Interviews with eleven-year-old children

In 2006, SFI conducted a pilot project among Danish fifth grade pupils in a number of schools. The purpose was to test various types of questions for eleven-year-olds because the children in the Danish Longitudinal Survey of Children (DALSC) were reaching an age when they could be interviewed personally.
Children's development and grasp of concepts limits the scope of questions. And lack of reading skills can mean that the educationally weak children slip out of the surveys. The pilot project shows that web-based questionnaires with sound enable more representative surveys. The survey also shows that children can answer 'difficult' questions on social behaviour and emotional problems if the questions live up to the special requirements regarding content, type of question and questionnaire structure that apply to this age group.