Data collection in Stockholm schools

Guest blogger: Kemal Demirtas, coordinator of YAM data collection

In late August 2016, we began collecting data in the Stockholm study to continue our quest to better understand how YAM works. Questions include whether YAM increases well-being, improves peer-to-peer relations and the classroom climate, decreases the risk for mental health problems and/or reduces suicidal behavior. To do this, students in year 7 and 8 in secondary schools throughout the Stockholm area took part in a survey. Roughly half the students participated in the YAM program the week after taking the survey, and the other half will participate one year later.

During four months in the fall of 2016, my colleagues and I paid visits to 22 different secondary schools or “högstadier” in and around Stockholm. The survey was conducted with 120 groups of up to thirty students and so far a total of 2224 students have participated. We expect to be able to reach the target of 10,000 recruited students by the end of the project. We carried equipment with us consisting of a laptop, Wi-Fi router and thirty android-tablets. The tablets connect to the laptop (via the router) like any computer would connect to a server. The survey itself looks like any questionnaire on the internet. We ended up in classrooms, auditoriums, cafeterias and once even in an old movie theater.

The students’ participation is voluntary and before having them participate in the survey we would once again tell them that. To start the session we would shortly present our project and what taking the survey would be like opening up for any questions from the students. Each student was then provided with a personalized code that they use to initiate the survey and all their answers are then linked to that specific code. We explained that this way their identity cannot be disclosed to the researchers at Karolinska Institutet. We would encourage the students to lean back, put on headphones if they prefer, and to type away.

The survey takes approximately 60 minutes to complete and involves questions regarding demographics, previous experiences in everyday life, in and outside of school, their mental and physical health, but also questions like what kind of books they read or music they listen to. Most of the students take on the survey like any other educational task. They sit quietly and listen to music while answering the questions, asking for bathroom breaks or permission to pick up their phone to google the name of the author of that novel they love.

It does happen that some students find the survey intrusive. They might question things like why we need to know in which country their parents were born in or if they really have to give away information regarding their sexuality. If this happens, we remind the student that their participation is voluntary and that their answers will never be connected to their names. We tell them that they can feel safe to answer the questions honestly and that they can skip any question they don’t feel like answering. This puts most of them at peace, but in some rare instances students have chosen to stop answering the survey.