The pupil questionnaire covers several areas, including:
- School and results
- Feelings and opinions
- Health
- Friends and relationship building
- Family Relationships
- Leisure
The purpose of the study is to answer questions on young people’s living conditions and to compare these between countries, e.g.:
- Which role do school, family and friends play for youth in Europe?
- What are the hobbies, interests and issues they are engaged in?
- How do educational careers of young people with and without immigration background proceed? What are their educational and occupational goals?
- What can be done in order to improve educational chances of all young people?
In each participating country, 4,000 pupils currently attending 8th grade (or corresponding) will be interviewed by means of a questionnaire. In Sweden, approximately 130 schools are randomly selected. Besides, a questionnaire will be sent out to the guardian of all respondents (in most cases a parent), and the class teacher will be asked to fill in a questionnaire about the school. The survey will be conducted in schools during the autumn of 2010. The study is longitudinal and the survey in 2010 will be followed by another survey in 2011 (when pupils are in 9th grade) and another one in 2012 (when respondents have finished compulsory school and have entered upper secondary education, the labour market or else).
The survey is conducted in Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and England. Youth in Europe (YES!) is a joint initiative of researchers from Stockholm University, the University of Mannheim, University of Utrecht, Tilburg University, and University of Oxford. The research is funded by NORFACE, a conglomerate of a number of national research councils.
