Spencer Schillinger

Work of Art
April 26th, 2016
Survey Research Project
Introduction
In our mentor session this year, we were interested in researching the potential correlation
between initial socioeconomic status and income later in life, as well as arts role in ones future
life, particularly in relation to work. We hypothesized that those with a higher initial
socioeconomic status would end up with a higher income, and would have more access to art,
potentially resulting in it playing a larger role in their lives. Our goal was to gather information
through surveys distributed on campus at Portland State University, and to then analyze the
information and draw meaningful conclusions. We hope that our analysis will give us a better
understanding of what role access to art plays in future income, as well as an understanding of
the relationship between socioeconomic status and interest in art.
Analysis
The sample consists of 42 Portland State University students. The ages of respondents ranged
from 18 to 31 (M=20.8, SD= 3.148). From those 42 participants, 14 (19.7%) reported being
male, 23(32.4%) reported as female, 1(1.4%) said they were transgender, 2(2/8%) preferred not
to answer, and 1 (1.4%) responded with other" when asked to identify their gender. In terms of
reported race, 25 (35.2%) respondents were White, 1(1.4%) was African-American, 3(4.2%)
were Latino, 3(4.2%) were Asian, 7(9.9%) were of mixed race, and 1 (1.4%) reported being of
another race than those listed.

Chi-Squared Test of Independence

A chi-square test of independence was used to evaluate the relationship between current income
level and plans to incorporate art into ones career. We found an insignificant relationship
between income level and plans to incorporate art into ones career, 2(1 df, N=33) = 0.021,
p=0.886. Essentially, there are no significant differences between the plans of those with a
livable income and those with a low income. However, an implication to take note of is that the
sample size was a bit too small to have enough explanatory power. In addition, although our
sample size is too small to be representative, we did find that 73.7% of respondents with low
income reported planning on incorporating art in their careers while only 26.3% of respondents
in the livable income group had similar plans, contrary to our hypothesis.
Independent Sample t-test
An independent-samples t-test was conducted to evaluate the hypothesis that those with higher
incomes spend more time participating in art. Contrary to this hypothesis, both groups spent
similar amounts of time participating in art, with the low income group having the following

results: (M = 3.08, SD = 1.613) while those who reported a livable income gave us these results:
(M = 3.56hrs/week, SD = 1.236), t(33) = 0.792, p = 0.434. The following graph displays this
result.

Conclusion
All in all, our sample was much too small to draw any meaningful conclusions, but we did still
have some interesting findings. For example, we found that, contrary to our hypothesis, there
was little to no correlation between income level and plans to incorporate art into their career. In
fact, we found that those who have a lower income have more interest in continuing their
participation in art later in life, although it would be wise to consider that these findings are not
statistically significant. Our sample size, again, was too small to really find anything
meaningful, and