WHY UNDERTAKE A SURVEY

The Island’s Health and Education Departments have regularly undertaken surveys of young people. The first survey was held in 1988 and since then they have been held approximately every five years. Each survey has asked more and more questions.

To maximise the value of the survey and its findings we have always tried to ensure the following:

• The same questions are asked during each survey. This means that we can see how young people’s attitudes, views and behaviour change over time. This has been particularly helpful when we have tried to gauge increases or decreases in exposure to smoking, alcohol, drugs and other lifestyle issues.
• The Guernsey survey asks the same questions as those that are asked by researchers in other schools in England. This means that we can ‘benchmark’ our findings against young people elsewhere.