M ore o r less they leave my studies to me They don't know too much, not really educated.

A So a t home they don't know - so it's entirely your responsibility? S9 There's no-one else.

A What's the difference? Is it entirely your responsibility? (to S7 and S8) 5 7 Well, my Mum's pretty educated with a Ph D and that and she knows about

university and wants me to go. She keeps tabs on what I do. Not all the time because I tell her...

A There's a discrepancy between fam ilies. How are yours? (to S8)

58 1 f e lt p u sh e d into doing it. 1 may not have come here but my M um an d D ad probably w ant me to go to university more than 1 do.

The interview with S13, S14 and S15 suggested other aspects of responsibility which could provide a measure of adjustment.

A Is that different from when you were a t school?

S Yeah, 'cause now i f I'm ill o r som ething- they say it's up to me w hether 1 want to go in or not. 1 don't have to ask th eir perm ission. So it's a bit more responsibility on me. 1 like it th at way.

A A nd do you like the timetable and that so rt o f thing that's here? S Yeah - it's alright

S Yeah

A You don't seem very sure.

S You have a lot o f fre e tim e on the timetable. S Yeah - It's ju st like....

A H ow do you cope with all the fre e tim e ? S H om ew ork

A So you do yo u r hom ew ork in it?

S - unless I go into (town) an d go shopping,

A So you can do that. (To another student) You are saying something different S I don 't norm ally do work in my fre e time. I ju s t s it arou n d with my mates.

In choosing items to measure responsibility for self in relation to college, those issues which might reflect family different family expectations of adolescent responsibility were avoided. The chosen items focused on taking personal responsibility as a student. Additionally, the statements had to be as relevant to those students living independently as to those living in parental homes. From the transcripts reproduced above, the following item- statements were constructed.

How well I do at college is entirely my own responsibility. Even if I feel unwell, I usually decide to come to college. If I have free time at college, I usually get my work done. I rarely miss a lesson.

Structuring the questionnaire

The interviews provided approximately 120 item statements which could be fairly evenly assigned to the social, academic or responsibility scales, with just a few items being more general and not falling into any of those categories. Initially 15 items were chosen from each category, some being very similar. The inclusion of similar items would provide a measure of within scale reliability.

It was decided that the questionnaire should start with some general items, which would focus the subject on his or her experience of this particular college, rather than education in general, and would also include the idea of adjustment to something new. A number of interviewees had talked about having to learn their way around college, which for most subjects would be a larger institution than any previously attended. Others had mentioned learning to adjust to a college time-table which was far less full

and less structured than the school week. Thus the following two item-statements were chosen to begin the questionnaire:

I know my way around college very well. I am used to my college time-table.

To conclude the questionnaire, it was decided to include general statements which focused directly on adjustment to college and the likelihood of "dropping out." These would help to indicate whether the items from the social, academic and responsibility scales were also actually measuring specific aspects of adjustment to college. Statistical tests of correlation and factor analysis for pilot studies would indicate the validity of the questionnaire.

Between the opening items and the concluding two, the main body of the questionnaire was constructed from 15 items each from the social, academic and responsibility scales and an additional item was included from the social scale so that there would be 50 items in all. Some statements were rephrased to become negatives because that made them easier to rate. Others were phrased as negative to provide variety, so that subjects would have to consider each individual item and would not be able to work their way through the questionnaire responding with the same rating throughout. The items from the different scales were given in a mixed order to sustain the respondents' interest and to ensure that similar questions were not too close to one another.

The Likert-type Rating Scale.

A Likert-type rating scale was chosen to measure the student's assessment of his or her experience or feelings about being at college. For each item-statement the respondent was required to circle one number from 1 - 5 to indicate as follows:

1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree

3 Neither agree nor disagree 4 Agree

This method of rating is familiar to students and requires little explanation. It was hoped that students would feel able to indicate their level of agreement to statements given by other students, without feeling persecuted or judged and would so feel able to answer honestly. A 5-point scale was considered sufficient and would be consistent with the measures of attachment, which would be in the same initial package of questionnaires. As well as keeping the method of response simple for the subjects, it was hoped that this consistency would also assist in the analysis and understanding of the results.

The scale was arranged so that a higher score on the adjustment questionnaire would indicate a higher level of adjustment to college. (This is consistent with the attachment questionnaires too.) Scores for negative items would be reversed for the scoring.