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The Instrument that will be used to gather data consists of three parts. Part I (Appendix A) will gather demographic information of the participants. Part II (Appendix C) will measure homesickness. Parts I and Ill were formulated by the researchers themselves and Part II was patterned from an original homesickness questionnaire (Appendix B). Part Ill (Appendix D) will assess the extent and purpose of use of various web-based communication tools. The Homesickness questionnaire developed and was tested for content validity by Archer, Ireland, Amos, Broad, & Curried, L. 998) will be used to measure homesickness. The questionnaire consists of 33 Items written In short narratives, created for the use of college students. Items In the scale cover cognitive, motivational, emotional, and behavioral elements that are associated with homesickness (Appendix B). It has been used by other researchers across different cultures to measure homesickness among people leaving home for prolonged periods such as first year students In colleges, universities and cadets In military academy (Banning, 2010).
The items on the scale were rated on a 5-point Liker-type aroma with options that ranged from strongly agree to strongly disagree, the higher the score indicates that the respondent is more homesick. For this research, nine phrases from the original items were changed for the questionnaire to be more suitable to the participants. For example, on item 29 in the original questionnaire, the phrase that was mentioned was “My parents pushed me into coming to university. On the revised questionnaire, item 29 was altered into the phrase, “My family pushed me Into accepting this work. ” The following are the assigned the points: Strongly disagree Somewhat disagree Neutral 3 Somewhat agree Strongly agree 4 5 Archer et al. , (1998) reported internal consistency of . 88 for the scale. Sample items in the scale include: “l can’t help thinking about my home”, “l visit home as often as I The revised version will be pilot tested to a group of 30 seafarers to test the can. ” internal consistency and validity of the content of the questionnaire.
The specific issues asked in the Part Ill of the questionnaire are the frequency, duration, and purpose of using web-based communication tools and the frequency of accessing different kinds of web-based communication tools. A combined questionnaire will be used for assessing the frequency and duration be rated from 1 to 5 separately. The method used in analyzing the frequency and duration of Web-Based communication Tools is through multiplying the frequency and duration to get a composite score, and then dividing the product by 5 to get the mean score. From the mean score, weighted means and its corresponding description would be determined.
To assess the purpose of using Web-Based Communication Tools, a ranking from 1 to 10 would be used. In this questionnaire, 1 indicates the main purpose of using Web-Based Communication Tools and 10 indicates the least activity that the participants do in using Web-Based Communication Tools. Data Gathering Procedure When an initial list of respondents has been identified, the researchers will get in touch with them via email or any other online means of communication to explain the purpose of the study and to solicit their cooperation. Upon confirmation, the questionnaire will also be sent electronically in a Microsoft Word document form.
The respondents will be given one week to complete the questionnaire. Communication through email will also be maintained for further clarifications regarding the questionnaire to avoid unanswered parts of the questionnaire. Hence, the researchers will make the survey questionnaires stated as simply as possible so that the respondents would be able to answer all the questions. The researchers have initially identified the following online professional groups that could be a good source of information on the whereabouts and contact details of the respondents (Appendix E).
Data Analysis Procedure To analyze the demographic data, simple descriptive statistics such as the mean, frequency, percentage distribution, standard deviation, and ranking shall be used. The researchers developed weighted means and percentage distribution that shall be used to analyze the degree of homesickness. To assign descriptive values to the weighted means, the following guide will be used: Table 1 Interpretation for Homesickness Scores Weighted Means Description 1. 00-1. 79 Strongly disagree Table 1 shows the qualitative interpretations for the homesickness scores. Items for Loss-orientation/limitations and Restoration-orientation/Avoidance Loss- Orientation (Intrusive) Restoration-orientation (Avoidance) 11, 12, 13*, 14, Table 2 is used to identify the items of loss-orientation homesickness and restoration-orientation homesickness. The same weighted means for the interpretation of homesickness scores will be followed. To identify whether the homesickness is loss-orientated or restoration-oriented.
The method used in analyzing the frequency and duration of use of Web-Based Communication Tools is through multiplying the rating of the frequency and the rating of the duration to get a composite score and then dividing the product by 5 to get the mean score. From the mean score, the weighted mean and its corresponding interpretation would be obtained. Table 4 Interpretation for the Web-Based Communication Questionnaire Rating Frequency Duration Every few weeks 30 miss. -1 her. 1 to 2 days a week 1 her. 30 miss. -2 hrs. 30 miss. 3 to 5 days a week 2 hrs. 30 miss. -4 hrs. 30 miss.
About once a day 4 hrs. 30 miss. -6 hrs. 30 miss. Several times a day 6 hrs. 30 miss – 7 hrs. 30 miss or more Table 4 is used to identify the rating of the corresponding items in Frequency and Duration. The computation of the frequency and duration would be through multiplying items based on their respective ratings. Table 5 Interpretation for the Use of Web-Based Communication Questionnaire Weighted Means Low 5. 80- 10. 59 Below Average 10. 60- 15. 39 Average 15. 40-20. 19 Above Average 20. 20 – 25. 00 High Average Table 5 is used to identify the corresponding interpretation of the weighted means.
To get the weighted means, the composite score from multiplying the frequency and duration would be divided to 5 to get the mean score. From the mean score, weighted means would be obtained. To test the hypothesis, that is whether there is a significant relationship between the use of web-based communication tools and homesickness, the Pearson product Moment of Correlation will be used for ordinal data variables and Chi-Square Analysis for the nominal variables. All statistics will be tested at 95% confidence level (alpha = . 05).
Appendix A Demographic Information Questionnaire This is to gather some personal information about you. Rest assured that all information will be dealt with the strictest confidentiality. Please supply your answers on the space provided. Name: Email Address: Age: _years What is your current Job title/assignment in your current place of work? How many years have you been engaged in your present Job? Long is your contract in your present Job as a seaman? How years How often are you allowed to take a leave? Are you allowed to have a short Philippines, for how long are you allowed to stay?