research
questions would get diluted, thus conducting a literature review
should be done with utmost care. We shall take notes from the
different articles we review and include those notes as literature
reviews in the report.
An article which I reviewed in the course of the study was “Are
Married Parents Really Better for Children? What Research
Says about the Effects of Family Structure on Child well-being”
by Mary Parke. The topic mentioned above and my research
topic is very similar and the main scope of research by Mary
Parke is the effect of family structure on the wellbeing of

2. children. There is not a very big difference in the topic of my
research. A thorough study of the topic helped me to refine my
research question. Earlier my research question was focussed
only on the growth and development of a child under single
parenting. But with the study of this paper I changed the
research topic to “The effects of single parenting on the well
being of children”. Thus now my study not only included the
affects of single parenting on the growth and development of a
child, but also on how the same child lived as an adult and if
the single parenting had any significant impact on the life of the
same child as an adult.
The basic question asked by Mary Parke in her study is “How
the changes in family structure have affected the well being of
children”. The topic is very explicit in nature and clearly states
the possible outcome. There can be only two outcomes for this
research whether the changes in family structure witnessed over
the last few decades have or have not affected the well being of
a child grown up under single parenting.
The major ideas of the study by Mary Parke was that the if
single parenting effects the well being of children, then how can
marriages be made more stronger in order to avoid the effects
single parenting has on the well being of children. The study
also tries to find out the differences between a child who is
raised under two parents and those raised by single parenting. It
also looks at if there exists any significant differences between
the well-being of these two kinds of children.
The study was a descriptive study and was a part of a series of
studies which might help in the formation of a policy on couples
and marriage. The main purpose of the study was to find out
ways to strengthen the marriage. The study can be used to make
inferences about the entire population and thus the outcome.
This type of a study helps to find out a causal relationship. The
effects that single parenting bears on the well being of children.
The method used by the researcher was survey, as the data was
collected with the help of surveys conducted in different parts
of the countries.

3. The data group was mainly children above the age of 14, and
the children who were surveyed included both, those who were
raised under single parenting and those who were raised under
the parents staying together. Another part of people part of the
study was the based on the parents as it was important to find
out the reasons behind separation. A large part of the data was
taken from the data collected by the government agencies.
The findings of the study done by Mary Parke was that single
parenting had significant impact on the well being of a child
and the children those who grow up under the parenting of both
parents staying together were significantly better off than those
growing under single parenting. Children who grow up under
single parenting are found to have achieved lower level of
education, experience health and behavioural issues and even
mental health problems. Thus in short the outcome can be
summarized as those not living with their biological parents are
said to face serious problems.
Thus it is very important to review different studies done in the
past to improve on the research being conducted. It is
imperative to read more than one article to have a better and a
clearer picture and one may need to reread the articles in order
to understand the fine prints of the study and simultaneously
prepare notes for the research. One should make notes of as
much data that is available and then the same notes can be
organized and synthesized and the review can be written. A
literature review summarizes different articles and gives a point
of view about different studies and is organized to communicate
a sense of purpose. One more thing needs to be kept in mind in
using Citations if any line is directly used from any article. The
report should be created in a way such that it is focused on the
research question under consideration.
It is of utmost importance to make sure that the study was
conducted ethically and scientifically otherwise the essence of
conducting the study may get diluted and it may result in an
outcome which may not be correct. Thus, it is very important
that any study conducted should be done in an ethical and

4. scientific manner. This study could have been conducted
unethically by a scientific misconduct. A research can be done
unethically if a research fraud or plagiarism is done. A research
fraud is done by deceptive data or by lying about the data.
Portraying wrong data either done by error or by choice, will
result in making the study an unethical one. Plagiarism is
another source of unethical behaviour thus if any researcher
uses other facts and figures from another study report and does
not cite the source it will result in making the research an
unethical one.
In short we may say that the any research would be considered
to be an unethical if it has bias involved. Another important
factor is that the research should be conducted by a competent
individual because even though the individual may not be
biased but their incompetence may make the research process an
unethical one and the same may not be of any good use to make
inferences. The research could have been conducted in an
unscientific way simply by studying the various works done
already by researchers and without actually getting into the
whole research process. Thus research which is unscientific may
be difficult to prove and also may not give the optimum solution
to the study.

5. References
Johnston, K. (n.d.). Scientific Vs. Unscientific Methods in
Business Research. Retrieved August 31, 2013, from Ehow.com:
http://www.ehow.com/info_8512344_scientific-unscientific-
methods-business-research.html
Neuman, W. L. Understanding Research. Pearson.
Parke, M. (n.d.). Are Married Parents Really Better for
Children? Retrieved August 31, 2013, from
http://www.clasp.org/admin/site/publications_archive/files/0128
.pdf
Hale, J. (n.d.). Understanding Research Methodology.
Retrieved August 31, 2013, from
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/05/12/understanding
-research-methodology-5-applied-and-basic-research/
Usdansky, M. L. (2003). Single Parent Families and their
impact on Children. Center for Research on Child Wellbeing
Working Paper # 03-04 .
5
Chapter 6. Statistical Quality Control
Question 1
A quality control manager at a manufacturing facility has taken
four samples with four observations each of the diameter of a
part.
Samples of Part Diameter in Inches
1
2

6. 3
4
6.2
5.8
5.7
5.8
6.2
6.3
6.1
6.1
6.0
5.9
6.2
6.1
5.9
5.7
5.9
6.2
(a) Compute the mean of each sample. (Round answers to 3
decimal places, e.g. 15.250.)
Mean of sample 1

7. Mean of sample 2
Mean of sample 3
Mean of sample 4
(b) Compute an estimate of the mean and standard deviation of
the sampling distribution. (Round answers to 4 decimal places,
e.g. 15.2500.)
Mean
Standard deviation
(c) Develop control limits for 3 standard deviations of the
product diameter. (Roundanswers to 2 decimal places,e.g.
15.25.)
CL
UCL
LCL

8. Question 2
The Awake Coffee Company produces gourmet instant coffee.
The company wants to be sure that the average fill of coffee
containers is 12.0 ounces. To make sure the process is in
control, a worker periodically selects at random a box of six
containers of coffee and measures their weight. When the
process is in control, the range of the weight of coffee samples
averages 0.6 ounces.
a) Develop an R-chart and an -chart for this process and answer
the questions.
b) The measurements of weight from the last five samples taken
of the six containers follow:
Control limits for x-bar chart. (Round answers to 2 decimal
places, e.g. 15.25.)
CL
UCL
LCL
Control limits for R-chart. (Round answers to 2 decimal places,

9. e.g. 15.25.)
CL
UCL
LCL
Is the process in control?
The process is in control.
The process is not in control.
Question 3
A production manager at a Contour Manufacturing plant has
inspected the number of defective plastic molds in five random
samples of 35 observations each. Following are the number of

10. defective molds found in each sample:
Sample
Number ofDefects
Number ofObservationsin Sample
1
3
35
2
2
35
3
0
35
4
1
35
5
0
35
Total
6
175

11. Construct a 3-sigma control chart (z = 3) with this
information. (If the lower control limit is negative, round the
LCL to zero and all other answers to 2 decimal places, e.g.
15.25.)
CL
UCL
LCL
Question 4
U-learn University uses a c-chart to monitor student complaints
per week. Complaints have been recorded over the past ten
weeks. Develop 3-sigma control limits using the following data:
Week
Number of Complaints
1
0
2
2
3
1
4

12. 2
5
2
6
3
7
3
8
0
9
3
10
3
(If the lower control limit is negative, round the LCL to zero
and all otheranswers to 2 decimal places, e.g. 15.25.)
CL
UCL
LCL
Question 5
University Hospital has been concerned with the number of
errors found in its billing statements to patients. An audit of

13. 100 bills per week over the past 12 weeks revealed the
following number of errors:
Week
Number of Errors
1
4
2
5
3
6
4
6
5
3
6
2
7
6
8
7

14. 9
3
10
4
11
3
12
4
What type of chart should be used?
R-chart
p-chart
x-bar chart

15. c-chart
Develop control charts with z = 3: (a) CL, (b) UCL, (c) LCL. (If
the lower control limit is negative, round the LCL to zero and
all otheranswers to 2 decimal places, e.g. 15.25.)
CL
UCL
LCL
Is the process in control?

16. The process is not in control
The process is in control
Question 6
Compute the (a)Cpk and (b)Cp measures of process capability
for the following machine. (Round answers to 2 decimal places,
e.g. 15.25.)
Machine data:
USL = 100
LSL = 70
Process σ = 5
Process μ = 80
Cpk
Cp
Question 7

17. Breeze Toothpaste Company makes tubes of toothpaste. The
product is produced and then pumped into tubes and capped.
The production manager is concerned whether the filling
process for the tubes of toothpaste is in statistical control. The
process should be centered on 6 ounces per tube. Six samples of
five tubes were taken and each tube was weighed. The weights
are:
Ouches of Toothpaste per Tube
Sample
1
2
3
4
5
1
5.78
6.34
6.24
5.23
6.12
2
5.89
5.87

18. 6.12
6.21
5.99
3
6.22
5.78
5.76
6.02
6.10
4
6.02
5.56
6.21
6.23
6.00
5
5.77
5.76
5.87

19. 5.78
6.03
6
6.00
5.89
6.02
5.98
5.78
Develop a control chart for the mean and range for the available
toothpaste data. (Round answers to 3 decimal places, e.g.
15.250.)x-bar chart:
CL
UCL
LCL
R-chart:

20. CL
UCL
LCL
Choose the appropriate control chart based on your
observations.

21. Question 8
Breeze Toothpaste Company has been having a problem with
some of the tubes of toothpaste leaking. The tubes are packed in
containers with 100 tubes each. Ten containers of toothpaste
have been sampled. The following number of toothpaste tubes
were found to have leaks:
Sample
Number of
Leaky Tubes
Sample
Number of
Leaky Tubes
1
4
6
6
2
8
7
10
3
12

22. 8
9
4
11
9
5
5
12
10
8
Total
85
Develop a p-chart with 3-sigma control
limits: (a) CL, (b) UCL, (c) LCL. (If the lower control limit is

23. negative, round the LCL to zero and round all other answer to 3
decimal places, e.g. 15.250.)
CL
UCL
LCL
Is the process in control?
The process is not in control
The process is in control
Question 9
The Crunchy Potato Chip Company packages potato chips in a
process designed for 8.0 ounces of chips with an upper

24. specification limit of 8.5 ounces and a lower specification limit
of 7.5 ounces. The packaging process results in bags with an
average net weight of 7.86 ounces and a standard deviation of
0.1 ounces. The company wants to determine if the process is
capable of meeting design specifications. (Round answers to 3
decimal places, e.g. 15.250.)
Cp
Cpk
The process is .
Question 1
Discuss the key differences between common and assignable
causes of variation. Give examples.
Question 2
The standard deviation of the distribution of sample means is
computed by
z*σ
σ/z

25. σ/x
σ/√n
Question 3
For the standard normal distribution, how much confidence is
provided within 2 standard deviations above and below the
mean?
97.22%
95.44%
99.74%
99.87%
90.00%
Question 4
Six-Sigma quality implies how many average defects per
million?
3.4

26. 6
2600
3σ
6σ
Question 5
A control chart for ______________ is used to monitor
characteristics that can be measured.
data
attributes
variables
limits
deviations
Question 6
A control chart for ______________ is used to monitor

27. characteristics that have discrete values and can be counted.
data
attributes
variables
deviations
limits
Running head: ETHNOGRAPHY
ETHNOGRAPHY
6
Ethnography
Park University
Fernando Pupo
October 6, 2013
Abstract
The main purpose of Ethnography is to provide a detailed
description and clear understanding on the way of life from the
standpoint of the natives/members/insiders of a community. It
involves a research undertaken when one is residing with the

28. specific research group for a specified period of time. The
population I will be studied is approximately 1200 people and I
will use a random sample. The method to be used is qualitative
data and specifically the use of questionnaires. I will be able to
visit the people in Killen village in Alabama and to interact
with them in friendly way and adapting their way of life. The
type of questions I will ask will vary from one person to the
other. Adults may have difficult questions while children may
have simpler questions about how they feel about their parents.
It is important also to build a good relationship with the
interviewers so as to get the right and relevant information from
them (Wolraich, 2008).
Topic
The topic of the research study will be “How being raised by a
single parent affects children’s development”. This topic is best
in the context of rural areas and may be good in the research.
Introduction
Single parents face a lot of challenges in raising their children
especially in rural areas. Women are mostly faced by the
problem due to poverty. Women are often left by men and have
to take care of their children no matter the circumstances and
thus, results to problems in the development of the child. This
research paper addresses the issues faced by single parents in
Killen village in Alabama City, U.S in raising their children.
This problem has affected the social life of people especially in
their jobs as they keep thinking about the development of the
child as well as how they cope with one parent. Emotion and
pain is the other problem caused by single parenting in the
society. It has affected the whole society in terms of high prices
of living and other essentials (Hauser, 1997).
Literature review
Single parents are not appreciated that much in the society.
People have had many different opinions on this. The

29. development of a child raised by a single parent is very
difficult. They may have questions concerning their other
parents and may affect them psychologically. This may
eventually lead to difficulty in education and may even affect
their future. The study requires a qualitative data with the
following steps:
Preparing for a Field Study:
a. Self Awareness: In case of a field research human and
personal factors play a very crucial role. Self Awareness is an
essential requirement for a field study and the researcher needs
to have the ability to notice minute details in the field and also
have empathy for other people. When preparing for the field
study one should be aware of personal concerns, commitments,
and inner conflicts.
b. Background Investigation: In the initial stages of the research
study we should understand the important concepts, potential
pitfalls, data collection techniques and strategies by reviewing
scholarly literature.
c. Practise Observing and Writing: The success of any field
research depends on the observatory skills of the researcher. It
is very important for a researcher to comprehend situations and
write down those observations.
In the initial stages of research the researcher may have to face
embarrassment, experience discomfort. The researcher may find
it difficult to interact with the participant. This stage is where
he learns the ropes of the study. After the initial discomfort the
researcher should try and normalize the research. In this stage
the different members need to adjust to the study. Once things
are normalized the researcher should build rapport with the
different members of the study and develop a sense of trust with
the members. The researcher should continuously find new

30. areas which he can involve in his research study (Hauser, 1997).
Methodology
I will be conducting a questionnaire each day interviewing one
person. The questionnaire will vary from one corner of the
village to the other. I will interview all the age groups starting
with children to the old people in the village. The size to be
sampled is very random and not specific. Each questionnaire is
to be filled by different people so as to get different views on
the effects of single parenting in the development of a child.
The type of study being used in this context is ethnographic and
assessment will be needed at the end of the questionnaire.
Findings/results
Many people agreed that single parenting affects the
development of children throughout the stages of child
development. Many people in the village are responsible for
their children because the village has not more than 5 single
parents. Women in particular had a very strong point concerning
single parents. Many of them stated that single parenting affects
the habits and behaviour of children. Many of them would feel
neglected and may also develop phobia to people or other
children (McLanahan et al, 1994).
Discussion
Chid development is greatly affected by the status of their
parents. Many interviewed people agreed that the growth of a
child depends on the environment he lives. A child may hear
other children talking about their mothers of fathers yet those
themselves have one parent. Such issues may interfere with the
psychology and the physical being of a child. He/ she may feel
bad about it and may be even embarrassed in front of other
children. Stages of child development start from when they are
born to old age. The findings can impact on creation of policies
and practices that can help in child development. The outcomes
showed that many children raised by single parents suffer the

31. problem of shyness and fear in the community. The findings are
real and justifiable and can be shown by children with single
parents. However, there may be problems still associated with
implementing policies because a body of legislations cannot
govern the lives of every child with single parents (Fetterman,
2010).
Conclusion
The findings concluded that there is actually a big problem of
child development in the area of study, which is Keller village.
I recommend parents to be very cautious when dealing with the
responses and how they treat their children. It is very important
to handle children well in their growth to avoid implications in
the future.
Reference
Fetterman, D. M. (2010). Ethnography: Step-by-step. Los
Angeles: SAGE.
Hauser, R. M. (1997). Indicators of children's well-being. New
York: Russell Sage Foundation.
McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. (1994). Growing up with a
single parent: What hurts, what
helps. Cambridge, Mass. [u.a.: Harvard Univ. Press.
Wolraich, M. (2008). Developmental-behavioral pediatrics:
Evidence and practice.
Philadelphia: Mosby/Elsevier.