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CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY
Participants
Participants in this study were 332 8th and 11 th grade students.' Distribution of
Chapter III: Methodology
participants by grade, gender, and mean age with standard deviations, are presented in Table 2.
Students were recruited from four public high schools in two school districts (one urban and one
suburban) located in a large Western Canadian city. Two schools were drawn from each
participating school district. Adolescents were recruited from classrooms representing a wide
range of abilities, with the majority (75%) of participants recruited from a general required
course (i.e., Social Studies). The remaining students were recruited from elective courses (i.e.,
Psychology, French, Art). All of the students in the participating classrooms were invited to take
part, but only those adolescents who had informed written parental or guardian consent
(Appendix A), and provided their own signed assent (Appendix B), participated in the present
investigation. The overall participation rate for this study was 63%.
Table 2
Distribution of Participants by Grade, Gender, and Mean Age, N = 332
Grade^Number of Girls^Number of Boys^Total^Mean Age
(% in Grade)^(% in Grade)^(N = 332)^(SD)
Grade 8 66 (57.9%) 48 (42.1%) 114 13.96 (.41)
Grade 11 118 (54.1%) 100 (45.9%) 218 16.91 (.37)
As can be seen in Table 2, boys and girls were represented relatively equally in the grade
levels, and there were about twice as many grade 11 students as grade 8 students who
participated.
8 The initial sample included 356 students who were recruited from 8th and 11 th grade classrooms.
However, 24 students who were recruited from these classrooms were actually enrolled in either 9 th (n = 5), 10 th (n =
4), or 12 th (n = 15) grade. To eliminate potential confounds regarding the sample selection (Blaikie, 2003) of 8 th and
11 th graders, these 24 students were removed from the sample.
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