Developing age appropriate questionnaires to measure Good Relations among children and young people
Dr Katrina Lloyd, Dr Michelle Templeton, Professor Laura Lundy and Dr Dirk Schubotz are working on a project commissioned by the Executive Office (TEO) to develop child friendly questionnaires for use with their Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC) programmes on Good Relations. Adopting a Child Rights based approach, involving children and young people throughout the project, the team is working with four advisory groups in two primary schools (9-11 year olds) and two post primary schools (11-15 year olds). Three questionnaires are being developed to measure Good Relations knowledge, attitude and behaviour: a baseline pre-project measure, a post-project measure to assess any impact on attitudes to Good Relations, and a one off event questionnaire. The advisory groups will also help to develop a script that facilitators will use when distributing the questionnaires. This will ensure that definitions and concepts related to ‘Good Relations’, such as ethnicity and cultural traditions, are described in a way that children and young people will understand.