1. Organizing Research. Each partnerwill beresponsible to take all the necessary preparatory steps for both pilot and field research (e.g. obtaining official permission to access schools, contact schools, provide data required for sampling, assembling efficient research groups, etc.)
2. Sampling. The target populationof the study is 11, 13 and 16-year-old children and their parents that will be studied through representative matched samples of parent-child pairs. The method of stratified cluster sampling is going to be used in order to select the children sample (in each of the participating countries, 1% of the children attending school from the three age-groups, from urban and rural areas, from 3 different geographical areas will be selected). As regards to the drop-outs of school children, a convenience sample of children matched with their parents it is anticipated (due to the very serious barriers to locate the families of these children), even though every effort will be devoted in order for representative samples to be assembled, as it is described in section 4.3, below.
3. Piloting. A number of very distinct and different in nature features, namely the comprehensiveness of the questionnaires’ translations, the necessity of the field researchers to get used to perplexities of the questionnaires’ delivery in classroom settings as well as the readiness of each partner for the handling of data gathered and the compatibility of all partners’ procedures and outcomes, are to be tested, piloted and fine-tuned in this part of the study. Therefore, the following two-folded strategy is going to be used:
3.1. Focus Groups. At a first phase, after translation and preliminary cultural validation of tools, a small number of focus groups with a non-randomized small (10-15) number of children of each age subgroup could be held. These focus groups should, in principle, be conducted by main (senior) researchers of the participant organizations. Focus groups’ methodology would include filling in the questionnaire by the children and subsequent discussion of their understanding of it. This will entail a better understanding on our behalf of possible deficits in the translation/validation of the tools.
At least one additional focus group should be implemented with parents (ideally, having children at the targeted ages). Participants originating from countries with a considerable in magnitude portion of school-children’s population that do not attend at schools (e.g. Roma or other) should consider conducting separate focus groups for tools to be used at these population’s separate studies.
The detailed methodology and materials that will be used by all participants for the conduct of the focus groups will be developed by the Coordinator and finalized with the contribution of all of the partners during the 1st Managerial Meeting.
The questionnaires will be modified accordingly, on the basis of the analysis of data collected by the questionnaire completion along with qualitative analysis of the data that will emerge from the discussions in focus groups.
3.2. Pilot Studies: Each partner will organize a pilot study. After modifications in questionnaires have been done, the second phase of the pilot study would be their actual administration in a small part of the randomized population sample, this time by the field researchers. A minimum on this phase would be to test tools in at least four different classrooms (11-year old urban/rural and 16-year old urban/rural); in any case, the maximum per country should not exceed the 100-120 children/questionnaires to avoid substantial reduction of the final (remaining) sample.
Partners will process data to check if all can follow compatible rules of encoding data, provide comparable outcomes and to identify potential unforeseen factors or difficulties.
4. Main EpidemiologicalStudies - Data Collection
4.1. Pupils: the self-administered ICAST-CH questionnaire will be used; data collection will be conducted in the classroom setting by trained researchers
4.2. Parents: The self-administered ICAST-P questionnaire will be used. Along with the distribution of questionnaires in classrooms, each child will also receive a sealed envelope to be delivered to his/her parents; this envelope will include an informational letter, a parent questionnaire which will have the same code with that of the child’s, for matching purposes, along with an empty envelope (which will be used by the parent to return the filled in questionnaire). The completed questionnaires could be either returned at school or mailed directly to the partner’s organization
4.3. Drop-outs: The same instruments as for pupils and their parents will be used but the method of structured interview will be used for the data collection. In an effort to identify the drop-outs, in each school that will be included in the study, the partner will try to gather contact details on those children (11, 13 and 16 years old) that used to attend school the year before, but they did not continue attending school this year; consequently, the families of those children will be contacted and visited by the research team in order to deliver instruments of research. The interview will take place either at participants’ home, or in another safe place, according to family’s preference.
This research will be conducted only in countries where the drop-out of school rate will be demonstrated to be high. Where it will be judged necessary, partners will identify minorities residing in its boundaries, and will cooperate with other partners in order to obtain the child and parent instruments translated in the language of each identified minority, to be used in data collection.
5. Coding, screening of data and statistical analysis. A coding template will be developed by the coordinator; eachpartner will enter the collected data in the template and review them, in order to ensure their quality and completeness. The completed databases will be forwarded to the Coordinator in order to compile the Balkan database of CAN.* Statistical analysis of data will be executed by two different statisticians to ensure the reliability of results. A meeting among national coordinators and their statisticians will be organized, in order to define data analysis strategy.
As an additional measure to ensure the quality and the comparability of data encoding and analysis among partner countries, the data gathered during the pilot testing phase will be encoded, analysed and compared before the start of the main research. In case of inconsistencies among data from different partner countries, appropriate modifications and recommendations will be made to the system of data management in order to achieve comparability of encoding and analysis
Rates of CAN that will be revealed in the sample of drop-out-of-school children will be used by each partner to adjust the prevalence and incidence rates of school-attending children samples, aiming to obtain a more precise illustration of the real situation.
6. Report of data analysis. Each partner will compile a report describing the results of their National surveys. (R5)
*National raw data and databases will remain under the responsibility of the National Coordinators while the Coordinator of the project will withhold the responsibility for the entire Balkan database..
Achievements
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Balkan Epidemiological Study on Child Abuse & Neglect |
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Institute of Child Health |