Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

e shared out between them. As the primary analysis was of the Beck scores, no
adjustment for multiplicity was made for the secondary endpoints: the importance
was based on finding a significant result in the analysis of the Beck.
5.8.2 Blinding
To protect the study design from the introduction of bias, the following criteria were
applied:
1. During the project, the music therapist’s only involvement in the quantitative
data was to distribute and collect in the questionnaires. These were then kept
in a locked filing cabinet at school. Data analysis only began after the last
wave of data collection had been completed.
2. The McSherry Re-integration Readiness questionnaire (5.5) was rated by
three teachers who were not actively informed as to whether the young person
was currently receiving music therapy or not. However, official blinding was
unrealistic due to teachers’ constant interaction with students and contact with
parents and other members of staff.
3. An independent statistician, who had no contact with the students, became
involved with the data after the final data entry had been completed.
4. Qualitative data were collected by an independent interviewer.
5.9 Qualitative data collection from students
Semi-structured interviews preceded the questionnaires to help students relax but the
order of doing the questionnaires and the interviews had to vary and be tailored to the
needs of each student to maximise the time with each student. The pre- and postmusic
therapy interview schedules are included as appendices 5.9a and 5.9b
respectively, however they served as guides rather than a set formula and not all the
students were asked all of the questions. They were designed as warm-up
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