Survey ID Number
VNM_2003_SAVY_v01_M
Title
Survey Assessement of Vietnamese Youth 2003
Questionnaires
The questionnaire was designed through a very dynamic process, where experience from previous surveys was examined and opinions of young people were actively solicited to ensure quality and relevance. This process also helped to define the methodology and implications for fieldwork planning.
A number of stakeholders’ agencies, including research institutes, were involved in the development of the questionnaire. This process ensured broad participation and ownership of the questionnaire and the survey.
The questionnaire design took place in two stages. In the first stage, experienced researchers, and others interested in the survey as stakeholders, were convened to a workshop by the MoH. Potential topics, and the possible phrasing of questions using the questionnaire bank from previous studies in the region as reference, were fully discussed. Since some of the topics were deemed to be more sensitive than others, it was recommended that the questionnaire should be organized into two parts, one for an interview and the other for self-completion. On the basis of that workshop, a draft questionnaire was created for review by the workshop members and numerous others in stakeholder agencies, as well as by young people through a series of consultations.
Eight focus group discussions were conducted in Hanoi and HCMC, with around 60 young people of different ages in the 14-25 range who were either married or unmarried and either attending or not attending school. Participants gave detailed feedback about the terminology, the ways in which questions were posed and the sequencing of the questions, as well as which specific questions or issues they would prefer to respond to on their own, rather than with an interviewer. This process resulted in the rephrasing of a number of questions and changes to the self-completed section.
Preliminary training was conducted for field-testing of the questionnaire. Participants came from the GSO Office in Tuyen Quang, Hue and HCMC, representing the north, south and central regions of Viet Nam. A group of 50 young males and females, either married or unmarried and either attending or not attending school, participated in the interviewers’ practice session. In the debriefing discussions, these young people expressed their feelings about the interviews, the questions asked, what they liked and did not like about the process, seating arrangements, ideas of what topics/issues they thought might still be missing in the draft questionnaire, and what they thought would be needed to make good interviewers. Field testing with around 180 young people from six communes in these three provinces then took place.
The second stage involved further vetting of questionnaire sections and was coordinated by the GSO. The review meeting following the field trips recommended the need for another field testing exercise, particularly because little experience had been gained from testing with urban young people and interviewing ethnic minority young people through interpreters. Following the second round of field-testing in Hanoi and Yen Bai, the feedback was incorporated to finalise the questionnaire for the interviewers training. At the training, further revision and refinement of the questionnaire occurred prior to the field work.
The resulting questionnaire consisted of a total of more than 200 questions. SAVY experts then further modified the questionnaire in order to ensure the best phrasing possible, and to avoid technical terms. The first section was conducted as a face-to-face interview, with general questions categorized into topics. The second part of the questionnaire – and the part that makes the survey special – was an anonymous self-administered section, including 52 sensitive questions that youth preferred to answer in private. Originally, it was envisaged that the self completed section would contain between 10-15 questions, but it became much longer as the youth consulted suggested that a lot more questions they perceived to be sensitive should be placed there. The questionnaire could be completed in 60 to 80 minutes, though this was longer for those unable to read the questionnaire and who required translation.
The specific information collected through the questionnaire includes:
- Personal demographics
- Schooling, education
- Vocational training, Work and employment
- Puberty: knowledge and behaviors about reproductive health
- Dating and friendship
- HIV/AIDS
- Injury, illness and physical health
- Attitudes, perceptions and behaviors
- Social factors and emotional wellbeing
- Mass media
- Future aspirations