Does Dividing the Range by Four Provide an Accurate Estimate of a Standard Deviation in Family Science Research? A Teaching Editorial

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive data for age of respondents or ages of respondents’ siblings compared with range divided by four estimates for standard deviations from 35 articles published in Marriage & Family Review, 2012–2015.

Study authors, date of publication, page number(s) containing data	Type of study	N	Mean	SD	Range
Dhar (2013a), p. 6	Qualitative	30	20.20	1.56	18–24
Squire, Limke, and Jones (2013), p. 139	Quantitative	356	19.77	1.91	18–25
Thompson, Smith, Whiting, and Bradford (2013), p. 153	Qualitative	20	37.00	6.22	30–50
Higginbotham and Agee (2013), p. 181	Quantitative	447	42.28	14.6	19–92
			46.00	15.5	18–96
Knabb and Pelletier (2013), p. 236	Quantitative	178	18.88	1.01	17–24
Milevsky and Heerwagen (2013), p. 254	Qualitative	52	19.85	1.16	18–23
		49	19.82	1.17	18–23
Burr, Hubler, Larzelere, and Gardner (2013), p. 292	Quantitative	46	31.70	8.95	22–57
Taylor, Fisackerly, Mauren, and Taylor (2013), p. 373	Qualitative	325	20.04	1.22	18–25
Nelson, Delgadillo, and Dew (2013), p. 553	Quantitative	5,097	45.72	14.31	23–96
Schneider and Grimps (2013), p. 612	Quantitative	5,213	56.60	4.43	40–64
		6,391	55.60	5.12	40–64
Silliman and Schumm (2013), p. 652	Quantitative	614	11.67	1.04	10–13
		486	15.19	1.07	14–17
Hughes (2013), p. 700	Quantitative	362	47.00	9.91	24–74
			45.00	9.37	23–65
Gana, Saada, and Untas (2013), p. 759	Quantitative	146	52.97	18.62	18–78
			51.17	18.66	18–83
Hertlein, Emmers-Sommer, and Kennedy (2014), p. 116	Quantitative	871	21.25	5.05	17–60
Chaney (2014), pp. 134–135	Qualitative	30	35.71	7.23	21–45
		30	37.32	6.81	21–45
		30	28.27	1.88	21–45
		30	29.93	7.98	21–45
Burrell, Webb, and White (2014), p. 208	Quantitative	1,348	45.28	17.35	18–89
Rappleyea, Taylor, and Fang (2014), p. 275	Quantitative	1,003	20.70	1.48	18–25
Panetta, Somers, Ceresnie, Hillman, and Partridge (2014), p. 347	Quantitative	195	14.14	1.31	12–18
Cohen and Finzi-Dottan (2014), p. 399	Quantitative	78	39.64	8.20	21–68
Monk, Vennum, Ogolsky, and Fincham (2014), pp. 421–422	Quantitative	246	19.50	1.40	18–29
Yahya and Boag (2014), p. 488	Qualitative	57	21.90	8.80	18–62
Dhar (2014), p. 539	Qualitative	15	22.40	2.80	19–27
Chaney et al. (2014), pp. 566, 568	Quantitative	60	29.10	7.32	20–45
Tang, Curran, and Arroyo (2014), p. 605	Quantitative	280	23.20	5.70	18–58
Jensen, Shafer, and Larson (2014), p. 645	Quantitative	2,030	35.97	10.25	18–77
		488	43.92	10.41	18–77
Sanders (2012), p. 27	Quantitative	1,436	25.79	4.45	18–34
Carlson et al. (2012), p. 85	Quantitative	393	34.18	7.96	19–70
		393	31.80	6.68	20–56
Chaney (2012), p. 196	Qualitative	17	40.06	1.23	23–61
Dijkstra, Barelds, Groothof, Ronner, and Nauta (2012), p. 100	Quantitative	354	40.18	10.44	17–71
		558	43.57	12.52	18–72
Antonopoulou, Alexopoulos, and Maridaki-Kassotaki (2012), p. 298	Quantitative	190	11.26	0.73	9.42–13.83
Mortensen and Barnett (2015), p. 6	Quantitative	82	2.31	0.30	1.83–2.92
Emmers-Sommer (2015), p. 269	Quantitative	717	22.23	5.53	18–63
Horvath and Lee (2015), p. 342	Quantitative	166	15.50	1.13	14–17
Lesch and Scheffler (2015), p. 467	Qualitative	14 (12)	15.42	0.79	14–17
		14 (12)	44.50	3.73	39–51
Xia et al. (2015), p. 496	Quantitative	589	15.76	1.33	12–19
Hall (2015), p. 719	Quantitative	1,490	21.14	2.14	18–30

Note. The standard deviations of 1.88 (Chaney, 2014) and 1.23 (Chaney, 2012) were deemed errors because it was not possible to obtain that low of standard deviations using at least one value of the lowest range and one value of the highest range and using most other numbers close to the mean score (which will yield the lowest possible standard deviation). For Chaney (2014) a standard deviation of 3.67 was the lowest obtained and for Chaney (2012) a standard deviation of 6.75 was the lowest obtained.

Table 2. Descriptive data for number of children or number of siblings for respondent compared with range divided by four estimates for standard deviations from five articles published in Marriage & Family Review, 2012–2015.

Study authors, date of publication, page number(s) containing data	Type of study	N	Mean	SD	Range
Squire et al. (2013), p. 139	Quantitative	356	2.45	1.67	1–10
Thompson et al. (2013), p. 153	Qualitative	20	2.20	0.92	1–3
Higginbotham and Agee (2013), p. 181	Quantitative	447	.93	1.42	0–9
			.93	1.46	0–10
Sanders (2012), p. 27	Quantitative	1,436	2.46	1.93	0–10
Carlson et al. (2012), p. 85	Quantitative	393	2.37	1.39	0–11
		393	2.38	1.39	0–11

Table 3. Descriptive data for duration of relationship (years) for respondents compared with range divided by four estimates for standard deviations from four articles published in Marriage & Family Review, 2012–2015.

Study authors, date of publication, page number(s) containing data	Type of study	N	Mean	SD	Range
Thompson et al. (2013), p. 153	Qualitative	20	15.20	5.35	7–22
Hughes (2013), p. 700	Quantitative	355	16.63	11.32	.5–42
Gana et al. (2013), p. 759	Quantitative	146	28.33	17.30	.33–60
Tang et al. (2014), p. 605	Quantitative	280	2.42	20.17	.17–10.0

Table 4. Descriptive data for education of respondents compared with range divided by four estimates for standard deviations from seven articles published in Marriage & Family Review, 2012–2015.

Study authors, date of publication, page number(s) containing data	Type of study	N	Mean	SD	Range
Higginbotham and Agee (2013), p. 181	Quantitative	447	14.42	1.98	9–17
			14.37	1.99	9–17
Nelson et al. (2013), p. 553	Quantitative	5,097	12.95	2.84	0–20
Silliman and Schumm (2013), p. 652	Quantitative	614	6.86	.86	5–8
		486	10.27	1.17	7–12
Burrell et al. (2014), p. 208	Quantitative	1,348	13.31	2.81	0–20
Chaney et al. (2014), pp. 566, 568	Quantitative	60	12.03	1.57	8–17
Sanders (2012), p. 27	Quantitative	1,436	13.46	1.90	7–20
Xia et al. (2015), p. 496	Quantitative	589	9.67	1.02	7–12

Figure 1. Ratio (range divided by standard deviation) as a function of skew ([mean – minimum] divided by [maximum – minimum]).

Figure 2. Ratio (range divided by standard deviation) as a function of SKEWMAG (absolute value of the deviation of the mean from its center of range).