Children’s understanding of well-being related questions: results of cognitive interviews in four European countries

Toni, B, Krpanec, E, Blažev, M, Dević, I, Downey, S, Huttunen, I, Panico, L, Perron, Z, Santos, A, Taylor, LK, Upadyaya, K, Symonds, J and Pollock, G ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6673-2368 (2024) Children’s understanding of well-being related questions: results of cognitive interviews in four European countries. International Journal of Social Research Methodology. pp. 1-16. ISSN 1364-5579

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Abstract

This paper presents the results of cognitive interviews with 8-year-old children from four European countries–Croatia, France, Finland, and Ireland. The aim of the interviews was to pre-test a selection of well-being-related questions as a part of questionnaire development for the first European multinational birth cohort study–Growing up in Digital Europe (GUIDE)/EuroCohort. Unlike most previous studies, we focused on a younger and more age-homogenous sample, as well as a more diverse set of well-known questionnaires. A total of 68 children participated in the study. The main suggestion for the interviewing procedure is to create a safe environment yet minimize the parents’ interference in answering. The questionnaires should use child-friendly vocabulary, tangible examples, avoid complex sentence structure and negative statements. The use of timeframes in questions should be minimal. The children can use Likert-type scales, but the number of different scales in the questionnaire should be limited.