II. MORE THAN JUST CONVENIENT: THE SCIENTIFIC MERITS OF HOMOGENEOUS CONVENIENCE SAMPLES

TLDR

Despite their disadvantaged generalizability relative to probability samples, nonprobability convenience samples are the standard within developmental science and will likely remain so because probability samples are cost‑prohibitive and most available probability samples are ill‑suited to examine developmental questions. The authors propose augmenting convenience samples by using homogeneous convenience samples to better understand population effects and subpopulation differences, recommending them as a positive alternative when researchers are limited to convenience samples. They discuss future directions and potential obstacles to expanding the use of homogeneous convenience samples in developmental science. Although all convenience samples have less clear generalizability than probability samples, homogeneous convenience samples have clearer generalizability relative to conventional convenience samples.

Abstract

Despite their disadvantaged generalizability relative to probability samples, nonprobability convenience samples are the standard within developmental science, and likely will remain so because probability samples are cost‐prohibitive and most available probability samples are ill‐suited to examine developmental questions. In lieu of focusing on how to eliminate or sharply reduce reliance on convenience samples within developmental science, here we propose how to augment their advantages when it comes to understanding population effects as well as subpopulation differences. Although all convenience samples have less clear generalizability than probability samples, we argue that homogeneous convenience samples have clearer generalizability relative to conventional convenience samples. Therefore, when researchers are limited to convenience samples, they should consider homogeneous convenience samples as a positive alternative to conventional (or heterogeneous) convenience samples. We discuss future directions as well as potential obstacles to expanding the use of homogeneous convenience samples in developmental science.