SELECTING & DEVELOPING MEASURES
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter outlines the design of the entire research study, as it was initially envisaged. More detailed explanations of research decisions will be given in the following chapters.
The research was designed in different parts which, where possible, would be undertaken simultaneously to allow for the constraints of time and subject availability.
The research would take place at a college of further education, with student subjects aged 16-20 years.
Assembling the test materials
To test hypotheses I and II measures of attachment to parents and adjustment to college would be needed. A number of attachment measures, described in the literature, were likely to be suitable. The following were to be assessed:
i) Kenny's Parental Attachment Questionnaire (FAQ) (1987)
ii) Armsden & Greenberg's Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment (IPPA)(1987)
iii) Hazan & Shaver's model of attachment measure (1987; 1990)
However, there did not appear to be a suitable measure of adjustment to life and study at college for British students in further education and such a measure would have to be developed. The development of a questionnaire was planned as follows:
1 Small groups of subjects would take part in exploratory in-depth interviews to encourage them to express their own ideas about adjustment to life and study at F.E. College. These interviews would be audio-taped.
2 From the transcripts of these interviews, different themes and common examples of adjustment would be selected.
3 A questionnaire would be constructed, consisting of statements concerning different aspects of adjustment to college. The questionnaire would require responses on a Likert-type scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree.
4 A few subjects would be chosen by opportunity sampling just to check that all the statement items could be understood and that the form was "user-friendly." Alterations would be made accordingly.
5 For a pilot study, a small random sample of subjects would be tested on the questiormaire so that redundant items and problem items could be removed.
6 To test for reliability and validity/generalizability, 20 - 25 subjects would be randomly selected from across college and they would be tested individually in the following order;
a) Test on the Adjustment Questionnaire
b) Two weeks later - Re-test on the Adjustment Questionnaire.
c) Clinical counselling interview to explore how well the subject had adjusted to college. This interview would be audio-taped. The tape would be independently rated by a counsellor not involved in the research and with no knowledge of the questionnaire scores. The interview ratings would be statistically tested against the questionnaire scores.
If the newly developed Adjustment to College Questionnaire was found to be a valid and reliable measure and the attachment measures were deemed suitable, the research could proceed.
Testing Hypotheses I and II : a questionnaire study
Approximately 300 subjects would be required. Student classes would be randomly selected from a list of full-time college courses, excluding the classes aimed specifically at mature students and those for students with moderate and severe learning disabilities. The aim was to produce a representative sample of the late adolescent student population.
Students would be given a pack containing the following:
i) Kenny's Parental Attachment Questionnaire (FAQ) (1987)
ii) Armsden & Greenberg's Inventory of Parental and Peer Attachment (IPPA)(1987)
iii) Hazan & Shaver's model of attachment measure
vi) The newly developed Questionnaire of Adjustment to College
v) A Personal information form including questions regarding family information, ethnic information and level of academic achievement.
vi) A question asking for subjects to indicate their willingness to be contacted in the future to participate in a one-to-one in-depth interview.
The FAQ and the IPPA would provide scores for attachment, on different scales, which could be statistically correlated with one another and with the adjustment to college scores. The Hazan and Shaver measure would assign subjects to one of three attachment groups: secure, insecure-avoidant and insecure-ambivalent. The attachment scores and the adjustment scores for the three groups could be statistically compared. The personal information form would provide information to enable statistical analysis according to gender, age, ethnic group, socio-economic status and single vs. two-parent families.
Approximately 15 out of the 300 subjects who had indicated a willingness for further contact and who were not clients of the college Counselling Service were to be seen again, individually, 8-12 weeks after their initial test. They would be retested on the whole set of questionnaires and then they would be given a semi-structured interview. This was planned so that :
a) The interval between their initial test and their retest would be similar to the interval experienced by the counselling clients in the third part of the study (see below). Their results could be compared.
b) This would provide an additional check on the reliability and validity of the Adjustment to College Questionnaire.
c) The interview would provide qualitative data regarding adolescent parental and peer attachment and adjustment to college.
The interview study
The 15 students described above would be given semi-structured in-depth interviews, which would be audio-taped. Focusing on the adolescents' perceptions of their parental and peer relationships and their adjustment to college, these interviews would provide qualitative data to give a more detailed account of this stage of development. This qualitative data would also be compared to the quantitative data for the individual subjects.
Testing hypotheses III, IV & V : A counselling outcome study
The pack of questionnaires described for the questionnaire study would be given to almost all of the students seen by the researcher for the College Counselling Service. The well-being of each individual client would remain paramount, with the researcher using her clinical judgment to decide whether participation in the research would be inappropriate. (For example, a student whose parent had recently died would not be asked to fill in questionnaires about parental attachment.)
The research schedule for individual counselling client subjects was planned as follows:
1 Questionnaire testing after assessment, but before counselling commences, to establish baseline responses.
2 Counselling sessions would follow a protocol and focus on the adolescent- parent relationship.
3 Re-testing on the questionnaires as soon as possible after the final counselling session, to measure any changes.
The quantitative data would be statistically analysed. Comparisons would be made with the scores of the 15 subjects initially tested and then retested on the questionnaires.
With the consent of the counselling clients, the counsellors' process notes would provide qualitative data to be examined. This could provide information about aspects of intervention which create therapeutic change.
Having planned the studies, the character of the college population needed investigation to confirm that it did meet the requirements of the research.