Questionnaires
Questionnaire design
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The 2014 SYPE questionnaire is based primarily on the 2009 survey, which was developed using qualitative data from focus group discussions and interviews with young people that determined the issues that were important to youth. In addition, the Council team consulted with different partners and research experts in each of the topics covered in the survey and completed an extensive overview of literature to further refine the 2009 questionnaire. In its semi-final stage, pretesting in selected PSUs in the Qalyubia, Cairo, and Giza governorates in March of 2009 helped the team further refine the survey before commencing nationwide data collection.
The 2009 survey consisted of three questionnaires:
- A household questionnaire,
- An individual questionnaire focused on the respondent, and
- A community-level questionnaire. The 2009 community-level questionnaire was used to assess characteristics of the subject's local community. This questionnaire was not administered as part of the 2014 SYPE due to budget constraints.
The household questionnaire assessed the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of the subject's household, with the head of the household or an adult in the household interviewed for this section.
The 2009 individual questionnaire consisted of six versions designed specifically for different age groups and genders: males aged 10-14, females aged 10-14, males aged 15-21, females aged 15-21, males aged 22-29, and females aged 22-29. In 2014, The SYPE team decided to design one all-inclusive version of the questionnaire using skip patterns whenever needed. Individual questionnaires for both rounds of SYPE covered the following key areas: education, work, family formation, health, migration, and civic and political participation.
In late 2012 and early 2013, the Population Council team began updating the SYPE 2009 household and individual questionnaires in consultation with several partners and frequent SYPE users. In April of 2013, the Population Council team held several consultative meetings with experts in the fields covered by the different SYPE modules, SYPE partners and donors, and officials from relevant ministries to get additional feedback on the contents of each module of the updated version of the survey. These meetings significantly improved the design of the questionnaire.
The result is a more comprehensive version of these two questionnaires. The SYPE 2014 household questionnaire now includes additional information on migration, remittances, and household income and transfers. The SYPE 2014 individual questionnaire also added questions that cover new issues emerging since the January 25, 2011 revolution, especially in relation to the civic engagement module, which focuses on four areas: civic and political participation, community values, gender role attitudes, and religiosity. The health, violence, risk, and safety module has been significantly updated as well to gain a broad picture of how youth's safety has changed since 2009, including exposure to health hazards, harassment, and physical violence. In early August, the updated 2014 SYPE questionnaires were submitted to CAPMAS for legal approval, which was granted shortly after. Furthermore, as was the case in 2009, the 2014 SYPE study was approved by the Population Council's Institutional Review Board (IRB) prior to the commencement of fieldwork. The IRB reviews research involving human subjects to ensure that participants in such fieldwork are treated ethically and that participation does not compromise the participant's safety or well-being. This is especially important when a study involves minors, which is the case with SYPE.
In June of 2013, a two-day pretesting of the full household and individual questionnaires was conducted. This pretesting included 60 households in the urban and slum areas of El-Sayeda Zeinab and Abdeen districts of Cairo. Pretesting helped the Council determine the expected duration of the full interview and identify problematic questions and misleading skip patterns in the questionnaires, which were then modified accordingly.