THESIS

Original Text: THESIS

THE QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS

7.1 Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to analyze and discuss the data of the quantitative findings. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part explains the non-response bias and the characteristics of the sample. The second part discusses the validity and reliability of the variables under the study and the hypotheses testing. Finally, the last part of this chapter reports the conclusion drawn from these analyses.

7.2 Non Response Bias
A non-response bias is conducted following the procedure suggested by Armstrong and Overton (1977) of comparing early with late responses. Respondents were divided into two groups (early & late) in accordance to the responses received within and beyond the four weeks cut-off date from the initial mailing. The early responses (n= 86) were those who responded prior to the cut-off date and the reminder (n=123) were late responses. These late responses act as proxies for non-respondents. Thus the late responses compared with the early responses. Subjects who required more reminders before they participated were non-respondents if the data collection had stopped earlier (Kerr, McHugh & McCrory, 2009).
A test of difference (t-test) was carried out for ascertaining the systematic differences between the early-and late-respondents. The test was done on all the non-demographic variables under study, while, the differences in demographic profiles were conducted using a chi-square test. Table 7.1 shows result of the non-demographic test and section 7.4 for demographic test. There is no significant difference in the non-demographic and demographic variables between the respondents and the non-respondents observed. As such, it could be concluded that non- response bias did not appear to present a problem in this study. (Table 7.1: Independent T-Test for Early and Late Responses)

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Revised Text:

QUANTITATIVE FINDINGS

7.1 Introduction
The aim of this chapter is to analyze and discuss the quantitative findings data. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part explains the non-response bias and the characteristics of the sample. The second discusses the validity and reliability of the variables in the study and the hypotheses testing. Finally, the last part of this chapter reports the conclusions drawn from these analyses.

7.2 Non Response Bias
A non-response bias was conducted following the procedure suggested by Armstrong and Overton (1977) by comparing early with late responses. Respondents were divided into two groups (early & late) grouping the responses received within, and beyond the four weeks cut-off date from the initial mailing. The early responses (n= 86) were those who responded prior to the cut-off date and the reminder (n=123) were late responses. These late responses act as proxies for non-respondents. Subjects who required more reminders before they participated were non-respondents if the data collection had stopped earlier (Kerr, McHugh & McCrory, 2009).

A test of difference (t-test) was carried out for ascertaining the systematic differences between the early-and late-respondents. The test was done for all of the non-demographic variables under study, while, the differences in demographic profiles were conducted using a chi-square test. Table 7.1 shows result of the non-demographic test and section 7.4 the results for the demographic test. There was no significant difference in the non-demographic and demographic variables between the respondents and the non-respondents observed. As such, it could be concluded that non- response bias did not appear to present a problem in this study. (Table 7.1: Independent T-Test for Early and Late Responses)

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