Tuesday 16th July
Wednesday 17th July
Thursday 18th July
Friday 19th July
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Surveying Children and Young People 1 |
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| Convenor | Ms Lisa Calderwood (Centre for Longitudinal Studies) |
While many large-scale surveys successfully collect a variety of different types of data from children and young people there is relatively little methodological evidence in this area. Much of the literature relating to children and young people's participation in research is taken from small-scale qualitative studies and tends to focus on ethical issues relating to the rights of children and young people. This session will cover experiences of including children and young people in surveys and survey design issues as they relate to children and young people. In particular, submissions are welcomed on:
- designing questionnaires for children and young people, including question testing methods and assessing the reliability and validity of children's self-reports
- collecting sensitive data from children and young people, including methods for ensuring privacy and encouraging accurate reporting
- inclusivity in data collection methods, including facilitating the participation of children with lower literacy levels
- ethical issues in involving children and young people in surveys, including gaining informed consent and protecting children's rights and well-being
- preventing non-response by engaging children and young people in research, including designing survey materials to appeal to children and using new technology and digital media for participant engagement
- collecting different types of data from children and young people, including physical measurements, cognitive assessments, biological samples and time use data
- using different methods of data collection and innovative technology for data collection, including the web and mobile phones
The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC) is conducted biennially and collects information from approximately 10,000 families across Australia. The older cohort turns 14-15 years old in 2014, Wave 6. The study is in the process of developing and testing protocols to manage the collection of potentially sensitive information from this group.
In Wave 5, parents were provided with a brief topic sheet if they queried the content asked of their 12-13 year old via the Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interview (ASCASI). Feedback from families and Interviewers during the Wave 5 data collection has initiated changes in our approach to our families for Wave 6. The new protocols ensure we maintain the ongoing trust of our study families and respondents. Key changes to process include: introducing a more transparent process of disclosing the content we plan to ask the Study Child; allowing parents to refuse particular question modules on behalf of the teen; and enabling the teen to opt into a professional support service provided by the Study. These changes also required redesign of the parental pre-interview letter and brochure, and the introduction of a child brochure. In-home protocols for the Interviewer were developed, and training updated to give them the knowledge and confidence to manage the new procedures during the interview.
This paper discusses the progress to date on the development of these new protocols.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child gave children rights of protection and participation. In the context of social research, this means protecting their freedom to participate and supporting their ease of doing so, while ensuring their wellbeing throughout the research process. Within social research practice, protocols have been developed for ensuring child protection, but less attention has been paid to maintaining children's rights to participate by researchers and ethics committees. This poses the risk that children's rights are overlooked because, for example, if adults are over protective, they can fail fully to take into account children's voices and the importance of supporting their ease of participation or recognising their capabilities to do so.
In developing the approach the UK Millennium Cohort Study took for the Age 11 survey in 2012 for interviewing children, we sought to emulate existing good practice, especially in protecting children's wellbeing, but also extend our approach to break new ground in the practice for including children's voices. This paper will describe the work that we undertook to ensuring the rights and wellbeing of children were protected during the whole research process, for example, by including measures to ensure children were not negatively affected by the content and experience of the research. It also describes the work that we undertook to facilitate children's fullest possible informed consent, thus supporting their right to a full say regarding their own level of participation at all stages of the research process.
Based on the Danish longitudinal Survey of Children born in 1995 (DALSC), we share the experience of including children and young people's own voice in longitudinal data. DALSC is the first longitudinal study in Denmark aiming to monitor children from birth to adulthood, and thus allowing research into the relationship between living conditions in childhood and subsequent life as an adult. DALSC consists of three subsamples: (1) 6,000 children of Danish mothers; (2) 1,120 children born in Denmark by mothers with non-Danish citizenship; and (3) app. 1,650 children who are or have at one time been placed in out-of-home care environments. Five waves of data collections have been carried out since 1996. The sixth wave is planned to be collected in spring 2014 before the children turn 19. Mothers and other caregivers are used as respondents in the first three waves. The mothers and caregivers have completed questionnaires through standardized face-to-face interviews. From age 11 the children have been face-to-face interviewed or have answered self-completed web-based questionnaires. In general, DALSC is considered to be high quality data due to an overall high response rates from mothers and children (Ottosen, 2011). This presentation includes questions on how to test the questionnaire, how to get in contact, how to collect sensitive data, cognitive assessments, and how to substitute survey questions with administratively collected register data from Statistics Denmark.
The Research Centre at the National Children's Bureau (NCB) supports a group of young people - the Young NCB Research Advisors. The research team has valuable experience in engaging the group on different aspects of the research process for example developing and testing surveys for children and young people. The main goal of involving young people has been to prevent non-response by designing materials to appeal to children and ensure clarity, relevance and accurate reporting in surveys One recent example has been the development of baseline and follow up surveys for 1000 young people in care attending a one to one support programme across England. Young research advisors provided input into the design, length and layout of the surveys and provided ideas for engaging young people on the programme in order to complete the surveys.
For the purpose of the conference we will illustrate how we involve the Young NCB Research Advisors in the design of surveys for young people. In addition we would involve our Young NCB Research Advisors to produce a film with them with their suggestions on how to involve children and young people in the design process to ensure materials are appropriate for children and young people and how to make the experience fun and rewarding for children and young people. Therefore, our presentation will be grounded in the views of young people.