Running head: PHASE 3: SURVEY RESEARCH REPORT 1

Phase 3: Survey Research Report and Final Recommendations

Michelle Boyer, Kristen Eissmann, and Aly Wells

RCLS 425: Evaluation in Recreation and Leisure Services

June 5th, 2019

Dr. Matthew Chase

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Phase III: Survey Research Report and Final Recommendations

The purpose of this report write up is to discuss the overall findings of our survey

instrument and discussing recommendations regarding the entirety of this evaluation project. The

document is organized into different sections beginning with the methodology of the evaluation,

followed by our analysis/finding, conclusion, and finally recommendations.

Methodology

Themes.

The themes of the focus group as discussed in Phase II were as follows; how the

participant’s social settings impacted their nutritional decisions, how the participant’s stress

levels influence their food/drink intake, and how the emotions of others or the participant’s own

emotions changed their eating habits. We felt as if all these themes were important to find more

information on and all three themes were therefore present in the quantitative research in means

of a questionnaire. All three of these themes were reoccurring throughout the entire focus group.

Even when presented with new questions the participants’ responses would still relate back to

one of these three themes. The themes are prevalent in every participant’s life and each

participant had much to share about each one. Each theme is also not focused primarily on

college life. They each are involved in a big enough picture to take place in the everyday life of

college students and not just around the school atmosphere.

Survey Instrument.

Our survey instrument is provided in the following pages.

RCLS 425 In-Class Nutrition Questionnaire

The purpose of this evaluation is to explore to what extent do RCLS 425 students engage
in healthy eating habits.
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Participation is completely voluntary, and all responses are completely anonymous.

Responses will only be used to fulfill the requirements of this class and will not be used in any
other form of publication. This questionnaire will take no longer than five minutes to complete.
Thank you for your time and consideration to fill out this instrument.
The following statements are along the lines of nutritional choices amongst college students.
Please indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each statement:

STRONGLY DISAGREE AGREE STRONGLY

DISAGREE AGREE
1. I look at nutrition labels before
buying the product.
SD D A (3) SA
(1) (2) (4)
2. My social groups greatly impact
nutritional choices.
SD D A (3) SA
(1) (2) (4)

Please indicate your nutritional habits during the periods of time mentioned below.
Please check where you fall on the scale.
3. Hanging out with friends.

VERY _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ VERY

HEALTHY UNHEALTHY
1 2 3 4 5 6
4. Finals week.

VERY _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ VERY

HEALTHY UNHEALTHY
1 2 3 4 5 6
5. Family dinners.
_____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____
VERY
VERY UNHEALTHY
HEALTHY
1 2 3 4 5 6

6. On a scale of 1-6 (with 1 being the lowest and 6 being the highest), how do
you rate the amount of food you have bought and consumed on campus?
______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______
1 2 3 4 5 6

PLEASE SEE NEXT PAGE

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7. Rank the following nutritional contents by what you believe is the most
important when buying a product. Please list what you believe is the most
important content as a 1 and the least important as a 6.

________ TOTAL SUGARS

________ CALORIES
________ CARBOHYDRATES
________ PROTEIN
________ TOTAL FAT

________ SODIUM

8. Does cost influence your nutritional choices?

________ Yes (1)

________ No (2)

9. What is your gender? ______ MALE (1) ______ FEMALE (2)

10. What is your exact age? _______

11. What is your class standing?

________ ________ ________ ________

FRESHMAN SOPHOMORE JUNIOR (3) SENIOR (4)

(1) (2)

12. Which degree are you pursuing in the RCLS program?

________ ________ ________

RECREATION THERAPEUTIC OUTDOOR RECREATION
AND TOURISM RECREATION (2) LEADERSHIP (3)
MANAGEMENT
(1)
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Question Types and Rational.

Question styles can potentially alter the effects of how participants respond and thus how

data is recorded. In the following sections, the reasons for our use of Likert style, semantic

differences, self-assessment, rank order, and demographic questions on our take home survey

will be explained in detail.

After analyzing the result of our focus group in phase two, we sought to gather further

information around the impacts cost, social groups, emotions, and stress have on people's

nutritional habits. The entirety of our survey instrument involved Likert style questions, semantic

differences, self-assessment, ranking order, and demographic questions as these question forms

best formulated our finding into quantitative data. All question typed were posed as close ended

questions (Henderson, 2017). Likert scales seek to measure attitudes using response anchors such

as strongly agree, disagree, strongly agree, and so on (Henderson, 2017). Our survey purposely

included only four anchor questions as strongly disagree, disagree, agree, and strongly agree for

quantitative purposes. Semantic differentials are another form of scaling question used to

measure attitudes. These questions are formatted to, “...include a list of two opposing adjectives

written in a linear fashion” (Henderson, 2017, p.159). Additionally, ranking questions were

chosen to capture descriptive information. Ranking questions are formulated to be forced choice

close ended questions with all items falling on a ranking scale. Rankings the items are not based

on being good or bad but rather offers further insight at the relative meaning of one item to

another (Henderson, 2017). Moreover, self-assessment questions are designed to have

participants rank themselves on a scale or answer close ended yes or no questions. Both were

used on our survey to gather coded data (Henderson, 2017). Lastly, demographic/background

questions are used to measure age, gender, race, and/or birth place and are structured
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categorically (Henderson, 2017). The selected categories for the demographic questions will be

further described in the next section of this write up along with all used data level types.

Level of Data.

In using the question types indicated above, each can be formatted into different levels of

data questions. Interval level questions were utilized frequently as it was crucial to capture

meaningful and predictable size differences between data values. In doing so, more sophisticated

data could be gathered in the forms of mean, median, mode, and a standard deviation

(Henderson, 2017). Additionally, ordinal level question styles forced survey takers to rank

options least to greatest yielding more sophisticated data (Henderson, 2017). Our rank order

question probed at the participants’ level of interest of nutrition label contents as the members of

our focus group shared high protein amounts and low sugar levels were preferred. We wanted to

see if the larger RCLS 425 class population felt the same way. Moreover, nominal level data

questions were used to capture “...non-assumptive data with little overlap ...including gender,

race, and birthplace” (Henderson, 2017, p. 286). For the purposes of this evaluation, our

categorical styled questions asked participant’s gender, major, and college class standings. The

choices of majors included Outdoor Recreation, Therapeutic Recreation, and Recreation Tourism

and Management. Respondents were asked to provide whether they were female or male, and

lastly if they were a freshman, sophomore, junior, or senior in college. Lastly, ratio data stands as

the “...most sophisticated data type including a zero point” (Henderson, 2017, p.285). Our survey

instrument implemented this level data type by asking for participant’s exact age. Utilizing all

four of these level data types helped produce exceptional qualitative data. Next, this write up will

discuss the layout of these questions on our survey instrument.

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Instrument Organization.

We organized and wrote our questionnaire in a highly organized manner. We wanted to

have a visually appealing instrument to help engage participants further. Our questionnaire was a

total of twelve questions and should have taken no longer than five minutes to complete. We

utilized different types of questions ranging from ranking questions to scale questions to yes or

no questions and others. By switching up the types of questions, it kept participants actively

hooked on what the survey was asking. The questions were worded in a non-biased manner,

ensuring that the results were not skewed in one way or another. The question numbers were

bolded to make sure participants could see where the next question started. Each option of

answer to choose from were in all capitalization so it was clear what the options there were.

Additionally, instructions were placed before every different type of question so that participants

knew exactly how they needed to answer the question(s).

Purposes.

For the purpose of this evaluation project, convenient sampling was utilized as the RCLS

425 class was readily available. According to Henderson, 2017, “...descriptive statistics will

include a list of the frequencies reported for the values of the variables, the mean, median, …and

standard deviation” (p. 323). The mode was also utilized. All data collected on our survey

instrument were plugged into the computer program Excel to calculate these statistical data

values. As a result, we were able to determine the mean, median, mode, and standard deviations

for our Likert style questions. From this, we were able to draw analysis of our data and thus

conclusions of our findings that pertained to RCLS 425 student’s engagement in healthy eating

habits.
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Analysis/Findings

The following sections will include detailed data found throughout the evaluation. Data

will be broken down into two different sections beginning with demographics and ending with

interval data. Visual aids have been included to assist in the understanding of the data.

Demographics.

The following graphs are a representative of the collected demographic data types.

What is your exact age?

AGE N = 39
15 13
Mean: 22.4
Number of Participants

11
10
Median: 22
5 2 3 3 2
0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
0
Mode: 22
18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40
Age Standard Deviation: 3.3

It was determined that the most common age of participants was 22 at 13 participants.

The age of 21 followed shortly after with 11 participants.

What is your gender?

GENDER N= 39

Females:
Female, 17,
Male 17 participants = 43.6%
44%
Male, 22, Female
56% Males:

22 participants = 56.4%

It was determined that there were more males in the study at 22 participants compared to

17 female participants. Males made up 56% of the population and females 44%.
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Interval Level Data.

The following questions aimed to measure to what extent social groups and the stress of

finals week influenced RCLS 425 students’ nutritional habits.

Question 2 from our survey:

N= 39
Strongly Disagree Disagree Agree Strongly Agree

Mean: 2.2

Median: 2

Mode: 3

Question 4 from our survey:

Please indicate your nutritional habits during the periods of N=39

time mentioned below. Please check where you fall on the scale. Mean: 4.1

Median: 4

Mode: 5

Standard Deviation.

The following data describes the mean, median, mode, and standard deviations associated

with question 3 of our survey.

Please indicate your nutritional Hanging around friends:

habits during the periods of time

mentioned. Please check where

you fall on the scale.

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Results:

0.7 6.7 N= 39
1.7 5.7
Mean: 3.7
2.7 4.7
Median: 4

Mode: 4

Standard Deviation: 1.0

3.7

With a standard deviation of 1.0, we are confident in the reliability of these results. 68%

of participants fell between 2.7 and 4.7 on a scale of eating healthy or unhealthy around their

friends. This is one standard deviation above or below our mean of 3.7.

Conclusion

Of the forty-two students that were handed surveys in the RCLS 425 class, we received

thirty-nine responses. Of the thirty-nine respondents, 35.9% were Recreation and Tourism

management majors, 28.2% Therapeutic Recreation majors, and 35.9% Outdoor Recreation

majors. Also, of the thirty-nine respondents, 43.6% were females and 56.4% were males. A

junior class standing was the most prominent being 76.9% followed by a senior class standing at

23%. None of the participants were of freshman or sophomore level standing. Further, when

asked if social groups greatly impact their nutritional choices, 41% of participants disagreed and

41% agreed. The other 18% either strongly agreed or strongly disagreed. When participants were

asked on what nutritional values they thought were the most important when buying a product,

total sugars, calories, and protein were significantly the most prominent responses. Additionally,

participants were in agreeance of how stress during finals week works hand in hand with
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unhealthy eating habits. Each self-assessment question was on a scale of one to six: one being

very healthy and 6 being very unhealthy. The most common answer was five out of six. Lastly,

participants were also in agreeance about the cost of nutritional food. 87.2% of the respondents

reported that cost does influences their nutritional choices. After finding our conclusive results,

recommendations can be made going forward.

Recommendations

The final section of this report discusses recommendations. Based on our founded

results, we recommend campuses offer healthier food options to their students. Teaching stress

management techniques that do not involve unhealthy food choices would also benefit the

participants’ ability to continuously engage in healthy eating habits. Additionally, peer pressure

awareness, encouraging friends to choose healthier food options when in social groups together,

self-autonomy, and pride in personal dietary decisions would assist in people’s confidence to

pursue their chosen dietary habits when in social settings. Lastly, teaching proper budgeting

tactics would assist people in their decisions to purchase specific healthy foods based on their

allotted budget.
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References

Henderson, K. A., Bialeschki, M. D., & Browne, L.P. (2017). Evaluating Recreation Services

Making Enlightened Decisions. Urbana, IL: Sagamore Venture Publishing LLC.