How representative are student convenience samples? A study of literacy and numeracy skills in 32 countries.

Autor/inn/en	Wild, Heather; Kyröläinen, Aki-Juhani; Kuperman, Victor
Titel	How representative are student convenience samples? A study of literacy and numeracy skills in 32 countries.
Quelle	In: PLOS ONE, 17 (2022) 7, S. 1-22 PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1932-6203
DOI	10.1371/journal.pone.0271191
URN	urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-85974-4
Schlagwörter	Kompetenz; Bildungsniveau; Stichprobe; Erwachsener; Lesen; Rechnen; Stichprobe; Student; Alphabetisierung; Grundstudium; Internationaler Vergleich; Kompetenz; Bildungsniveau; Lesen; Rechnen; Grundstudium; Alphabetisierung; Internationaler Vergleich; Erwachsener; Student
Abstract	Psychological research, including research into adult reading, is frequently based on convenience samples of undergraduate students. This practice raises concerns about the external validity of many accepted findings. The present study seeks to determine how strong this student sampling bias is in literacy and numeracy research. We use the nationally representative cross-national data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to quantify skill differences between (i) students and the general population aged 16-65, and (ii) students and age-matched non-students aged 16-25. The median effect size for the comparison (i) of literacy scores across 32 countries was d = .56, and for comparison (ii) d = .55, which exceeds the average effect size in psychological experiments (d = .40). Numeracy comparisons (i) and (ii) showed similarly strong differences. The observed differences indicate that undergraduate students are not representative of the general population nor age-matched non-students.
Erfasst von	GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften, Mannheim
Update	2023/1