Undertaking survey research with young people: Maximising response rates

This presentation will outline the difficulties encountered when undertaking postal survey research with young people. The study undertaken aimed to establish the smoking and non-smoking habits of young people aged 11 to 1� years old who were members of a Smokebusters’ club and compare the findings to a similar survey of club members undertaken � years previously. A number of authors describe the smoking behaviour of young people. For example, Goddard and Higgins (2000) report that whilst from the age of 1� years old the smoking behaviour in boys has fluctuated over the last decade there has been a steady increase in the numbers of young girls who smoke in the UK. A survey was conducted of all the Smokebusters members (n=2810). Response rate to this survey was 16% (n=��8). Findings were then compared to a similar survey conducted five years previously (n=2810). Response rates to the first survey was 1�% (n=�6�). It may be concluded that a disappointing feature of both surveys was the low response rates. Review of similar studies with young people show most published research reports use of face-to-face approaches as against a postal survey approaches. There are very few reports of use of postal surveys of young people. One author who used this approach with a slightly older age range than the present study (1� to 16 years old) does report a 7�% response rate (Smith et al 200�). However, Smith et al state that they undertook extensive liaison work with the schools whose pupils participated in the survey along with eliciting teacher support to improve response rates. It may be concluded that relatively high response rates can be achieved with this type of survey of young people if questionnaires are administered with the cooperation of schools and in a face-to-face or in a ‘captive audience’ situation