Hello everyone.
I am about to start the analysis for a paper I am preparing regarding Complicated Grief and In-voluntary job loss. I would like to ask a question as I am not getting any proper response from my supervisor:
The data collection was conducted using the same questionnaire in two different countries. Country A has 102 respondents whereas Country B has 75 respondents. All had to answer the same question. After handing in my draft to my supervisor she said I haven't described why I have merged these two datasets and didn't deliver a proper justification.
So my question now is how can I possibly explain this? And is it even legitimate to combine two datasets with the same set of variables and questions, however with a different regional context? Do all variables need to be checked for their significant difference between these two datasets in order to merge them (in total 4 background variables, 8 psychological variables and CG symptoms)? Or is it only necessary to take the background variables into consideration?
I really appreciate any help!
Thank you!
Dear Emir,
I see your confusion. However, if I were your supervisor and had this question, it would have been asked before the data collection took place. Since you are concerned about how to answer the question, I will attempt to do that. I would start by asking why you included two countries in your sample in the first place. Was it to increase your sample size because enough respondents were not available in one county, to compare the outcomes from the two countries, or some other reason. Your response should fall within your answer to that question. However, if you are trying to justify combining the samples from two countries after the fact and you have no research question about the differences, my suggestion would be to compare your responses from the two countries for each of your variables. If there are no significant differences, there is no reason to NOT combine the results. The easiest response would be to add a research question or questions comparing grief and job loss in the two countries. That would justify collecting data in the two countries.
I wish you success!
J. McLean
Dear Emir Suljović , I think it might be also relevant to your question to point out in your paper how culturally 'close' the two counties are, particularly in aspects relevant to your research topic (are labour politics, unemployment rates, the well-fare system etc. compareable in those countries so that being unemployed means more or less the same to both groups). If you can justify that they are indeed close in those aspects, I would just merge the two data sets and treat 'country' as yet another control variable in your models.
Good luck with your project!
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