8113.1 |
Assessment |
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Research Question
(Clear, unambiguous) |
"[F]ind whether there exists the effect of
intergenerational relations on the old parents’ health condition." The research problem is not clearly stated,
but seems to center on asking how the relationship between elderly people and
their adult children affects the parents' health. It seems that if all else is equal, the
elderly people with good, supportive relations with their adult children will
be in better health on the average, so the question needs some better
specification. |
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Relevant
Literature |
The relevant literature
concerns the general issue about family relationships and health, not simply
the literature on this in China. |
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Causal Interpretations (clear, all
parts defined, mechanisms, controls, plausible) |
The causal
interpretation should consider more than the obvious conjecture that support from children will aid health. Why might it have this effect and why would
that expected influence not work under some conditions? The account offered here overlooks an
obvious counter causality: how does the health of the elderly parents affect
the behavior of their adult children.
Note that this is likely to have a complex answer depending on other
conditions. |
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Data
(variables, sample, comparison) |
The data seem
appropriate; the assessment of how to use it is vague. |
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Research Value |
The explanation of the project's value is also
a bit vague. It seems simply to
suggest that it is interesting if a relationship exists. Such a relationship seems certain under some
conditions, so simply demonstrating what we are fairly certain to be true is
not much of defense. |
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Overall |
The question of how
personal relationships affects people's (especially older or more vulnerable
people's) health has received a fair amount of attention, so contributing to
that literature would be worthwhile.
However, you have to know that literature well enough to refine the
study so as to make it a contribution. |
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