Derrington 2012 thesis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

Specifically, I would suggest that students at The Centre School, who have all known
changes in schools and many in their home situations as well (3.3), could potentially
be more wary of being honest in such a survey. They are more vulnerable and aware
of the role of social services and therefore more likely to refrain from admitting how
bad things really felt. Perhaps in the past this may have led to changes beyond their
control. They also might have wanted to conceal emotional difficulties or be
particularly afraid that their parents would discover what they had said (Kumar and
Steer, 1995).
There was also the possibility that students wanted to make a good impression on the
interviewer who they were meeting for the first time. They might want to ‘do well’,
get the ‘right’ answer and say the ‘right’ thing. Budd, Sigelman and Sigelman (1981)
warned of anxiety and response bias in survey research with children. Even amongst
students who can be very antisocial in their behaviour, the drive to say the right thing
and impress is often visible. ‘Social desirability is probably more potent in surveys
and interviews than in many simple experiments’ (Coolican, 2009, p.86).
The questionnaire results could have been affected by any number of these issues.
Another investigation into the reliability of survey measurement (Alwin and
Krosnick, 1991) showed that young people with less schooling provided the least
reliable data. Therefore were students at The Centre School more likely to have found
it very difficult to know how to answer In this light, did CVC students respond
without the worry of consequences Having known less upheaval from changing
schools than The Centre School students, and with fewer gaps in their education,
were they more literate and therefore able to think more clearly about their answers
Another point to consider is the means by which the students in the two schools
completed the questionnaires. The students in The Centre School answered out loud
after the interviewer read out each statement. This may have felt more exposed, less
private and could therefore have led to less honest answers The students at CVC
who coud all read, were allowed to carry out the questionnaires on their own but
could follow the same procedure as Centre School students if they preferred (5.4.2).
This more anonymous approach might have felt safer for them to answer honestly.
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