Sociology researchers at Pennsylvania State University have found that although the number of overweight and obese children has tripled in the past 30 years, we cannot place the blame on the junk food commonly found in school cafeterias and vending machines. Lead researcher Jennifer Van Hook explained that 59% of fifth graders and 86% of eighth graders in the study went to schools where junk food was sold, but none showed a rise in the number of obesity cases even when unhealthy foods were available. Read more about the study and what the findings suggest, published in the January edition of Sociology of Education.

Grounded theory is part theoretical framework and part research methodology. It combines theory and research and serves as a guide for many social science researchers in their projects. Grounded theory is an attempt to develop theories from an analysis of the patterns, themes, and common categories discovered in observational research. It emphasizes research procedures when developing theories. That is, theories should be "grounded" in research and backed by real data. Read more about grounded theory and the guidelines that researchers must follow.

Other new posts this week that you might be interested in: Software Programs For Analyzing Quantitative Data.

Juliet Schor, professor of Sociology at Boston College, has suggested that cutting the number of hours that people work could improve health and also provide a boost to the economy. In speaking to the BBC World Business Report last week, she explained that this is something the Dutch did throughout the 1980s and 1990s. "They ended up with highest labour productivity in Europe, very low unemployment and very high quality of life," she explained. The idea is that wages are kept constant while working hours are reduced, so businesses are essentially paying their workers in more "free time" rather than in more income. Keep the same wage, but take more time off. Would this work? She suggested it not only would work, but that is not necessarily a new thing either, claiming all OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries have been "doing it for 150 years now."

I often get asked the difference between an index and a scale. If you ever conduct a survey or even answer a survey yourself, chances are high that you will encounter both indexes and scales. They are similar in many ways and are terms that are often used interchangeably, however they are different concepts and it is important to distinguish between the two. First, read about the similarities and differences between indexes and scales, then take a look at how to construct an index and how to construct the different types of scales.