Dear Survey Girl,
Our school did the Profiles of Student Life: Attitudes and Behaviors two years ago and we want to see if our assets have gone up since then. I’ve heard that we shouldn’t use the A&B to show change over time, though. Is that true?
Sincerely,
All Students Surveyed Engaged Their Spark
Dear ASSETS,
The A&B survey should not be used to measure change over time or as a pre/post test. This is true for a few different reasons:
The most important reason lies in the dichotomous nature of asset measurement. By dichotomous, what we mean is that when we score the surveys, we determine whether each respondent (anonymously) “has” or doesn’t “have” each of the assets by using mean scores from the items we’ve created to measure those assets. We then pull all of that information together to give you results for the full group. When we report results in a dichotomous manner (which is appropriate when reporting group results in this manner), there is only have or have not; yes or no. This differs from reporting data on a continuous scale, where a respondent’s mean score could land anywhere along a scale. As you can imagine, any given person could make a lot of progress /towards/ having an asset without crossing that point at which we say they /do have/ the asset. And that’s the kind of change that’s important to see if you’re doing any work that needs to show positive change over time.
A second point to keep in mind is that these surveys are used primarily in schools, and are given anonymously. From year to year, school populations change with kids leaving or joining the district, or simply by being absent on the date the survey is administered. Ideally, change over time measurement would follow the same group of kids, which is impractical with these surveys.
A final point I would make is that the assets cover such a wide range of experiences that it would be virtually impossible for any effort to affect all or even most of them directly. Again, the surveys we offer give a great overview and starting point, but an instrument to measure change over time should be tailored specifically to those points which you feel you might be affecting with your efforts. As we all know, working intentionally on those assets which we feel we can positively impact is likely to have a carryover affect on other assets, but it’s hard to predict those secondary effects.
Many communities use these surveys repeatedly, and that’s appropriate as long as we’re all clear on reasonable goals. It’s reasonable and effective to use these surveys to gain an accurate and current perspective on the beliefs and experiences of the youth you are currently surveying. As those who have worked in schools know, any given class can have a very distinct personality of it’s own, and so getting that updated view is important so that you’re not making inaccurate assumptions about the group of youth currently living in your community based on results from previous groups. Many find it useful to, for example, follow trends in a particular grade level or levels (eg 6th graders in 2004 vs. 6th graders in 2006), and that’s a very reasonable goal.
The Attitudes and Behaviors was designed to give a look at how a group of youth is experiencing assets, risk behaviors, deficits, and thriving behaviors at a particular point in time. It does this quite well, and thus works beautifully as a community mobilization tool. It can be a catalyst for forming or sustaining an asset-building initiative by giving youth a way to share the community experience from their perspective.
Whew.
Love,
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