Youth Research

Whilst the majority of research projects are done with adults, it is also possible for us to conduct youth research with children and teenagers via their parents accounts. The code of conduct set out by the MRS states that parental permission is required to research anyone under the age of 16 in the UK, and we would sample those no younger than 6, as children younger than this are unlikely to be able to comprehend the survey and answer appropriately.

It’s important to make sure that respondents understand what we are asking with any survey, but particularly when it comes to sampling children as we need to make sure the language we use is simple, which can mean tailoring questions compared to how we would ask an adult. For example, and agree/disagree scale might be the best way to ask a question in an unbiased manner for an adult, but it’s going to confuse your average 8-year-old, so we might change to a simple yes/no.

As company partners of the MRS, OnePoll are signed up to Codeline. This is a service which we can use to seek advice on more sensitive topics, to ensure we are following the appropriate rules and regulations, which is especially needed when researching children.

When conducting youth research, to avoid introducing bias into the sample, we would always ask parents to think about which child has a birthday next in the calendar year to select the sample. This is because asking specifically about their oldest/youngest child will skew the sample towards one of the ends. The main thing here is that we are asking parents about only one of their children, and if we have questions for parents to answer before passing to their child we want to make sure that they are thinking of the same child.

Previous youth research we have conducted with Penguin Random House is Penguin Random House – History Lesson – OnePoll Public Relations